The Swiss foreign ministry says it has shipped medical supplies to Sri Lanka to help the country combat the Covid-19 pandemic. The supplies include half a million antigen tests, 50 ventilators, 150 oxygen concentrators and testing material worth CHF...

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis says Switzerland will contribute an additional CHF3 million ($3.3 million) for reconstruction projects in the Gaza Strip following last month’s military conflict with Israel. The funds will be made available to the ...

Two years after a massive strike by women, the Trade Union Federation has criticised the perceived lack of progress on equal pay, pensions and labour conditions between men and women in Switzerland. It described as “scandalous” and “lousy” t...

The Swiss authorities are stepping up checks of possible abuse of a short working hours scheme introduced last year to help soften the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the job market. Around 900 possible cases of abuse had been detected as of May,...

Foreign direct investment in Switzerland increased last year despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of investment projects rose by 25% to 91, the highest level since 2011, thus bucking the general trend of decline across Europe. This put Switzerl...

Around 75 refugees from 19 cantons and 15 countries met in Bern on Sunday for the first Swiss refugee parliament. Participants discussed and put forward various proposals for improvement. Family visits in the Schengen area for provisionally admitted...

Swiss medical technology companies have had to stop some exports to the European Union. They are among the first victims of the Swiss government’s decision last month to end talks with the EU on a framework agreement. The shock news came on June 3...

The Swiss government plans to make drivers ditch their cars and take public transport, doubling the market share of trains and buses by 2050, according to the NZZ am Sonntag. This would mean that the Swiss would cover over 40% of all passenger kilom...

Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt was kept under surveillance by the Federal Intelligence Service for almost 50 years, according to the SonntagsZeitung, which has published an official file on the Bernese playwright, essayist, cartoonist and painter...

The decision by the leading industrial nations (G7) to support a global minimum tax of 15% for large corporations is not good news for Switzerland, according to some Swiss economists. Certain cantons in particular would come under pressure. “The t...

The Swiss Canyon Trail, one of the first European sporting events of its size to take place since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, started on Saturday in Couvet, western Switzerland. Organisers were given permission to hold three races of 650...

Egyptian investor Samih Sawiris has been given a certificate of honorary citizenship by canton Uri in central Switzerland for his achievements for tourism in the resort of Andermatt. The 64-year-old billionaire was actually granted honorary citizens...

The Swiss government wants to increase Switzerland’s involvement in the building of the world’s largest-ever radio telescope. The “Square Kilometer Array Observatory” (SKAO) project involves 13 countries and is intended to unravel certain mys...

The Swiss health regulator Swissmedic has approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged as young as 12. Tests have shown the vaccine to be close to 100% effective at giving protection against Covid-19 for 12 to 15-year-olds, the ...

Canton Zurich has launched Switzerland’s first centre aimed at preventing paedophiles from carrying out sexual assaults on children. The Clinic of Forensic Psychology at the University of Zurich has been commissioned to set up the centre, it was a...

Switzerland will start issuing forgery-proof “Covid-19 certificates” next Monday to people who have been vaccinated, tested negative or who have recovered from an infection. The cantons will start making available the first Covid certificates - ...

The coronavirus pandemic forced hospitals to cancel non-emergency surgery, resulting in up to CHF1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) in lost income last year, according to one evaluation. Most of the losses were incurred during the first lockdown in the spri...

The Swiss government will ask parliament this year to unblock a CHF1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) payment to the European Union cohesion fund. In 2019, parliament refused to release the payment - intended to reduce economic and social inequalities betwe...

The Swiss government-owned defence contractor RUAG International says it has found no evidence of a second major hack but does admit uncovering “serious security flaws” in its IT system. In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper, ...

The head of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) held talks with Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing on Thursday as the coup-stricken nation enters its fifth month of crippling unrest. Peter Maurer travelled to the Myanm...

US President Joe Biden will meet with Swiss President Guy Parmelin and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis ahead of his highly anticipated summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Geneva. Parmelin tweeted on Thursday that he and his colleague from the Fed...

The Federal Electricity Commission (ElCom) has again voiced concern about Switzerland’s ability to secure sufficient power supplies in the coming years. While there is no immediate danger of shortfalls in the Alpine state, the electricity watchdog...

The operators of Switzerland’s main airport, in Zurich, have presented plans to extend two runways, re-igniting a controversy over noise pollution. Zurich airport says extending two runways would increase safety and simplify landing and take-off t...

Swiss scientists have developed a biodegradable battery that can be thrown into the compost after use. The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) used a 3D printer to produce the battery made from carbon, cellulose, g...

A new ranking of states’ compliance with the international Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) puts Switzerland in second place, in a year in which children around the world were hard hit by Covid-19 restrictions. Iceland topped the annual...

Switzerland co-hosted on Wednesday the latest meeting of an international follow-up committee on Libya. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis stressed the importance of elections to be held in the country in December. “The holding of free and fair elect...

Switzerland has pledged an additional CHF300 million ($334 million) to the international initiative to get more Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries. At an online summit of the GAVI alliance on Wednesday, attended by Swiss President Guy Parmelin, a...

Most of the plastic waste polluting the planet’s oceans is within ten kilometres of the coast, rather than out on the open sea, University of Bern researchers have found. “In all the scenarios we’ve calculated, about 80% of floating plastic wa...

The number of abuses of labour regulations dropped slightly last year, Swiss authorities reported on Wednesday. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said the number of cases of illegal work practices decreased by about 15% among the 10,...

The Swiss aviation sector, which includes Swiss International Air Lines and Zurich Airport, has pledged to slash CO2 emissions and make flying net zero by 2050. On Tuesday, Zurich, Geneva and Basel airports, together with SWISS, Easyjet, and the umb...