Following the rejection of a proposed climate law last year, the Swiss government has mapped out new changes to the legislation. The new C02 law strips out unpopular tax and levies that saw the downfall of the last proposal at the ballot box. The n...

Swissmedic has issued a temporary marketing authorisation for AstraZeneca’s drug Evusheld, making it the first Covid-19 prophylaxis drug approved by the Swiss medical regulator. This authorisation means that the drug, which is administered as an i...

A nationwide vote on banning fossil fuels in Switzerland has been averted after parliament agreed on a CHF3.2 billion ($3.3 billion) climate action package. Supporters of the ‘Glacier Initiative’ say the new measures go some way to satisfying th...

The Swiss government decided on Friday to stop issuing facilitated visas for Russian nationals. This brings Swiss visa rules in line with the European Union. At its meeting on September 16, the Federal Council (executive body) agreed to suspend comp...

Switzerland is allocating CHF3 million ($3.1 million) to help Pakistan confront one of the worst natural disasters in its history. This in response to an appeal for international aid from the Pakistani authorities, as almost a third of the country ha...

A Russian cultural association lost permission to teach in Switzerland after one of its members displayed the controversial Z-symbol at an Alpine wrestling festival. The Z-symbol is painted on Moscow’s military vehicles in Ukraine and is considered...

Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court has ruled that an Iraqi convicted only of association with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State groups will not be imprisoned. The decision came in response to an appeal by the attorney general. In July 2021, the Federa...

Switzerland’s House of Representatives has approved the purchase of new F-35 fighter jets from the United States. The decision clears the path for Bern to sign the purchase contract, despite a pending initiative on the issue of Swiss fighter jets. ...

Five museums in Switzerland's art hub of Basel plan to examine the origins of objects in their collections amid efforts across Europe to identify the rightful owners of cultural assets. On Thursday, the Basel City cantonal government announced that ...

Swiss citizens want FIFA to compensate foreign workers whose human rights were violated during preparations for the World Cup to be hosted by Qatar in late 2022, according to a poll commissioned by Amnesty International. The Zurich-based world footba...

The Swiss Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) has launched an investigation into a fake government poster campaign encouraging people to report their neighbours if they heat their homes above a certain temperature. Images of the fake posters are believ...

The Swiss competition commission (COMCO) has opened an investigation into suspected unlawful use of a patent to reduce competitive pressure by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The probe, which is in collaboration with the European Commission, is...

Office workers who were scorched by hot coals during a team bonding exercise are suing the organisers of the event for criminal negligence. Twenty five people were treated for burns at the corporate get-together on the shores of Lake Zurich in June....

Switzerland will have a seat on a foundation that has been set up in Geneva to manage CHF3.5 billion ($3.66 billion) in Afghanistan central bank funds that were frozen as the Taliban took control of the country. The board of trustees will be complet...

Private phone numbers in Switzerland will only be listed on digital platforms from next year as the iconic printed telephone directory will be discontinued, ending 142 years of existence. The first Swiss ‘White Pages’ telephone directory was pri...

Two businessman who were convicted in 2013 for large scale money laundering offences have had their sentences reduced by a Swiss court. The Czech citizens were jailed and fined for their part in the Czech Mostecka Uhelna Spolecnost (MUS) coal compan...

A Swiss art expert has slammed the investigation of suspected Nazi looted artworks at a collection in Zurich as “unprofessional” and “hapless”. Lawyer Marcel Brülhart, who is on the board of the Bern Museum of Fine Arts foundation, made his...

Swiss border police over-stepped their authority in subjecting a woman to an intimate strip search, according to a landmark court ruling that defends personal dignity. The complainant, aged 36 at the time, was forced to remove clothing and endure a ...

Thomas Zurbuchen, a Swiss-American astrophysicist, says he will quit as science chief of the United States space agency (NASA) at the end of this year. He has served as head of the science mission directorate of the National Aeronautics and Space Ag...

The president of the Swiss Bankers Association, Marcel Rohner, has warned of the negative impact of the high level of debt worldwide. “The debt level is gigantic. This is a very worrying situation,” is quoted in the Wednesday edition of the Blic...

Both chambers of parliament have cleared the way for infertile women to receive egg cell donations in Switzerland. On Tuesday, the Senate voted through a motion to enable the fertility treatment, following a similar vote by the House of Representati...

The Eritrean government has taken control of a vocational education centre that was run by an Italian Catholic order and sponsored by Swiss development funds. Swiss public broadcaster SRF reports that the facility in Dekemhare was nationalised as pa...

Companies that produce Switzerland’s electricity will have access to CHF10 billion ($10.5 billion) in emergency state credit should they run into financial difficulty in the coming months. The measure was approved by the House of Representatives o...

Switzerland’s largest car importer, AMAG, plans to sell purely electric powered vehicles from 2040 and is diversifying into solar systems and heat pumps. AMAG, which imports cars and sells them to dealerships, said on Tuesday that it will acquire ...

After another round of talks last week, Switzerland’s top negotiator with the EU, Livia Leu, said that Switzerland wants to move forward with negotiations but complained that the EU continues to push back the timetable. In an interview in the Germ...

Enigmatic Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard, creator of such movies as À Bout de souffle (Breathless) and Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language), has passed away at the age of 91. The co-founder of the Nouvelle Vague film movement is celebrated a...

The PlanetSolar catamaran, renamed Porrima, has run aground and remains stranded on a beach south of Mumbai in India, according to media reports. It was the first boat to complete a solar-powered round-the-world voyage. The news was first reported l...

Swiss President Ignazio Cassis will represent Switzerland at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London next Monday. Cassis has accepted an invitation to attend the funeral, which will take place on September 19, according to the Keystone-SDA news...

The Swiss cultural sector received more than half a billion francs from the federal and cantonal authorities to help it cope with the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The largest portion of the bailout (CHF447.9 million, $468 million) was given to compan...

Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is investing $300 million ($288 million) in biotherapeutics development, which includes a new $100 million biologics hub at its home base in Basel. A further $110 million will be spent on research and production...