The coronavirus pandemic has been identified as the reason for a significant decline in requests for asylum in Switzerland. The number of applications stood at 11,041 at the start of this year, compared to around 16,000 at the same point in 2020. Th...

The trial of Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz, accused of corrupt business practices in Guinea, started in Geneva on Monday. Steinmetz is alleged to have paid bribes to secure mining rights in the African country at a fraction of their fair value. ...

This year’s edition of the FIS Ski World Cup in the Swiss resort of Wengen is to go ahead next weekend as planned, despite a recent rise in coronavirus cases there. Doubts had been raised over the weekend because of the rise in Covid-19 infections...

The closure of Swiss schools in the spring of 2020 was one of the most effective measures to reduce travel and so the transmission of Covid-19, says a new study. Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich found that the closure of...

Half of all hotel and restaurant businesses in Switzerland will go bankrupt by the end of March if they do not receive immediate financial compensation for the effects of coronavirus restrictions, warns the sector’s umbrella organisation. Based on...

The Swiss economy has held up well in the face of the Covid-19 crisis and could even boom this year, says a top government economist. Eric Scheidegger, director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, told the NZZ am Sonntag that the outlook ...

Up to 600 restaurant owners have protested in the western Swiss city of Neuchâtel in anger at a possible extension to the end of February of their shutdown. The authorised demonstration was peaceful and drew 500 to 600 people, according to the orga...

The director of Switzerland’s health office has urged patience in the country’s vaccination campaign, saying all at-risk groups should be vaccinated by the end of March. Anne Lévy, director of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), told S...

Solothurn has become the last Swiss canton to open its ski resorts, despite what it says is a worrying coronavirus situation. Resorts in this north-western canton can operate as of Saturday, after its authorities granted the necessary permits. The c...

Goats appear to like problem solving – something that could contribute to their welfare on the farm, according to Swiss and German researchers. The study, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the German Research Foundation, o...

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a significant rise in unemployment in Switzerland last year. The massive use of short-time work measures helped mitigate the impact on businesses and workers, the authorities say. The annual unemployment rate rose to 3.1...

Severe Covid-19 can result in prolonged impairment of oxygen in the lungs even four months after infection, a nationwide Swiss study has found. “Long-term monitoring and treatment of these patients is urgent and important,” it concluded. The re...

Thousands of new Swiss army recruits will learn how to salute and carry their automatic rifle from the safety of their homes this month. The army has imposed a “work-from-home” regulation for compulsory basic training due to the Covid-19 pandemic...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) expects to post an annual profit of CHF21 billion ($23 billion) for 2020, it said on Friday. Rising stock prices had boosted the value of its huge foreign currency investments. The SNB made a profit of CHF13 billion fro...

Over half of all cases reported last year involved children who accidentally ingested toxic substances. Overall, the number of cases rose by 2% on 2019. Some 40,000 cases of poisoning were logged in 2020 by the Tox Info Suisse organisation, which ha...

It is estimated that the tree – which is the second-tallest fir in Europe – dates back to 1744. The giant conifer – known locally as the President Fir – can be found in the Couvet forest in the western Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. Its exact ...

Prominent Kazakh political figure Viktor Khrapunov has been granted asylum in Switzerland, as has his ex-wife. The pair would risk unfair treatment back in Kazakhstan, the Federal Administrative Court ruled. Viktor and Leila Khrapunov have been in S...

Swiss company Kühne+Nagel has concluded a distribution and storage agreement for the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the American biotech firm. On Thursday, Kühne+Nagel announced that it will ensure the worldwide distribution of the Moderna vaccine...

A floating solar power plant and a transport project using renewable hydrogen are among the winners of the 2021 Watt d’Or prize. Awarded annually by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy since 2007, the goal of the Watt d’Or is to “showcase outs...

The Solothurn Film Festival will take place online, the organisers have confirmed. They are putting a positive spin on the situation and are talking of a “democratisation of culture”. A programme of 170 films of all genres, lengths and languages...

Restaurants and leisure venues in Switzerland look set to remain closed until March in a bid to halt an expected rise in Covid-19 infections. Interior Minister Alain Berset said the pandemic situation in Switzerland was serious despite restrictions ...

Several security bodies in Switzerland have been targeted by emails that appear to come from official organisations such as banks or the police and contain a password for a zip file. When this file is opened, the computer becomes infected with a troj...

Food retailers in Switzerland are bracing themselves for lower sales figures this year as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. Swiss bank Credit Suisse has forecast a 6% drop in sales for the food sector in 2021, following an exceptional 2020 which was ...

Passengers departing from Switzerland’s main airport of Zurich will from Thursday be able to test themselves for Covid-19 by saliva sample, rather than nasal swabs. The result should be available within around five hours, rather than 24 to 48 hours...

One in five young sportsmen and women in the western French-speaking part of Switzerland has suffered some form of violence, according to a survey by the University of Lausanne. While psychological abuse, including denigration, threats and punishmen...

The Jungfraubahn lift company, which carries people to the top destination in the Bernese Alps, recorded a drop of more than 65% in visitors last year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Its visitors totalled only 362,800 people in 2020, compared wi...

Some 28 people in seven Swiss cantons have tested positive for mutated strains of the Covid-19 virus. This is not enough to recommend tightened measures against the pandemic, but experts are concerned that a minority of cases have had no contact with...

A Swiss fund that supports small businesses in alpine regions bailed out 100 firms last year that were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Schweizer Berghilfe (Swiss Mountain Aid) doled out an extra CHF2 million ($2.26 million) to support Covid-hit...

Women’s organisation Alliance F has launched a first Swiss App to track and counter hate speech on the Internet with the help of a volunteer community. The platform, launched on Tuesday, uses technology developed by the Federal Institute of Techn...

The Swiss automobile industry registered its worst result in over 40 years, as the number of new cars hitting the road in 2020 fell by a quarter compared to the previous year. A total of 236,828 new cars were sold last year, the import association A...