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The Palais des Nations in Geneva was built between 1929 and 1936 to house the League of Nations, which was increasingly und...

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The stand of the Biel-based brand Milus at the last Baselworld watch fair in March 2019.(Keystone / Georgios Kefalas) ...

Once an ordinary mountain village, an Egyptian billionaire’s vision to construct Switzerland’s largest tourist resort changed the landscape of the central Swiss town of Andermatt and the l...

In 2017, a total of 2,404toes of gold were imported to Switzerland, with a value of about CHF70 billion (Keystone) Most of the gold in the world passes through Switzerland. This is a business...

China Is leading the world towardsan electric car future (Robyn Beck / AFP) Switzerland has a new strategy to promote greater use of electric vehicles, but the Alpine nation remains far behind ...

(Keystone) Almost every article published by swissinfo.ch containsa percentage, an age, an amount of money or some other figure.Here’s a round-up of the most interesting statistics to appear in the past week’s stories. Exteal Content Formatting classes Mond...

At 91, she's the oldest elected politician in Switzerland: Marlies Näf-Hofma from Arbon in canton Thurgau. And she's still going strong. Swiss Public Television, SRF looks back at an often controversial political career. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)She represents the Christian Democratic Partyin the Arbon city parliamentexteal link, where she campaigns on behalf of the elderly, in particular. But she has changed her political allegiances several times.For 20 years, Näf-Hofmaexteal link worked as a lawyer for the the right-wingconservativeSwiss People's Party on the cantonal council of Thurgau, and was party member for 50 years. After a brief stint with the Green Liberals, the lawyer joined the city pa...

Around 170 workers are being drafted in to the central Swiss village of Göschenen to build the new Gotthard road tuel, but there's controversy over where they should stay. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)The Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) wants to build a container village to house them, but many locals would prefer to see old hotels renovated, thus breathing new lifeinto thevillage in canton Uri that has seen better days.Just under 450 people live here,compared to 1,300, 50 years ago.In 2016, votersbacked theplan to build the secondroad tuel through the central Swiss Alps, one of Europe’s main north-south links for cars, buses and trucks. The tuel will endinAirolo in the southe Swiss canton of Ticino...

Should 'alteative' treatments be included in health insurance coverage?(Keystone) Our healthcare series answering reader questions about the US and Switzerland is coming to a close. Here, our joualists tackle some remaining questions about alteative medicines, malpractice, antibiotics and more.Does the Swiss health care system allow insurers to deny coverage for drugs or therapies prescribed by a doctor who believes such treatment is best for the patient? Health care in Switzerland and the US:In thisongoing series, swissinfo.ch answers questions from readers about the two systems and their intersection...

Gondo used to be frequented by gold miners and cross-border smugglers, as immortalised by thestatue in the foreground. (Keystone) A new kind of mine is providing hope for a Swiss mountain village that has seen its share of misfortune over the years. Gondo, with 40 inhabitants, is no longer mining for gold, but for cryptocurrencies. On the face of it, Gondo - an isolated community on the Swiss-Italian border - is hardly the most likely location for such a cutting-edge, disruptive and divisive technology. It has nevertheless been chosen as the venue for a cryptocurrency mine by start-up Alpine Mining. Bitcoin’s inexorable rise in value has attracted more and more people worldwide to the ...

Here is a selection of stories we're looking ahead to in the week of January 8, 2018. (Keystone) Monday The trial of thirteen financiers accused of fuelling more than CH15 million to the Sri Lankan Tamil separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) will start at the Swiss Federal Criminal Court. (swissinfo.ch) Tuesday Switzerland is home to several long-ruing English-language comedy and drama groups. swissinfo.ch profiles the actors, producers and audiences and examines how much demand there is for such plays. (Keystone) Tuesday Swiss retailers experienced hard times in recent years with the strong franc sending shoppers over the borders in search of cheaper ...

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Besides adding an interesting layer of taste, tea also helps digest cheese(swissinfo.ch) The proof of the pudding lies in the eating. With this in mind, swissinfo.ch embarked on a gourment adventure of tasting several combinations of Swiss cheeses with Chinese, Japanese and Indian teas. At the Länggass-Tee tea shop in Be, we leaed first hand that Gruyére cheese is tough to match with teas, Japanese teas are rich in “umami” taste like cheese and Chinese Oolongs pair well with almost all Swiss cheeses. It all began on a Swiss Alp a little over 30 years ago. Fabiee E...

Embed code Thomas Amsler, who now lives in the US,first visited Corippo while hiking with his parents in the region in the 1950s. He was so enchanted that he and three architect colleagues produced a book about it in 1959. They were astounded at the amount of stone used, as he recently told swissinfo.chexteal link during a visit to Be. Hisbest known creation, perhaps, is the high control tower at Logan airportexteal link in Boston.Amsler was interested in Corippo partly due to it being the smallest municipality in Switzerland with just 13permanent residents. To prevent the v...

Around 2.2% of Bosnia and Herzegovina is still covered withmines(zVg) The barking of dogs produces such noise that it’s impossible to hear your own voice. We are at the Global Training Centre for Mine Detection Dogs in Blagovac, in rural Bosnia, about 10 kilometres north of the capital Sarajevo.+Read about the Ottawa Convention, baing landminesFourteen people are currently looking after 60 dogs on these vast premises. The dogs have names like Panzer, Amor, Luna, Irony, Jala or Brick. They are all Belgian Shepherds.“This breed is healthy, active and not as lazy as, say, a Labrador,” says Goran Šehić, the deputy programme manag...

At the end of 2016, almost 7,000 Swiss citizens were living in New Zealand. Around 1,000 of themwere over the age of 65.(Tim Graham/Getty Images) For many people who have spent their lives grinding away at a job in Switzerland, the idea of retiring at 65 and heading for an island where the cost of living is low and a Swiss pension goes far is highly appealing.But in some parts of the world, the reality is less than rosy.In New Zealand, for example, foreign retirement income is deducted from the local pension that a retiree receives.“If you’ve lived here [in New Zealand] for at least tenyears, you automatically have the right to r...

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. ...

The River Uerke in its narrow bed(Stephanie Hess) A thin red line marks the extent of the damage. Painted on the rough exterior wall of the small village shop, it shows how high the waters of the nearby River Uerke rose in the summer of 2017: 1.87 metres over the normal level.In July, the river rose so high that the village suffered the biggest flood in its history.SilenceIn the village shop, a machine to dry out the freshly poured concrete floor is humming away. There are no groceries here anymore, but a few steps further they are on offer in a white construction container. It’s an interim solution.The woman who runs the shop wi...

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