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Patek Philippe's steel Grandmaster Chime comes with a reversible dial plate, which can be seen here(Christie's) ...

An undisturbed pile of rocks can provide a habitat for a few species.(Flurin Bertschinger/Ex-Press/BAFU) Switzerland may have been quick to join the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversityexteal link in 1992, but it’s lost momentum over the past three decades. For example, participating countries have agreed to set aside 17% of their land for conservation by 2020. With only about 7%, Switzerland is still far behind the target – and almost hopelessly so, says Markus Fischer, president of the of the Swiss Biodiversity Forumexteal link’s scientific advisory council, which coects scientists with policy-makers.Fischer says 30% ...

As the US National Archives releases thousands of files covering the 1963 assassination of President John F. Keedy, this is how the Swiss reacted to his death, from the halls of govement to the streets. (SRF/rts.ch/swissinfo.ch) Rarely had th...

This content was published on October 9, 2017 11:00 AMOct 9, 2017 - 11:00 An exhibition of never-before-seen images of Eesto Che Guevara has visited some dozen Swiss towns, as part of a celebration organised by the Swiss-Cuba Association to mark a half-century since the revolutionary’s death.The “¡Che vive!” (“Che lives!”) exhibition features photos dating from the period f...

The Swiss are mouing the loss of one of their greatest sports heroes, speed climber Ueli Steck, who died on Sunday in the Himalaya. (SRF/swissinfo.chexteal link)Steck, dubbed the “Swiss Machine”, was 40 and one of the most celebrated climbers of his generation. He was killed after falling about 1000 metres to the foot of Mount Nuptse, a smaller peak in the area between Everest’s Camps 1 and 2....

Hands up who thinks creating bilingual schools outside canton Graubünden is a good way to keep Romansh alive (Keystone) Tough times for Romansh, Switzerland’s least-spoken national language. Not only is the Romansh chair at the University of Zurich under threat, but the official umbrella organisation complains that the language has been ignored by the national broadcaster. Just how serious is the situation – and what can be done? “Swiss language patriots up in arms – Romansh judged too expensive” was the headline in Zurich’s Tages-Anzeiger on September 9. The paper revealed that the federal technology institute ETH Zurich had decided to stop contributing money towards a Romansh chair at ...

Net debt, which once stood at $29 billion, should fall to $17 billion by the year’s end (Keystone) In business, a near-debt experience can easily tu into a near-death one. A year ago, shareholders were slapping the pallid cheeks of commodities-and-mining group Glencore and beseeching: “Don’t go towards the light!” On the evidence of interim results, Glencore has meandered back from the other side with only the odd angel feather clinging to its collar as evidence. The Swiss group has made about $4 billion (CHF3.8 billion) in divestments, including a deal to sell gold output from an Aussie mine for more than A$880 million (CHF647 million). Net debt, which once stood at $29 billion, should ...

These are the stories we’re following in the week of July 18. (Keystone) Monday Will Swiss interests in the United States be better served by a Clinton or Trump presidency? The results of our survey of Swiss opinion leaders may surprise you. (Keystone) Tuesday Serbia is the latest country to look to Switzerland to help reform the country’s workforce. We interview Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, who is interested in leaing from Switzerland’s vocational training system. (Keystone) Thursday Each day ends in sleep and every life ends in death but our relationships with sleep and death are complicated and diverse. We hear how two Indian artists are exploring this compl...

Patrick Chappatte dans son atelier genevois. (swissinfo.ch) With a new exhibition, Windows on Death Row, Swiss joualist Ae-Frédérique Widma and press cartoonist Patrick Chappatte aim to shine a light on the dark – and still taboo – subject of the death penalty in the United States. Over the course of a year spent in Califoia in 2014, the pair visited four penitentiaries and met some 30 death row inmates who contributed artworks to the project, depicting their situations. The exhibition also includes artworks from well-known American press cartoonists. From Geneva’s cosmopolitan Pâquis quarter, Chappatte explains the motivation behind the project as he hones a comic strip rendition of ...