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Some 700,000 people die every year from antimicrobial resistance. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally More than 20 major pharmaceutical companies are investing nearly $1 billion (CHF940 million) in ...

The case of Jean-Louis Jeanmaire shook Switzerland in the 1970s(Keystone / Str) As Switzerland reels fro...

Exactly 20 years ago, Hurricane Lothar knocked over more than ten million trees in Switzerland. Fourteen people died and the cost of the damage came to around CHF1.35 billion ($1.38 billion). However,...

Switzerland's seven cabinet members welcome the Indian president in September 2019. Foreign policy strategy aims to involve...

Brainstorming: Participants must figure outhow to weave a narrative through a scientific idea. (Eleonora Aquilini/Exposure Science Film Hackathon) Participants in a unique ‘hackathon’-style eve...

Switzerland's seven-member Federal Council in session, January 2018. (© KEYSTONE / PETER KLAUNZER) On Wednesday, December 5, parliament meets to elect two new members of the seven-seat Federal C...

The author saved a month’s worth of plastic waste, pictured here. Less than half could be recycled.(swissinfo.ch) Switzerland consumes three times as much plastic as other European countries, but recycles 30% less. Bans on plastic in the EU and China may change that.The Swiss appetite for plastic is cons...

This content was published on April 14, 2018 11:00 AMApr 14, 2018 - 11:00 You don't necessarily have to havesnow to race down the slopes on skis–grass skiing on green pastures can besimilarly exhilarating.The best in the world glide across the meadows at a speed of 90 kilometres per hour, on specialskis, which havegrooves like tr...

This content was published on March 3, 2018 2:00 PMMar 3, 2018 - 14:00 The possibility of using computers to count the votes of the Swiss population had been in discussion for some time before a large-scale experiment took place in a district of canton Zurich on February 1, 1970, with the help of the IBM Computer System/360.Although the...

IOC President Thomas Bach with representatives from South Korea andNorth Korea's Olympic Committee President and sports minister Kim Il Guk (second from left) in Lausae(Keystone) The Swiss-based Inteational Olympic Committee (IOC) says the Korean peninsula has a brighter future due to the North’s participation in the Winter Games. But analysts argue any such rapprochement between the North and South will be short-lived.“The Olympic Games show us what the world could look like, if we were all guided by the Olympic spirit of respect and understanding," said IOC President Thomas Bach after a meeting in Januaryexteal link with delegates from...

The blockchain has evolved alongside digital currencies stored there(Keystone) The world’s big financial institutions are wrestling with a cryptocurrency dilemma: whether to stand by and denounce a technology many distrust but also fear — or join those investing in it.After a surge in the combined market value of cryptocurrencies from less than $20bn to more than $540bn, the phenomenon — and the blockchain technology that underpins it — has become impossible for the financial establishment to ignore, despite its denunciations of bitcoin in particular as “a fraud”, “index of money-laundering” and worse.“We are sitting down around this tab...

Multinational companies are being urged to contribute more to the battle against global warming at the World Economic Forum’s aual meeting in Davos.Christiana Figueresexteal link, former United Nation’s climate chief and now a leading light at the environmental NGO Mission 2020exteal link, said the world must start reversing the trend of rising CO2 emissions by 2020 and then halve greenhouse gases in each subsequent decade.Figueres is lobbying corporates and politicians at WEF to clean up their act. “This is the biggest business opportunity that we have ever seen, but only if we harvest it in time,” she told swissinfo.ch at the Artic Basecampexteal link event in Davos that gathered together ...

"If Switzerland caot say, 'under no circumstances will we use nuclear weapons', how can we expect North Korea to do that?"This is the question posed byBeatrice Fihn, executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize-wiingInteational Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weaponsexteal link(iCAN),speaking to swissinfo.ch from the WEF aual meeting in Davos. For Fihn, it's high time that Switzerland signed and ratified the United Nations'inteational nuclear disarmament treatyexteal link, adopted in July of last year and supported by some 50 nations - especially considering global nuclear threats that have caused theso-called Doomsday Clock tomovetwo minutes closer to midnight.exteal linkUnited States President ...

'One is a lonely number': US president Donald Trump disembarking from Marine One in Davos.(Keystone) African delegates are plaing to boycott United States President Donald Trump’s closing speech at the World Economic Forum’s flagship aual meeting in Davos on Friday. This follows leaks that he called African countries “shitholes” in a White House meeting on immigration this month.Trump arrivesin Davos on Thursday where he will concentrate on boosting trade and business links between the US and other countries as part of his “America First” agenda, according to members of his cabinet who briefed the press. Trump will also meet Swiss Presid...

Swiss skier Beat Feuz at the start of the Lauberho race in Wengen, January 11. (Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott) Two of 800 dogs who took part in the inteational sledge race in Saignelégier, January 29. (Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott) A crustacean on ice at the White Turf horse race inSt. Moritz, February 19. (Keystone/Christian Beutler) The start of the Fasnacht caival in Lucee, February 23.(Keystone/Urs Flüeler) Skiers in action during the 49th Engadine skimarathon from Maloya to S-chanf, March 12. (Keystone/EPA/Gian Ehrenzeller) Underwater window-cleaning of a sculpture by artist Roman Signer by Lake Zug, March 31. (Keystone/Urs Flüeler) The"Böögg" goes up in flames during the Sechsel...

... Print Reuse article See in another language: 1 See in another language: 1 Languages: 1 Gay men and women will be able to adopt their partner's biological child(123RF) Until no...

Keeping a bucket of water close by is a necessary ritual when using real candles to light a tree.(Keystone) A bright ChristmasOn December 24, 1999, the year that swissinfo.ch came into existence, we reported that nine out of ten Swiss households put up a Christmas treeexteal link, with most preferring real candles rather than electric bulbs.In 2008 we wrote that candles not only illuminate trees in family homes but also in many churchesexteal link, even though open flames are baed in public places where more than 100 people can gather. The article stated that candles caused some 1,000 fires a year.Electric bulbs may save property an...

Skiers enjoyedearly snow at Crans-Montana, canton Valais, on December 3(Keystone) For the second year in a row, the high-altitude resort of Saas-Fee is offering an 80% discount by marketing a cut-price crowd-funded season pass (CHF233) aimed at boosting domestic demand; so far it has sold over 77,000 “WinterCard” ticketsexteal link. Last year, the figure was 75,000, which generated a +15% increase in the number of nights people spent there in accommodation.“The entire valley benefited last year,” declared Claudine Perrothon, in charge of public relations for Saas-Fee. “There was an increase in the number of people skiing, and busine...

Susan Tiberghien sayslife in Switzerland was difficult at first(Jeaie Wurz) I came to Europe to do graduate work in Contemporary Literature. I was 21, just out of university, with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Literature and a minor in French. I had studied French for three years in high school and four years at college, but when I arrived at Grenoble University in the French Alps, I realized that I couldn’t make myself understood, nor could I understand.For the first two months I leaed more French in intensive classes. And as it happens, suddenly I was able to take notes at lectures in French instead of English! It just swi...

Help is availablefor those whocaot afford health insurance, yetnot everyone who needs it actually receives it.(Keystone) In Switzerland, people with modest means may struggle to pay for basic health coverage for two simple reasons: insurance premiums are not adjusted to income, and they have doubled in price since 1996, while salaries have risen by just one-fifth. It comes as no surprise, then, that just over a quarter of the population needed govement assistanceexteal link to pay their premiums in 2014.The state offers subsidies to ensure that everyone can afford basic health insurance, which is compulsory in Switzerland. ...