Former Swiss National Bank (SNB) chairman, Philipp Hildebrand, has pulled out of the race to become the next secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Hildebrand announced that he had withdrawn his candi...

Representatives of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, as well as the three guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom will meet in Geneva at the end of April for informal talks. These talks, the first in this format since 2017, will be conven...

Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, has been appointed the new head of the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). “Mrs Schraner Burgener is the ideal person for this job,” Swiss Justice Minister Karin ...

The Swiss government has allocated grant funding of $65 million (around CHF59 million) over a period of four years to the island nation. The amount set aside is for the 2021-2024 period and will focus on promoting “inclusive and sustainable deve...

Is the government showing some backbone or being cowardly by keeping to its gradual pandemic reopening plans? The Swiss media can’t agree. For the German-speaking Neue Zürcher Zeitung broadsheet, the government – which confirmed its measures on...

The World Economic Forum Foundation has decided to assume more of the security costs for its annual event in the Alpine resort town of Davos. Following criticism from politicians and civil society groups, the Swiss government confirmed it will reduc...

The Swiss government has pledged CHF24.8 million ($27.6 million) towards the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help promote social and economic development in the region. The contribution is part of a $4 billion international credit package notably fo...

The federal and cantonal authorities have agreed on the staggered reopening plans announced earlier this month. Shops, zoos and outdoor recreational facilities will reopen, but restaurants will remain closed until at least March 22. Further discussio...

The Swiss machinery, electrical engineering and metal industry says it hopes that growth with China will help it recover from pandemic losses. This comes amid more scrutiny over the human rights situation in China. According to annual figures releas...

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has called for more global cooperation to combat the negative effects of climate change in a bid to prevent international conflicts. Speaking at an online conference of the United Nations Security Council, Cassis call...

The environment ministry has finalised new guidelines for the regulation of maximum wave limits to be beamed from new, “adaptive” 5G antennae in Switzerland. On Tuesday, the environment ministry published the guidelines for cantons and local aut...

The two moons of Mars, long a source of puzzlement for scientists, were originally one, according to new research from the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ETH. Deimos and Phobos, discovered in 1877, have long been thought to be asteroids draw...

The head of the Switzerland Tourism organisation reckons the decision to open ski resorts in the country this winter has – so far – proven to be a good one. “There were no big [virus] outbreaks, no ski resort became a hotspot, there was no maj...

Low-income households in Switzerland have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus crisis, while those on high incomes are still managing relatively well, according to a large-scale survey of people living in the country. Those with a househol...

Cash has lost its appeal among the Swiss population as the coronavirus pandemic led more people to pay by bank card, mobile app or online, a recent survey has found. The survey by financial services website moneyland.ch found that for the first tim...

A prominent Geneva politician, Pierre Maudet, has been found guilty of accepting undue financial advantage linked to visit to Abu Dhabi. A court in Geneva on Monday ordered him pay a fine of CHF120,000 ($133,000) and to refund the costs of the trip,...

Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are on the rise in Switzerland as a result of the growing criticism of the government’s policy to halt the spread of the Covid pandemic. A report by the Federation of Jewish communities and the Swiss Federation of ...

Some 1,282 seriously ill people ended their lives using the services of Swiss assisted suicide organisation EXIT last year, which is 68 more people than in 2019. There were no reported assisted suicides due to Covid-19, but the pandemic did force EX...

An alliance of animal rights and environment groups has called for more public funds to promote animal-free alternative experiments. A petition signed by 27 organisations and 13,000 individuals was handed in to parliament on Monday according to the ...

Swiss women continue to be paid less than men, particularly in the public sector. The so-called gender wage gap got marginally worse between 2014 and 2018 despite persistent political efforts to tackle wage packet inequality. On average, women were ...

The feature film "Platzspitzbaby" by Pierre Monnard has been voted the best Swiss film of 2020 by the Swiss Association of Film Journalists. The movie is based on a book by Michelle Halbheer and chronicles a girl's love for her drug-addicted mother ...

A lack of green light from medicines regulator Swissmedic could see 5.3 million doses ordered by Switzerland sent elsewhere. The absence of anti-Covid vaccine AstraZeneca from a delivery plan shared last week by the army has raised questions about ...

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the city of Wohlen near Zurich on Saturday to protest against anti-coronavirus measures put in place by Swiss authorities. Between 1,500 to 2,000 people participated in a march that was authorised by the regiona...

She is planning a visit to Switzerland in March to ask authorities to launch an investigation into the “hidden assets” of President Alexander Lukashenko. Currently living in exile in Lithuania, Tikhanovskaya intends to make the most of a trip to...

All hotel staff in the Swiss ski resort of Wengen must undergo a coronavirus test on Saturday morning, health authorities say. The reason: several cases of the South African and Brazilian variants in the village. Wengen, in canton Bern, is where the...

New research shows that climate change risks altering the temperature, ice cover and mixing of many Swiss lakes – especially at medium altitudes – with major consequences for lake ecosystems. A simulation study carried out by the Swiss Federal I...

The Swiss hotel sector registered a 40% drop in overnight stays in 2020 compared with 2019. Foreign demand fell by 66% as tourists stayed away due to the pandemic, latest statistics show. “The exceptional context of Covid–19 explains this unprec...

NASA science rover ‘Perseverance’ has landed safely on Mars as part of its search for traces of microbial life on the Red Planet. Swiss technology will help it handle soil samples and control the first Mars helicopter. NASA experts celebrated lo...

Several cantons have called for restaurants to be re-opened a month earlier than the official nationwide plan presented by the government earlier this week. Canton Graubünden wants restaurants to open their terraces from March 1. The canton has don...

The proportion of people living below the Swiss poverty line in 2019 grew to 8.7% of the population, the highest rate seen since 2014, according to a report published on Thursday. The Federal Statistical Office, which released the figures, said pove...