Новости за 04.04.2024

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) pilots and flight attendants are increasingly cancelling their flights to Israel due to safety concerns. The airline is now changing its procedures to ensure that all flights can operate as planned. In response to an enquiry from the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Thursday, SWISS announced that it was taking steps to counteract this, as other crew members have to stand in for cancellations and may then be assigned more often than average on the same routes. Читать дальше...

By chance, wreck hunters have found the remains of a passenger ship that sank almost a hundred years ago off Brissago in canton Ticino. Using robots and a submarine, the Nautic Discovery team was able to take pictures and videos for the first time at the beginning of March of the Mercedes passenger ship, lying at a depth of 270 metres. The discovery was pure coincidence. The Nautic Discovery wreck hunters were actually looking for another ship, the Torpediniera T19, which sank in the same area in 1896 during a storm with 12 people on board... Читать дальше...

An organisation called Use The News is being set up in Switzerland to promote news literacy. In times of increasing disinformation, Use The News aims to support people in using the media to form their own opinions. According to a press release published on Thursday, the organisation is being supported by the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC, SWI swissinfo.ch's parent company) and the Swiss Media Association, as well as Stiftung Mercator, a foundation which funds projects including in areas such as science... Читать дальше...

The tiger mosquito has arrived in the Zurich Oberland: the town of Uster announced on Wednesday that the first specimens were identified in Nänikon last summer. The mosquito population is now being combated and the area monitored. From May to October, the canton of Zurich will be working with Uster to investigate the prevalence of tiger mosquitoes. The town said it was treating potential breeding sites with biological larvicide. The support of Nänikon's citizens is also being encouraged. As even... Читать дальше...

Antiquity meets precision: the construction of a new Rolex factory in Bulle, western Switzerland, has revealed a Roman past. Rolex is going big in Gruyère: the Geneva-based luxury watch giant is investing over CHF1 billion ($1.1 billion) in a new factory in Bulle, canton Fribourg, which will be the size of 15 football pitches and create 2,000 jobs. Rolex has acquired a greenfield site for the new factory. The land used to be an agricultural area and was utilised by the Romans. During archaeological excavations on the site... Читать дальше...

Defence alliance NATO could open a liaison office in Geneva this year, joining the United Nations (UN) and various international organisations in the city, following approval from both the Swiss government and NATO. That is according to a memo from the General Staff of the Swiss Armed Forces, dated December 22, 2023, published by the weekly newspaper WOZ on Wednesday. The memo read: “The office is to be located in the GCSP [Geneva Centre for Security Policy]/Maison de la Paix. The Federal Council... Читать дальше...

Many Swiss hospitals are making considerable losses, require millions in government aid and have to cut services. Read up on the topic and join the discussion on the multilingual debate platform "dialogue". Most hospitals in Switzerland are struggling financially and making losses. A problem that has been dragging on for years and was exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic – even though there are fewer and fewer hospitals offering basic care. Inflation has made the situation even worse, as hospitals... Читать дальше...

Vitus Huonder, the controversial former bishop of Chur, died on Wednesday following a serious illness, the Society of St Pius X announced on its website. Huonder lived with the priestly fraternity at the Institut Sancta Maria in Wangs, canton St Gallen. The 81-year-old was hospitalised in mid-March. The current bishop of Chur, Joseph Maria Bonnemain, confirmed to the media at the time that he had visited Huonder there. Details of his illness were not disclosed. The diocese of Chur was unable to comment... Читать дальше...

The Malaysian 1MDB fraud scandal went around the world in 2015. Now two Swiss dual nationals are on trial at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. Here is an explainer. What is it all about? Almost ten years ago, a whistleblower from Switzerland revealed that the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, and his entourage had embezzled billions of dollars from the state fund 1MDB. Two Swiss dual nationals are also alleged to have enriched themselves. They will be tried before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona from April 2. Читать дальше...

Move comes as authorities face $9 billion in legal claims over rescue of failed bank. Switzerland’s financial regulator has attempted to block the release of key documents to investors who are suing it after $17 billion of bonds were wiped out in the rescue of Credit Suisse. The bank’s state-ordered takeover by UBS last year has led to at least $9 billion of legal claims, largely related to the decision by Swiss regulator Finma to write down billions of dollars of Credit Suisse debt to zero. The investors owned additional tier 1 bonds... Читать дальше...