Switzerland has reacted cautiously to the US decision to back a suspension of patents on Covid-19 vaccines, saying a waiver is not the best way to achieve better global supply. On Wednesday, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the US would su...

Switzerland is helping India confront its brutal second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 13 tonnes of supplies. A cargo plane took off from Zurich on Thursday bound for New Delhi carrying 600 oxygen concentrators and 50 respirators for ...

Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin met Pope Francis in the Vatican on Thursday, in a visit that also included the swearing-in of 34 new Swiss Guards. “This morning I had the honour of speaking to Pope Francis,” Parmelin tweeted in the early...

The Swiss-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) says vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech will donate doses to inoculate athletes and officials gearing up for the Tokyo Olympics. The doses will be delivered this month so that Olympic delega...

A Zurich court has ruled that a cantonal ban on public demonstrations of more than 15 people – which was in place until last month as part of Covid-19 measures – was unconstitutional. Judges at the Zurich administrative court said that the limit...

A former leader of the far-right Swiss Nationalist Party PNOS (Partei National Orientierter Schweizer), Tobias Steiger, made a speech in 2018 blaming Jews for World War I and II. On Wednesday, the public prosecutor’s office in Basel sentenced Ste...

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is cutting hundreds of jobs and downsizing its fleets as the company struggles to weather the disruption of Covid-19. Up to 780 employees – including pilots, cabin crew, ground crew, and technicians – could ...

Researchers in Switzerland have investigated different strategies to mitigate the negative environmental impact of mask use by the general population. They have concluded that the “wait and reuse” or “weekday strategy”, which involves keepin...

Violence against health workers and facilities continues unabated with over 4,000 incidents reported in conflict zones over the past five years, a new Swiss-UK funded report reveals. On May 3, 2016, the United Nations Security Council adopted a reso...

The recent drop in new Covid-19 cases in Switzerland and the accelerating vaccination programme are extremely encouraging, according to a top federal health official. “We have good reasons to be optimistic,” Patrick Mathys, head of crisis manage...

Nursing homes in Switzerland increasingly struggle to recruit enough skilled personnel and health workers say they have reached their limits in terms of the provision of quality healthcare. A new survey of healthcare staff at 118 nursing homes acros...

An independent investigation has been opened into allegations of violence at several federal asylum centres in Switzerland. Former federal judge Niklaus Oberholzer has been chosen to lead the investigation after criminal complaints were filed, the S...

Switzerland’s special prosecutor Stefan Keller, who was investigating FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s undocumented meetings with Switzerland’s former attorney general, has been withdrawn from the case. The Federal Criminal Court has approved...

Eight environmental activists have been charged with blocking the entrance of a Credit Suisse bank in Zurich in 2019. The Zurich public prosecutor’s office has accused them of coercion and trespassing. On July 8, 2019, the eight defendants – six...

Five people have been arrested in France accused of robbing a Swiss cash truck carrying cash and valuables worth around CHF20 million ($21.8 million) in 2019. After several months of investigation, French and Swiss police apprehended the five Frenc...

Around half of all people stop working before the official retirement age in Switzerland, according to new federal data. On Tuesday, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) reported that in 2019 between 40-50% of people started receiving their pension ...

The stalled bilateral treaty talks between the European Union and Switzerland have halted Swiss participation in a major project aimed at transforming the European rail system. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Swiss Federal Railways confirmed a report...

The woman fell from her residential apartment building in Tehran on Tuesday, according to local reports. Iranian police have announced an investigation into the woman's death. The Iranian ILNA news agency said she lived on the 18th floor of a buildi...

Switzerland’s foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis, has called on Burundi to implement concrete human rights reforms during a meeting with his counterpart from the small African nation, Albert Shingiro, in Bern. Cassis noted the good cooperation betwe...

The Swiss government is facing calls from human rights and industry groups to help protect journalists around the world. The Swiss section of Reporters without Borders and the syndicom trade union urged the government to demand the appointment of a ...

The Swiss foreign affairs ministry has called on all parties to resume efforts to “ensure free, inclusive and transparent elections” throughout the Palestinian Territories and to set a new date for the polls without delay. The ministry on Monday...

Defence Minister Viola Amherd has expressed reservations about a proposed mandatory community service for women and men in Switzerland. Amherd said she liked the idea, which was relaunched by interest groups. “I’ve learned that young people are...

For the first time, the percentage of the working population with a higher education qualification has surpassed those who opted just for an apprenticeship, new Swiss figures show. Increasing numbers of young people are choosing the Swiss baccalaure...

Switzerland is examining how it could unilaterally align its regulations with those of the European Union in order to stabilise the existing set of bilateral accords with the 27-member bloc, according to the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper. Talks on future...

Life could return to normal in Switzerland by summer once half the population gets fully vaccinated, according to Covid experts. Switzerland has “bet on the right horses” with the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/Biontech, w...

Several thousand people joined traditional May Day protests – authorised and unauthorised - across Switzerland on Saturday despite the Covid-19 pandemic to demand social and economic justice. After months of Covid-19 restrictions, around 2,000 peo...

Tropical cloud forests can be found in 60 countries, but despite conservation efforts up to 8% of some forests have been lost in the past 20 years due to logging and small-scale farming. Tropical cloud forests are shrinking worldwide, according to a...

The shareholders of crisis-stricken Credit Suisse approved Antonio Horta-Osorio as the bank’s new chairman on Friday. He takes the helm as Switzerland’s second largest bank investigates its risk management culture following the collapse of US inv...

Informal talks between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot representatives in Geneva failed to make headway on the future of the island of Cyprus, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday. Guterres travelled from New York to ...

United States President Joe Biden surprised Bern with his decision to single out Switzerland as a fiscal paradise in his State of the Union annual address to Congress on Wednesday. The Swiss government has sent a letter in response to the president...