The Swiss Trade Union Federation is gathering signatures to force a nationwide vote on using central bank profits to boost the country’s ailing pension system. The initiative, which was launched on Friday, would need 100,000 supporters to trigger ...

Twelve environmental protestors were handed fines by a Swiss court for public order offences during an Extinction Rebellion demonstration in 2019. The latest court hearing, in the western Swiss city of Lausanne, is part of a string of trials relatin...

More than 600 people have applied to become test inmates of a new prison opening in Zurich, which has capacity for 241 remand prisoners. Successful volunteers will experience real prison conditions between March 24 and 27. Inmates will have to surre...

A record number of international patents were filed last year despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Switzerland was ranked eighth place in annual patent rankings published by the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). A record 277,...

An Afghan Taliban delegation visiting Geneva faced calls by Swiss diplomats to respect human rights and international humanitarian law. There are no current plans to re-open a Swiss cooperation office in Kabul that was evacuated and closed when the ...

A bear sanctuary in southeast Switzerland is to become home to two bears from a zoo in North Macedonia. The 2.8 hectare Arosa sanctuary works with the Four Paws animal welfare NGO to offer improved conditions for bears that are already in captivity....

Geneva prosecutors have appealed the acquittal of a former politician who had been accused of accepting financial inducements from the United Arab Emirates royal family. Last month, Pierre Maudet had his original criminal conviction and sentence o...

Swiss author Reto Hänny has been awarded this year’s Swiss Grand Prix for Literature for his life’s work. Hänny, 75, from Tschappina in canton Graubünden is best known for his novels Sturz (2020), Blooms Schatten (2014), Helldunkel. Ein Bilde...

Three Swiss deportation centres have been criticised for failing to adequately care for children and families. Inspections found that children are confined to small living spaces and that contact with the outside world is unduly restricted. On Thurs...

Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second biggest bank, has capped a tumultuous period by posting a fourth-quarter net loss of CHF2 billion ($2.17 billion) and a full-year net loss of CHF1.57 billion. The 2021 annual loss compares with a CHF2.7 billion ...

Controversial comments about a perceived lack of diversity at a Swiss-based international ballet competition have caused an uproar in the ballet world. The Instagram account of the Prix de Lausanne was flooded with critical comments about the make-u...

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis has held talks in Niger about closer bilateral relations, international cooperation and humanitarian issues. He met the president of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, and other members of the government in the capital Niamey and ...

An online signature campaign has been launched to re-admit Swiss and British researchers to the European Union Horizon programme. A joint initiative by Swiss and British universities and institutions calls for “open and barrier-free collaboration ...

Ala Kachuu (Take and Run), written and directed by German-Swiss filmmaker Maria Brendle, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Short Film (Live Action) category. The 38-minute drama tells the story of 19-year-old Sezim, from Kyrgyzstan, who...

The Swiss foreign ministry plans to hold talks with a delegation of Afghanistan’s Taliban government on a visit to the Swiss city of Geneva. The meeting is expected to take place later this week, a spokeswoman of the Swiss Mission to the United Na...

Health experts say the number of new infections with the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid has peaked in Switzerland. Virginie Masserey of the Federal Office of Public Health said the latest wave of infections was stagnating at a high level...

Youth unemployment in Switzerland is nearly half the average rate of European Union countries, according to latest official figures from 2020. Switzerland recorded a jobless rate of 6.9% among people aged 15-29, the Federal Statistical Office said o...

The rare Niederhelfenschwil Beeri apple has been chosen as fruit variety of the year. The apples stand out because of their “beautiful colour and intense aroma” and are excellent for making cider, according to Fructus, the association for the pro...

Three patients whose lower bodies were left completely paralysed after spinal cord injuries were able to walk, cycle and swim using a nerve-stimulation device controlled by a touchscreen tablet, a Swiss-led team of researchers has reported. The pati...

A 46-year-old Italian skier died on Sunday after being swept away by an avalanche while touring in a mountainous region in southeast Switzerland. At least 11 people have reportedly died in avalanches in the Alps since Friday. The Italian skier was c...

Switzerland’s second-largest bank, Credit Suisse, is a defendant in a trial involving millions of euros that were allegedly laundered through its coffers by a Bulgarian drug trafficker. The court case, which starts on Monday, has sparked fresh cal...

Switzerland is sending a team of disaster experts and water and sanitation equipment to Madagascar, which has been struck by Cyclone Batsirai – the second tropical storm to cause extensive damage to the Indian Ocean island in two weeks. Cyclone Ba...

The Swiss People’s Party wants parliament to reconsider Switzerland's candidacy for the UN Security Council during an extraordinary session. Parliament will again debate Switzerland's candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council j...

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis has warned that unstable relations are not a long-term solution, either for Switzerland or the European Union. In an interview published in the SonntagsZeitung paper on Sunday, Cassis stressed that both sides have an i...

The Swiss ambassador in Paris has protested against remarks made by French MEP Nathalie Loiseau imploring the European Union not to be "a big, soft Switzerland" in its handling of tensions in Ukraine. On Saturday, ambassador Roberto Balzaretti deeme...

The office of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will be shifted from East Jerusalem to Ramallah. The staff concerned have been informed, the foreign ministry confirmed on Saturday. A working group has been set up to plan the ne...

Switzerland has put forward its case to be re-admitted as a full member of the European Union’s Horizon Europe research programme. The EU has downgraded Switzerland to non-associate status in the programme which hands out grants and access to pres...

Swissport, the world’s largest airport ground services and cargo handling company, has been targeted by ransomware hackers. The canton Zurich-based firm said it spotted the hack early enough on Thursday to contain potential damage to its IT system...

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, Swiss citizen Nils Melzer, will step down from the role in March to start a new job at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Melzer, who took up the United Nations (UN) position in 2016, said ...

Switzerland is set to participate in a new “Schengen Council” proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, whose goal is to better coordinate migration policy in Europe. Macron presented the idea at a meeting of European Union (EU) interior min...