In a study of some 25,000 people, researchers at the University of Zurich have found that genes and brain anatomy influence whether someone is a risk-taker. There is widespread evidence that people can be predisposed to take risks. However, there ha...

The fifth round of talks at the United Nations in Geneva to draft a new Syrian constitution and pave the way to peace in the war-torn country have ended without progress. UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen expressed frustration over the lack o...

Using topography data and computer simulations, researchers in Switzerland have put forward a plausible explanation for the mysterious deaths of nine hikers in Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1959: an unexpected avalanche. The scientists, from the coun...

The Swiss National Bank looks set to increase its payout to the Swiss government and cantons. It could reach up to CHF6 billion ($6.74 billion) a year. The new profit distribution agreement between the bank and the Federal Department of Finance (FDF...

Switzerland is among the countries exempt from the European Union’s vaccine export controls, the European Commission said on Friday. The plan has been drawn up to ensure that the EU has enough supplies of Covid-19 vaccine. EU trade commissioner Va...

Swiss pharma giant Novartis says it has signed an initial agreement to provide manufacturing capacity for Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine. The move aimed at helping boost production as demand currently outstrips supply. "The agreement will s...

American pharma group Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is to transfer four of its canton Neuchâtel-based subsidiaries to other locations – including abroad. The move is expected to result in the loss of up to 320 jobs by mid-2023. The company wants to mov...

Covid-19 has been blamed for a 17.8% decline in car registrations in Switzerland last year. The number of motor vehicle sales fell even further – by nearly a quarter. There was mixed news on the environmental front in the official statistics for r...

A team of Swiss and Canadian scientists have developed a targeted electrical stimulation treatment for patients with spinal-cord injuries that allows them to regain control of their blood pressure. Building on earlier research that uses targeted ele...

Between 2010 and 2019, the proportion of Swiss adults with two passports increased from 14% to 19%, the latest statistics show. Just under one million Swiss adults (over the age of 15) were dual-nationality in 2019, compared with 700,000 in 2010, th...

Exports and imports declined by CHF40 billion ($45 billion) in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, setting foreign trade levels back by three years. According to the annual foreign trade statistics released on Thursday, Switzerland experienced a hist...

The Swiss government has signed off on a strategy it says will enable the country to reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. Measures and legal changes to implement the strategy will follow. The “Long-term climate strategy for Switzerland” ...

Switzerland is perceived as having some of the lowest levels of corruption in the public sector according to Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index. However, the NGO says the country still has work to do, specifically on p...

Safety investigators have concluded that pilot error led to the accident involving the vintage aircraft that killed 20 people in eastern Switzerland in 2018. It was the country’s worst air tragedy since 2001. The Swiss Transportation Safety Invest...

Farm animals and apiaries in Switzerland should receive better protection from bears, the government said on Wednesday in a report on how to deal with bears. The previous practice in dealing with wild brown bears corresponded to pan-European guideli...

The Swiss government has decided to adapt its Covid testing and quarantine policy and has earmarked extra funds to soften the impact of restrictions imposed on companies. People coming from high-risk countries will have to present a negative coronav...

Swiss film director Andrea Štaka has won the main prize at the Solothurn Film Festival with Mare, “a feature film that looks like a documentary or reality itself”, according to the jury. In her third feature film, the Zurich-based filmmaker tel...

Britain and Switzerland will press on with plans to strike a trade deal for their vast financial services industries, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said on Wednesday ahead of talks with his Swiss counterpart. The Treasury said the virtu...

Guy Parmelin, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, has warned of extremism and “unhealthy instincts” in times of crisis and instability. In a message marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, Parmelin called for...

The diaries of Bruno Manser, a Swiss environmental and human rights activist, have been donated to the Museum der Kulturen in Basel. The ethnologist became known far beyond the borders of Basel for his passionate but also perilous commitment to the ...

The number of residents without a religious faith has leapt over the past 20 years. In 2019, almost one-third (29.5%) of those over 15 did not belong to any religion, compared to 11.4% in 2000. The percentage of non-believers in Switzerland in 2019 ...

The falling numbers of Covid-19 infections and deaths is giving some grounds for optimism in Switzerland, but health officials warn that people cannot afford to relax with variant strains in the country. The number of infections has been gradually y...

More than CHF2 billion of venture capital flowed into young Swiss companies for the second year in a row, a sustained rate of funding that defied the economic destruction wreaked by the pandemic last year. Investors poured more money into fledging c...

Millions of children around the world can’t go to school, but a Swiss-based platform has set out to change that. The Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies aims to help the 127 million children who do without schooling because of humanitar...

A Swiss-designed telescope travelling on board the CHEOPS space satellite has revealed three previously undiscovered planets orbiting a distant star, whose physical composition raises questions about how planetary systems are formed. Previous observ...

Amnesty International has urged the Swiss government to reconsider possible repatriation flights of Ethiopian asylum seekers. The human rights group said it was concerned about reports of a planned deportation operation next Wednesday of several Eth...

Nearly 1,000 cases of infections with a new strain of coronavirus have been found in Switzerland so far. The British variant accounts for just over 470 cases and only 16 cases of infections with the South African strain have been identified to date ...

Lebanon’s foreign minister has held talks with the Swiss ambassador to Beirut after Switzerland started a probe into possible money laundering and embezzlement at the Mideast country’s central bank. Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbi and ambassador ...

More than two-thirds of the Swiss population regularly use more than one language in their everyday lives. Just under 2% regularly use five languages or more. The proportion of polyglots has increased slightly since 2014, according to the Federal St...

Building a sustainable global economy, digitalisation and increasing international cooperation and are among the important issues on the Davos Agenda, said Guy Parmelin in his opening speech at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) online conference. �...