The Swiss parliament has decided to extend a series of financial compensations for individuals and companies hard hit by the government’s anti-Covid restrictions. As part of the legal amendment, the government will again take over the costs for Co...

A Swiss court has found the Zurich-based Falcon Private Bank guilty of money-laundering offences. The Federal Criminal Court on Wednesday ordered the Abu Dhabi-owned bank to pay a fine of CHF3.5 million ($3.8 million) for failing to set up the neces...

Parliament has approved a major reform of the Swiss pension system, including a controversial rise in the retirement age for women. The overhaul also foresees financial compensation – staggered over nine years for women directly affected by the ch...

Swiss cantons have dealt with the pandemic with varying degrees of success, according to a study by thinktank Avenir Suisse. But clarity on the roles and responsibilities of different authorities is needed for better management of the pandemic going ...

Plans to introduce the birthright citizenship in Switzerland have suffered a setback in parliament. The Senate clearly rejected a left-wing proposal to change from the current regulation on citizenship that is determined by the nationality of one of...

The Swiss health authorities have recommended extending anti-Covid vaccinations to children aged between five and 11. The statement by the Federal Office of Public Health and the government advisory commission for vaccination on Tuesday came four da...

Switzerland’s two main teaching associations have called for urgent, coordinated measures in schools as the country grapples with a major outbreak of the virus among pupils. “Shortly before the Christmas holidays and due to the extremely high da...

Authorities, environmental groups, and energy providers have named 15 major hydropower projects that could help Switzerland achieve energy security and a green transition over the coming decades. The projects were chosen for their energy efficiency ...

A Russian businessman has failed to convince a Swiss court to halt his impending extradition to the United States to face industrial espionage charges. On Monday, the Federal Criminal Court backed a previous court decision to extradite Vladislav Kly...

Geneva prosecutors have dropped a criminal investigation into suspected money laundering against former Spanish king Juan Carlos. Investigators said there was not enough evidence to support claims that a $100 million (CHF92 million) payment from Sau...

Mondelez, owner of the Toblerone chocolate brand, has launched new legal proceedings against a Bern manufacturer, complaining that the rival product exploits its reputation. The American food group says there is a risk of confusion between the “Sw...

Death rates among residents of Swiss nursing and retirement homes were 80% higher than normal in the last months of 2020, when the country was in the grip of a virulent second wave of Covid-19. During the whole course of last year, some 16% more dea...

Four Swiss-based companies will received state funding to develop a range of new drugs to treat coronavirus, which are expected to be available by the end of 2022. The contracts were signed in the context of the Federal Funding Programme for Covid-1...

A heated debate about the origin of the 203 works of art on display at the Kunsthaus Zurich has resulted in the museum of fine arts and the Bührle Foundation, which loaned the paintings, agreeing to disclose their contracts. The question is no long...

People who refuse to get vaccinated against Covid-19 must expect their freedoms to be curtailed for a long time, according to Guy Parmelin, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year. “We don’t want compulsory vaccination in Switzerland. ...

The latest Swiss train timetable, which came into effect on Sunday, provides new long-distance and regional connections for “commuters, climate-conscious leisure passengers and night owls”, according to the Federal Railways. The changes include ...

Mario Gattiker, the retiring head of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), will now take over tasks in Switzerland’s dossier with the European Union. The government has asked him to continue the analysis of differences in regulations between S...

The Swiss-flagged San Padre Pio, which had been detained by Nigeria for nearly four years, has left the country, the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed on Saturday. The vessel is no longer in Nigeria’s exclusive economic zone and is currently en rou...

The Swiss medical regulator has approved the use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11. However, the Federal Vaccination Commission has yet to recommend extending the immunisation campaign to this group. “The clinica...

A week after tightening rules for certificates and mask-wearing, the government has proposed new measures to stem surging Covid-19 infections and ease the pressure on hospitals. The situation remains “critical”, said President Guy Parmelin on Fr...

The Bern Museum of Fine Arts has said it will relinquish works bequeathed by controversial collector Cornelius Gurlitt when their provenance is linked to “conspicuous circumstances”. However, the museum will retain most of the 1,600-strong trove....

Switzerland has frozen all direct financial and technical cooperation with the ruling junta in Myanmar, the Swiss public broadcaster has reported. While no development cooperation projects would be stopped completely – this would be detrimental to...

The French group Alstom-Bombardier will be reducing its workforce by a third at its Villeneuve factory. According to the newspaper Le Temps, a total of 150 jobs will be cut. The staff was informed of the decision on Thursday. A social plan is to be ...

A Swiss study has found that poorly ventilated school classrooms record up to six times as many Covid-19 cases compared with those which are regularly aired. The research by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) ...

The federal court has overturned the conviction of a former regional vice president of assisted suicide group Exit for having helped a healthy 86-year-old woman to die. The case has been sent back to the cantonal court in Geneva. In 2019, retired do...

MeteoSwiss, which had been part of a European project to develop a virtual model of the Earth, has been excluded due to the tensions around the ditched framework agreement between Bern and Brussels. The European Union (EU)’s “Destination Earth�...

Swiss economic experts expect a significant economic slowdown as supply chain bottlenecks, inflation and pandemic restrictions persist in many parts of the world. On Thursday, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) announced that the econ...

An international team of scientists, including several Swiss, have captured an image of a giant gaseous exoplanet orbiting two massive suns in a distant solar system, a configuration that researchers until now thought might be impossible. The planet...

New data on Swiss travel habits during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic show fewer overnight stays, less air travel and a collapse in trips beyond the borders of Europe. In 2020 the Swiss resident population made a total of 15.1 million trips...

The 2021 Words of the Year in Switzerland reflect societal shifts that have triggered heated debate across the country. While the vaccination debate and divisions dominated the German-speaking part of the country, the emergence of gender-neutral pron...