Switzerland

31 August 2022; MEMO: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Tuesday for Israel to meet its international obligations. Michelle Bachelet made her call following two years of Israel denying visas for UN staff.

GENEVA (AP) — Lawyers for Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz urged a Swiss appeals court on Monday to throw out testimony from a former first lady of Guinea that contributed to his conviction for corruption.

The case involves an alleged plot, dating to the mid-2000s, in which Steinmetz’s BSGR Group squeezed out a rival for mining rights for vast iron ore deposits in Guinea’s southeastern Simandou region. The case has exposed the shady, complex world of deal-making and the cutthroat competition in the lucrative mining business.

GENEVA, Aug 28 (Reuters) - A group of Swiss politicians has formed 'Stop Blackouts', which will launch a petition seeking a revision to the country's energy policy to guarantee adequate power supplies and keep nuclear as part of the mix.

Switzerland plans to close its five nuclear reactors following a 2017 decision prompted by safety concerns after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, and has already shut one reactor.

GENEVA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Millions of tonnes of food from previous harvests in Ukraine still need to be cleared to make room in silos for the next one, the U.N. coordinator for a grains deal said on Saturday.

More than 1 million tonnes of grains and other foods have so far been exported under a grains deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations.

"The Black Sea Grain Initiative has started creating some space but much more grain needs to shift to make space for the new harvest," said Amir Abdulla, U.N. Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

GENEVA, Aug 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Monkeypox cases fell by a fifth last week as infections in Europe dropped but the outbreak is going through “intense transmission” in the Americas, the World Health Organization said.

The WHO sounded the alarm for Latin America in particular, pointing to a lack of awareness and public health measures to control the spread of the virus.

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the African countries where it has long been endemic.

GENEVA, Aug 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization announced that a million people had died from COVID-19 in 2022, calling it a “tragic milestone” when all the tools existed to prevent deaths.

Nearly 6.45 million deaths have been reported to the WHO since the virus was first detected in China in late 2019.

But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus questioned whether the world was really on top of the pandemic, this far in.

“This week, we crossed the tragic milestone of one million reported deaths so far this year,” he told a press conference.

GENEVA (AP) — The number of coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 15% in the past week while new infections dropped by 9%, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

In its latest weekly assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were 5.3 million new cases and more than 14,000 deaths reported last week. WHO said the number of new infections declined in every world region except the Western Pacific.

GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s defense department said Wednesday that any delay to the planned multibillion-dollar acquisition of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets would have “grave consequences” for Swiss security, after opponents succeeded in a campaign to put the purchase to a referendum.

On Tuesday, the Swiss government announced that campaigners had cleared the bar of 100,000 signatures on a petition calling for a referendum on the planned purchase of 36 of the Lockheed Martin-built planes as part of a vast refurbishment of capability of the Swiss air force by 2030.

GENEVA, Aug 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization’s vaccine advisers recommended that people most at risk from Covid-19 should be offered a second booster dose to increase their immunity.

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) said following initial vaccination, typically consisting of two doses, and an already recommended first booster dose, specific groups of people should be offered an additional jab.

GENEVA, Aug 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Monkeypox infections continue to rise globally, with more than 35,000 cases across 92 countries and territories, and 12 deaths, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Wednesday.

“Almost 7,500 cases were reported last week, a 20 per cent increase over the previous week, which was also 20 per cent more than the week before,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking during his regular press briefing from Geneva.