The federal technology institute ETH Zurich has performed strongly again in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2022. Seven Swiss universities feature in the top 200. ETH Zurich dropped one place in the ranking to 15th, but it...

The government is beefing up its defences against cyberattacks, focusing on a command centre comprising 575 members of the armed forces who will be trained over the coming years. “Not a day goes by without a cyberattack,” Defence Minister Viola ...

Trainers for the Swiss Gymnastics Federation’s (STV) women’s team have resigned en masse following an ethics investigation that upheld athletes’ complaints of psychological abuse and a series of poor performances. The ethics committee’s repo...

The president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, has called on Kosovars in Switzerland to get vaccinated. Everyone must assume their responsibility in the pandemic, she said. Speaking at the Swiss Economic Forum (SEF), which opened in Interlaken on Wed...

The government has announced a CHF60 million ($65.6 million) programme to help Swiss tourism recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Economics Minister Guy Parmelin said the funds could help attract foreign guests back to Switzerland and boost business ...

Switzerland has come under pressure from Syria and Turkey after Syrian Kurds opened a “representation office” in Geneva. Damascus has sent a letter of protest to Bern, and in Ankara the Swiss embassy’s chief of mission has been summoned to the ...

The resident population of Switzerland grew by 64,300 people to 8,670,300 last year, an increase of 0.7%, despite the sharp increase in deaths caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The population grew in all 26 cantons apart from Neuchâtel, Appenzell Ou...

An official information brochure has listed the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Swiss culture sector last year. Preliminary findings show that the number of people working in the sector has dropped by 4.7%, according to the Federal O...

The city and canton of Geneva could claw back CHF125 million ($136 million) in alleged unpaid taxes from Prakash Hinduja who is accused of falsely claiming residency in Monaco. On Wednesday newspaper 24 heures revealed that the Federal Court had f...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has repeated warnings that the house price bubble could burst with severe consequences for homeowners, banks and the economy. “We consider the vulnerabilities on the mortgage and real estate markets to be at a high le...

Health officials have warned of overcapacities in Swiss hospitals amid an increasing number of patients with Covid-19. The number of new infections and hospitalisations due to Covid has stabilised according to Virginie Masserey of the Federal Office...

Swiss researchers have dated the remains of a Neolithic pile dwelling in the Balkans, finding the settlement to be thousands of years older than originally thought. The stilted settlement on the banks of Lake Ohrid, situated between North Macedonia ...

The Swiss army plans to emit 40% less CO2, lean more heavily on renewable energy sources and do more to protect nature by 2050. Defence Minister Viola Amherd outlined on Tuesday how the army aims to reach “CO2 balance” with a renewed sustainabil...

The United States has raised its travel advisory levels for Switzerland because of rising Covid-19 infections rates. Switzerland was lifted to the highest level, urging American citizens not to travel to the country, according to the US state depart...

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing more and more Swiss people to shop online and use streaming services and social networks such as Netflix and TikTok, according to a study published on Monday. Television and radio retain their popularity. Coronavi...

Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court has sentenced a German woman, who was at the helm of a trading company, to 45 months behind bars in a hefty fraud case. The 71-year-old woman, a former director of the Lucerne-based trading company Fera, was ac...

Switzerland’s use of animals for medical experiments decreased in 2020 despite an uptick in painful experiments and animal testing being a feature of Covid-19 research efforts. Approximately 556,000 animals were used for experimental purposes in ...

Four wolves from increasingly problematic packs can be shot to deter the others from attacking farm livestock, the Swiss authorities said on Monday. Permission for the cull has been granted by the Swiss environment ministry following complaints that...

The Swiss authorities have rejected an attempt by Moscow to extradite a Russian businessman caught in an extradition tussle between Russia and the United States. Vladislav Klyushin has been held in Switzerland since March on a US arrest that accuses...

The coronavirus pandemic has affected eating habits in Switzerland, causing people to put on an average three kilogrammes of weight, a University of St Gallen study has found. The study, revealed on Swiss public television SRF on Sunday, found the a...

A Danish-Swiss scientific expedition team say they have found the world’s most northerly island. It was found by chance off the coast of Greenland, several Swiss newspapers highlighted on Sunday. The expedition had financial backing from Swiss ent...

Swiss Interior Minister Alain Berset has told the NZZ am Sonntag that he is considering bringing back quarantine for travellers for the autumn holidays. His comments come amid a rising number of coronavirus cases and increased pressure on hospitals. ...

Demonstrations against Switzerland’s coronavirus pandemic restrictions have been held in three towns across the country. Around 250 people gathered in Schaffhausen in the north; around 200 people in Brig in canton Valais and an as yet unconfirmed ...

Some Swiss hospitals have begun delaying non-urgent operations due to pressure from the rise in coronavirus infections and hospitalisations, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung has reported. The University Hospital Zurich told the newspaper that it had alread...

The Swiss interior minister Alain Berset has called for regular mass Covid testing in schools. The coronavirus situation is more serious than thought, he said. Speaking during a special debate on Swiss public television (SRF)’s Arena programme on ...

Bern has now ended its evacuations from Afghanistan after bringing 387 people to Switzerland over two weeks with the help of the German military, says the foreign ministry. These people include 34 Swiss nationals and 218 Afghans who worked for the S...

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan is a mistake, and the chaos in Kabul will quickly have consequences for Western democracies, especially in terms of security, according to the Afghan ambassador and permanent representative to the UN Nasir Ahmad And...

The Swiss government has approved the extradition of Hanno Berger, a German lawyer sought in a major tax evasion case. The Federal Office of Justice confirmed on Friday that it had issued an order on August 20 for the extradition of the German lawye...

If a mother speaks to her premature baby during a medical intervention, signs of the baby’s expression of pain decrease, research has found. The baby’s level of oxytocin – the hormone involved in attachment and also linked to stress – also r...

An orchestra in western Switzerland is preparing to perform an unfinished piece of Beethoven generated by artificial intelligence, based on research by the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). The Nexus orchestra (formerly the Young Prof...