The first probable case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has been detected in Switzerland, the government said late on Sunday, as the country tightened its entry restrictions to check its spread. The case relates to a person who returned to Switze...

Voters have rejected a proposal for the supreme court judges to be elected by lot rather than by the Swiss parliament. The people’s initiative only won about 31.9% of the vote on Sunday according to official results. None of the country's 26 canto...

Zurich has become the latest canton in Switzerland to ban oil and gas heating systems. Official figures show nearly 63% of voters on Sunday endorsing a law approved by parliament to replace fossil fuels in heating systems with alternative energy sou...

Voters in Geneva have won the right to recall elected members of their cantonal government, an option rarely used in Switzerland. The constitutional amendment was approved by 92% of voters on Sunday, according to official results. Under the new reg...

The Swiss health authorities have urged passengers who arrived at Zurich airport on a flight from South Africa to get tested for Covid. The Federal Office of Public Health said it will send text messages to all passengers who landed at Zurich airpor...

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has been forced to cancel a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in China following a technical fault on his government jet. Cassis was forced to divert to Moscow en route to the eastern Zhejiand province of Chi...

An open doors event to coincide with the 2022 World Economic Forum in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos has been called off due to threats. Members of the Open Forum event have increasingly been intimidated and even received death threats from cons...

The final cost of replacing Switzerland’s fleet of military jets has again been called into question by some sections of the media. In September 2020, Swiss voters agreed to CHF6 billion ($6.4 billion) being spent on replacing Switzerland's ageing...

The 300 wealthiest people in Switzerland boosted their coffers by CHF115 billion ($123 billion) during the last 12 months, according to financial magazine Bilanz. The biggest winner in the annual Top 300 rich list is Klaus-Michael Kühne, the majori...

Swiss President Guy Parmelin has warned cantons that they must get hospitals ready for a possible surge in new Covid-19 cases and take steps to ensure the “critical” pandemic situation is kept under control. In a four-page letter sent to the can...

Switzerland’s foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis, is on his way to China for a meeting on Saturday to “pursue bilateral dialogue” with his Chinese counterpart. Economic ties, Covid-19 and human rights are on the agenda. Cassis is due to meet Wan...

The launch of Swiss Post’s first “crypto” stamp has met with such high demand that the online shop was overwhelmed for several hours. Sales of the “Swiss Crypto Stamp” started at 6am on Thursday. Demand was very high, which had “temporar...

The skylark has lived with humans in open agricultural landscapes for centuries. However, the industrialisation of agriculture has been threatening the skylark’s existence for decades, says BirdLife Switzerland, which has named it Swiss Bird of the...

Switzerland is open to compromise in talks on the intellectual property (IP) rights of Covid-19 vaccines and drugs at the World Trade Organization (WTO), but it remains opposed to a full waiver of those rights, says a senior Swiss diplomat. Switzerl...

The Swiss government has presented a series of new measures to accelerate the transfer of heavy-goods transport from road to rail. Last year 860,000 lorries crossed Switzerland via motorways and roads, a third fewer than in 2000. But this still rema...

The Covid pandemic remains one of the main causes of concern for the Swiss, according to this year’s Credit Suisse Worry Barometer. However, almost the same number of respondents are stressed about climate change and having enough money when they r...

Around 1,000 people protested in Geneva on Wednesday evening against a visit to the Swiss city by controversial French far-right commentator and likely presidential candidate Eric Zemmour. The protest march against Zemmour’s visit took place in th...

The Swiss-run International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has elected Mirjana Spoljaric Egger as its next president. The ICRC’s governing body, known as the Assembly, announced on Thursday that it had elected Spoljaric Egger to take over from ...

Interior Minister Alain Berset says there is no need for new nationwide measures in Switzerland despite a surge in Covid infections. Berset, whose portfolio includes health issues, said the current epidemiological situation was critical but that the...

Switzerland has become the latest country to ask its citizens to leave Ethiopia, as the security situation worsens in the east African country. "The foreign ministry advises against travelling to Ethiopia for any reason,” it told the Reuters news ...

Rights groups are sounding the alarm about sexual violence against women in Switzerland. Referring to a 2019 survey, they say one in two women has been a victim of sexual violence in some form, ranging from verbal insults to sexual coercion and rape...

Six years after the Dieselgate Volkswagen controversy came to light, a Geneva court has ordered a car importer to compensate the owner of a VW diesel car – a Swiss first. A Geneva court ordered Switzerland’s biggest car dealer AMAG to reimburse ...

Three rare artefacts that were looted from Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra and stored at the Geneva free port have been returned to Syrian authorities. The confiscated objects, from the second and third centuries BC, include a priest’s head and ...

The average private household in Switzerland spent about 31% of its income on taxes, social security and health insurance premiums in 2019. That’s 1% up on the previous year, slightly reducing the individual budget and the chances of setting money...

Health experts have urged the population to respect hygiene rules and to get vaccinated to avoid an overloading of Swiss hospitals due to a continuing rise in new Covid infections. Patrick Mathys of the Federal Office of Public Health said the curre...

Swissmedic has approved the extension of Covid-19 boosters for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to all people aged 16 and over. This now "clears the way" for wider use of the booster vaccination, it said. On Tuesday, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Prod...

Three Swiss-based subsidiaries of SBM Offshore, which provides solutions for the offshore energy industry, have been ordered to pay CHF7 million ($7.5 million) for failing to prevent corruption payments. The Swiss attorney general said the company h...

The process to become Swiss has become too complex, preventing too many people from exercising their political rights, says the Swiss Observatory for Asylum and Foreigners Law. The group is calling for procedures to be simplified and made more consis...

Switzerland’s political parties have seen the ranks of their youth sections grow during the coronavirus pandemic, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported on Monday. Young people have been particularly affected by the government’s restrictions to c...

Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office says 57% of students are experiencing difficulties in their studies and one in ten would like to quit. A third of students (33%) report difficulties with the content of their studies, according to data publ...