The World Trade Organization's (WTO) first female and first African director-general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has welcomed an apology from several Swiss newspapers that had dismissed the experienced Nigerian politician and economist as a grandmother. �...

Switzerland has pledged CHF14 million ($15.3 million) towards the United Nations humanitarian activities in Yemen, where over six years of war has created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The announcement was made by Swiss Foreign Ministe...

Too few Swiss companies are made to answer for corruption or money laundering offences, exposing gaps in current legislation, says the Swiss chapter of campaigning NGO Transparency International. The law was changed in Switzerland in 2003 to make fi...

Switzerland’s reputation as a “perfect, well-organised” country took a hit during the pandemic, especially after the second wave in late autumn, according to the head of the country’s branding agency. Speaking to the Le Nouvelliste newspaper...

For the first time since 1982, average annual chocolate consumption in Switzerland has fallen below the 10 kg per person mark. On average, a Swiss resident munched 9.9 kg of chocolate in 2020, 6.9% less than the year before, according to the Associ...

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) recorded a profit of CHF20.9 billion (almost $23 billion) in 2020, less than half of the CHF48.9 billion it made in 2019. Some CHF6 billion of the profits will be distributed to the Swiss government and cantons, compa...

The Swiss winter brought wild fluctuations in temperature, unseasonal rainfalls, abundant snow brought on cold fronts from Siberia and even a helping of Saharan sand. In general, temperatures were two degrees Celsius higher than the average measured...

Companies based in Switzerland spent between €44 million and €60 million (CHF48-66 million) lobbying European Union bodies, according to the monitoring organisation Lobbywatch. The chemicals industry invested the most money (up to €8.4 million...

Swiss people living abroad will still be able to use the services of assisted suicide organisation EXIT after members rejected a proposal to restrict its activities to within Switzerland. In August last year, the group warned that legal hurdles to e...

Three dogs are being trained to sniff out people infected with coronavirus in Switzerland. If successful, the canines could be used to detect outbreaks in schools, offices, events and other crowded places. Dogs are also being trained this way in oth...

Switzerland’s fading influence on the international stage is a cause of concern to former Swiss National Bank (SNB) chairman Philipp Hildebrand. Hildebrand, who this week ended his race to become the next head of the Organisation for International...

The Swiss government is facing intensified calls from cantons and parliamentarians to re-open restaurants and ease lockdown measures at a faster rate than previously announced. Shops, cultural and outdoor recreational facilities will be allowed to o...

A number of influential Swiss figures are backing the launch of a group called Progresuisse, which hopes to stimulate a new era of “constructive” relations between Switzerland and the European Union. Representatives of politics, science, academi...

Two Swiss men suspected of conspiring in a deadly terror attack in Vienna last year have been denied bail, according to media reports. The duo were aged 18 and 24 when they were arrested in the Swiss city of Winterthur in November, the day after a g...

The Swiss poet, translator and literary critic Philippe Jaccottet, winner of numerous prizes including the Goncourt poetry prize, has died at the age of 95. His family said on Thursday night that he died at his home in Grignan in southeast France, w...

Several Swiss cantons that had re-opened ski resort restaurant terraces in defiance of national rules are now reluctantly performing a U-turn under pressure from the federal government. Cantons in central Switzerland as well as Glarus and Ticino sa...

The Swiss federal prosecutor is examining whether a former government minister broke the official secrets act by suggesting that Switzerland has paid ransoms for hostages. Moritz Leuenberger, who served in cabinet between 1995 and 2010, recently tol...

Passengers departing from Zurich airport will have access to Covid-19 antigen tests as well as swab (PCR) tests, as of March 1. The testing centre in the airport will also be open from 4am to 8pm compared with 6am to 8pm at present, airport handlin...

The world governing body for football, FIFA, says it has run out of time to prosecute Franz Beckenbauer and two others for allegedly paying bribes in the build up to the 2006 World Cup. FIFA’s adjudicatory chamber, which judges ethical breaches, r...

Former Swiss National Bank (SNB) chairman, Philipp Hildebrand, has pulled out of the race to become the next secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Hildebrand announced that he had withdrawn his candi...

Representatives of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, as well as the three guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom will meet in Geneva at the end of April for informal talks. These talks, the first in this format since 2017, will be conven...

Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, has been appointed the new head of the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). “Mrs Schraner Burgener is the ideal person for this job,” Swiss Justice Minister Karin ...

The Swiss government has allocated grant funding of $65 million (around CHF59 million) over a period of four years to the island nation. The amount set aside is for the 2021-2024 period and will focus on promoting “inclusive and sustainable deve...

Is the government showing some backbone or being cowardly by keeping to its gradual pandemic reopening plans? The Swiss media can’t agree. For the German-speaking Neue Zürcher Zeitung broadsheet, the government – which confirmed its measures on...

The World Economic Forum Foundation has decided to assume more of the security costs for its annual event in the Alpine resort town of Davos. Following criticism from politicians and civil society groups, the Swiss government confirmed it will reduc...

The Swiss government has pledged CHF24.8 million ($27.6 million) towards the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help promote social and economic development in the region. The contribution is part of a $4 billion international credit package notably fo...

The Swiss authorities have agreed on the staggered easing of restrictions announced earlier this month. Shops, zoos and outdoor recreational facilities will reopen, but restaurants will remain closed until at least March 22. Further discussions on th...

The Swiss machinery, electrical engineering and metal industry says it hopes that growth with China will help it recover from pandemic losses. This comes amid more scrutiny over the human rights situation in China. According to annual figures releas...

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has called for more global cooperation to combat the negative effects of climate change in a bid to prevent international conflicts. Speaking at an online conference of the United Nations Security Council, Cassis call...

The environment ministry has finalised new guidelines for the regulation of maximum wave limits to be beamed from new, “adaptive” 5G antennae in Switzerland. On Tuesday, the environment ministry published the guidelines for cantons and local aut...