Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has ended his week-long tour of North and West Africa with vists to Senegal and Gambia, where talks focused on economic development, climate change, human rights and water security. Following his visit to Algeria and ...

Senior cantonal doctors have expressed doubts about the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccination timetable. They say the goal of vaccinating anyone who wants to by early summer could be delayed to ‘late autumn’. Federal officials have reassur...

New international studies suggest that China has successfully cut production of ozone-harming chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) chemicals. Two years ago, scientists observed a mysterious and sharp up-tick in the levels of trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) emis...

The public prosecutor for canton Graubünden in eastern Switzerland must continue the criminal investigation into the major landslide in Bondo in 2017. The victims’ relatives have been successful in their appeal to the Swiss Federal Court. Eight h...

A general vaccination obligation in Switzerland would interfere “disproportionately with fundamental rights”, according to the National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics (NCE). The commission also advised against mandatory vaccination for...

Alain Berset has called for the public to be patient during the coronavirus pandemic over the semi-lockdown. The health minister has, however, said that the government may consider loosening some of the measures. Calls have been mounting for the gov...

Swiss bank Credit Suisse has paid out $600 million (CHF534 million) to settle a legal dispute in the United States relating to the sale of mortgage backed financial products. Switzerland’s second largest bank said it was satisfied with the settlem...

The Geneva-based Martin Ennals Foundation announced Yu Wensheng as the winner of its annual global prize for human rights defenders in an online ceremony on Thursday evening. Yu, 54, was put behind bars in 2018 after spending ten years working on se...

The Armed Forces Pharmacy acknowledged mistakes in the process of securing medical supplies, including protective face masks, to combat the spread of the coronavirus last spring. The pandemic presented a major logistical challenge that the organisat...

A third of Swiss people chose not to travel on holiday last year as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the world, according to automobile association Touring Club Switzerland (TCS). Of those people who continued to commute to work, a greater proportio...

Consumers spent 11.3% more on food and beverages in brick-and-mortar shops last year than they did in 2019, helping the food retail trade to pull in a record turnover of nearly CHF30 billion ($33.7 billion). In total, the average household spent CHF...

The traditional starting date of the Swiss carnival season is being mourned rather than celebrated this year as a result of the coronavirus. The pandemic has put paid to the traditional cultural and social event for a second successive season. In Lu...

A human rights group has reiterated a call for the release of a Swiss-Belarus dual national convicted for taking part in anti-government protests in the capital Minsk last year. The organisation Libereco, a German-Swiss NGO, said it sent a letter to...

People in developing countries have less to eat and saw their income drop as result of the Covid-19 pandemic, a survey by an alliance of NGOs from Switzerland and other European countries found. More than 40% of respondents from developing countries...

The money will go towards providing food, water and sanitation as the south of the country faces a humanitarian crisis due to poor rainfall. Of the CHF1 million ($1.1 million) in aid provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC...

The current Covid pandemic in Switzerland has increased the risk of addiction, according to a new report. People who are prone to substance abuse or gambling, as well as those who are under pressure at the workplace or in their families, are particu...

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis held talks with Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad and Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum in Algiers at the start of a week-long visit to North and West Africa. The discussions in Algiers from Sunday to Tues...

With the number of new contagious Covid-19 variants spreading, Switzerland must step up rather than reduce efforts to combat the virus, the head of the government’s Covid-19 taskforce has declared. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) report...

Former Swiss minister Moritz Leuenberger triggered outrage on Sunday when he said that “if a hostage has been released, a payment has probably been made”. He has now rowed back on his comments, blaming clumsy wording by a newspaper, which he neve...

Implementing lockdown rules too late, then lifting them too soon or simply ignoring them: patterns in how the authorities and the population dealt with Spanish flu 100 years ago bear striking similarities to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Swi...

Ten years after the fall of the Egyptian president, Husni Mubarak, around CHF400 million (around $443 million) remains seized in Switzerland. Proceedings for criminal association and money laundering are still pending against five people, includin...

The world governing body for the sport of gymnastics has blamed the power structure and culture for alleged abuses in Switzerland’s gymnastics federation. “There is a problematic culture which has established itself over the decades,” says Mic...

The unemployment rate in Switzerland rose again in January, reaching 3.7% - the highest level since April 2010. The impact of the coronavirus crisis continues to be felt on the Swiss economy. At the end of January, 169,753 people were registered as...

The EU has no intention of re-opening parts of the framework agreement it has been negotiating with Switzerland for years, the bloc’s ambassador in Bern has told the SonntagsBlick newspaper. Petros Mavromichalis said that as far as the European Un...

Sand particles from the Sahara appeared in Swiss skies on Saturday afternoon, bathing parts of the country in a soft milky-yellow light. According to SRF Meteo, the weather service of the national broadcaster, the particles originated in regions of ...

Jean-Claude Juncker says that Switzerland – like the United Kingdom – underestimated the cohesion of EU member states in talks aimed at defining bilateral relations. Luxembourger Juncker, who headed the European Commission from 2014 to 2019, als...

Switzerland has welcomed the selection of a new unified transitional authority for Libya. The body has been tasked with paving the way for Libyan elections later this year. “This is a major step forward toward reconciliation and lasting peace,” ...

A top Swiss court has confirmed a fraud conviction for a client of a prostitute who left without paying. This is being hailed as a significant change in case law for sex workers, who have gained the protection of the criminal justice system. The man...

The Swiss National Science Foundation is introducing quotas for women on its evaluation committees. This is to raise the visibility of women in research and take their perspectives better into account for research policy decisions. The decision come...

The bird flu virus has been detected in a seagull in the northeastern Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, near the German border, Swiss authorities say. This is the first case in Switzerland this winter. Measures were already taken on January 25 this y...