Swiss journalist Sarah Jollien-Fardel has won this year’s Choix Goncourt de la Suisse literary prize for her debut novel Sa préférée (The Favourite) about domestic violence. Jollien-Fardel from canton Valais in western Switzerland recently won ...

A pear-shaped 18-carat pink diamond billed as a rarity has sold at a Geneva auction for CHF28.4 million ($28.8 million), including fees and taxes. The “Fortune Pink” fancy vivid pink stone, said to be the largest of its kind and shape to go on t...

A few dozen people have protested in front of the FIFA Museum in Zurich to press for the rights of the LGBT+ community ahead of the World Cup hosted by Gulf state Qatar. Some football players have raised concerns over the rights of fans travelling t...

Police have searched two branches of Swiss bank UBS in Germany in connection with alleged money laundering by a Russian businessman, according to German officials and media. On Tuesday Frankfurt prosecutor Georg Ungefuk did not identify the suspect ...

Embattled Swiss bank Credit Suisse is to close 14 of its 109 branches in Switzerland by February 2023 as part of a comprehensive restructuring programme. A further two branches will be converted into advisory centres. “This decision is mainly due ...

Wages in Switzerland are not keeping pace with inflation, and in 2022 the purchasing power of employees has dropped significantly. This has led to the highest loss in real wages for Swiss workers in 80 years. On average, Swiss companies plan to incr...

Almost a month after the start of the campaign for the second booster vaccination against Covid-19 only 6% of the population have made use of the offer. Since October 10 the authorities have recorded around 344,000 second booster vaccinations. In t...

Swiss museums came back to life in 2021 after the major waves of Covid-19, but without reaching pre-pandemic levels. Almost all indicators of museum activity in Switzerland increased last year compared with 2020: the number of admissions (10.3 milli...

The right-wing Swiss People's Party has officially launched its initiative, which aims to largely prohibit Switzerland from entering into defence alliances and participating in sanctions. The campaigners have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 si...

The former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, says the choice of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup was a mistake as the Gulf country is too small. "Football and the World Cup are too big for that," the former president of the world football's governing bo...

At the opening of the COP27 climate forum in Egypt, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has stressed the need to maintain the 1.5°C target and the “special responsibility” of the large emitters. He also announced additional contributions from ...

Infections with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continued to decline in Switzerland in 2021. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) recorded 318 cases last year, down from an average of 1,300 cases a year in the 1990s. The 318 cases are w...

Switzerland and North Macedonia are expanding their cooperation on migration issues. Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter and North Macedonian Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski signed a declaration of intent in Bern on Monday. Northern Macedonia li...

Benoît Carcenat, chef at La Table du Valrose hotel restaurant in Rougemont, has been named “Chef of the Year 2023” by GaultMillau Switzerland. The gastronomic guide awarded him 18 points out of 20. French-born Carcenat, 42, has been running the...

Forty-eight people were bitten by snakes in Switzerland last year, one of whom showed severe symptoms. One dog died but there were no human fatalities, said Tox Info Suisse, the national poisons information centre. Venomous snakes native to Switzerl...

More than 70,000 people have fled to Switzerland from Ukraine and applied for refugee status, say the Swiss authorities. As of Monday 67,621 people had been granted special “S protection” status, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said. T...

The Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) will submit seven demands to political parties and actors with the aim of making the voice of Swiss citizens who live abroad heard in the federal parliament. “In view of the 2023 federal elections, the OS...

Around 40% of the world’s coal is bought and sold in Switzerland, according to a study. Swiss banks are among the top lenders to the coal business. This year, coal production should exceed eight billion tonnes worldwide, an all-time high, accordin...

People in Ukraine do not understand the Swiss concept of neutrality, says Claude Wild, Switzerland’s ambassador to Ukraine. In Ukraine you have to constantly explain to people Switzerland’s position and its stance on neutrality, Wild told ArcInf...

The Swiss Football Associatioin is among several European football bodies that are calling on FIFA to provide “concrete answers” on issues related to migrant workers ahead of the World Cup in Qatar. In a joint statement, the associations acknowl...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk issued an open letter to Elon Musk, urging him to ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter. “Twitter is part of a global revolution that has transformed how we communicate. But...

Chinese-Swiss relations will suffer if Switzerland adopts European Union sanctions against China, says the country’s ambassador in Bern, Wang Shihting, in an interview in the NZZamSonntag. More than a year ago, the EU imposed sanctions on selected...

A large-scale computer spying operation allegedly targeted Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis and interior minister Alain Berset according to an investigation published in the British paper the Sunday Times. The report, published on Saturday even...

Several thousand people gathered in front of the federal government building on Saturday demanding the Swiss government take “significant measures” against the Iranian regime. The demonstrations were initiated by the Free Iran Switzerland organi...

Researchers from the University of Geneva have found that an anti-herpes drug discovered more than 50 years ago can make it easier for the immune system to attack a common and deadly bacteria. The bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae is very common in hos...

Switzerland has made progress in reforming tax rates for multinational companies but still has work to do when it comes to turning a blind eye to tax avoidance. In an interview in the French-language paper Le Temps, Paul Tang, who led a delegation o...

A Swiss citizen was among the more than 100 tourists freed a day after being taken hostage by local residents demanding action after a recent oil spill in a river in the Peruvian Amazon. On Friday, Peru's tourist minister Roberto Sanchez confirmed t...

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, who also holds the rotating presidency this year, will join Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga at the COP27 climate forum in Egypt next week. Switzerland will “advocate for an effective work programme t...

Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic says there are no risks in connection with bubbles that appeared in vials of Covid-19 vaccine boosters retooled to target the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. "Laboratory analysis of the vials did not reveal any i...

Switzerland has provided CHF1.5 million ($1.48 million) in emergency aid to flood-stricken Nigeria and Chad. The two African countries have experienced devastating floods since the summer that have killed hundreds of people and left thousands displa...