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Children line up at the Swiss school in Mexico ahead of a ministerial visit in 2018(educationsuisse) Is ...

(Reuters / Wikimedia / Keystone ) A decade ago, a majority of Swiss voters backed a people’s initiative ...

The entrance of the Palais des Nations, the UN's European headquarters in Geneva(United Nations Photo) ...

A motorway underpass means the gutting of this district in Zurich and the loss of more affordable apartments.(© Keystone / Gaetan Bally)...

Women candidates from the Green Party celebrate their victories(Keystone / Eddy Risch) From massive shifts in party pow...

Meat may be a delicious staple for most Swiss but it is not so good for the climate.(Keystone) The latest UN climate re...

A 'drone marshal' in action during a race by Lake Zurich in October 2018(Keystone) Francesco Bortoluzzi of the swi...

Encrypted digital tokens, representing ownership rights to underlying securities, are being tipped to transform financial trading. (KEYSTONE/STEFFEN SCHMIDT) The Swiss stock exchange is just one...

Orphans eatlunchin Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.More than four million children have lost at least one parent in Congo over the past two decades(Keystone) The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has boycotted a United Nations conference in Geneva that reaped hundreds of millions of dollars to help...

Battle of the polygons - a rectangular Swiss flag flies in Austria during a state visit.(swissinfo.ch) When the Swiss athletes march into the Olympic stadium in PyeongChang, South Korea, for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games, they will wave a rectangular flag – proportions of 2:3 – in keeping with the other nations.This is one of the exceptions when the Swiss flag is not square. This was decreed by the Lausae-based Inteational Olympic Committeeexteal link (IOC), which manufactures all nations’ flags. “The IOC decided, begiing with the Athens Games in 2004, that all flags would have the same rectangular format,” writes a spoke...

The 46th edition of the ‘Prix de Lausae’ Inteational Ballet Competition kicked off on Monday. This year, 74 young dancers from 16 countries are participating in the prestigious competition. The final will be held on February 3.In this year’s edition, there are no Swiss participants. However, two Swiss-based candidates,a Japanese and a Belgian, bothfromthe Ballet School Theatre inBasel, aretaking part.An abundance of Asian dancers characterises the competition. Some 19 South Koreans, 10 Chinese, and 9 Japanese account for half of the overall participants.Paths to becoming a professional ballet dancer in Asia are not plentiful. So, many young dancers from the region come to the Lausae competit...

Hundreds of Christians protested in Delhi when a Catholic church was set on fire in 2014 just after the BJP party came to power(Keystone) Christian charities supported by foreign donors, including Swiss ones, are finding it increasingly difficult to operate in India due to administrative hurdles. They allege selective implementation of regulations and blame this on the rise of Hindu fundamentalism.“It is unfortunate, these days fundamentalism is growing in the country with our govement itself supporting the ‘Hindutva’ agenda of the communal forces,” said Indian bishop Robert Miranda in his speech(PDF) in the Swiss city of Fribourg in Oct...

A demonstrator calls for the child protection authorities to be stripped of their powers following the case of a mother who killed her two children to stop them being retued to care. She later killed herself in jail.(Eio Leanza/KEYSTONE) Child protection authorities are among the most unpopularinstitutions in Switzerland, even after recent reforms. Why the backlash?Overshadowed by the dark past of so-called "slave children", Swiss child protective services were subject tosweeping changes in 2013. But their reputation has continued to suffer after a series of incidents, notably a mother who killed her two children to stop them from being ...

The mounting threat of autonomous weapons systems and cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are the issues keeping ICRC President Peter Maurer up at night. He addressed both subjects at the World Economic Forum’s aual meeting in Davos. Speaking to swissinfo.ch, Maurer said he is worried about the apparent lack of control of cyberspace which has potential to claim many lives and throw communities into chaos. He calls for inteational consensus on the control of autonomous weapons systems. Leaving aside missile firing drones or robot warriors on the battlefield, Maurer is also conceed by the number of hacks, or attempted hacks, on infrastructure around the world - specifically the consequence...

Avalanche observers lea how to check the profile of the snowpackto see how it has changed over the winter and look for weak layers (swissinfo.ch) It may seem quite a leap from studying snowflakes with a magnifying glass to forecasting one of the greatest natural threats in the Alps, but the step is part of how Switzerland manages avalanches. The approach could soon win coveted Unesco cultural heritage status. “What happens to fresh snow when it lands?” asks Gian Darms, an instructor at the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF)exteal link in Davos. Knee-deep in powder, his pupils stare blankly at each other. Whirring chairlifts can be heard in the distance. “The arms of the c...

The cross-border Portes du Soleil ski region is a bargain for skiers looking for variety. (© KEYSTONE / JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT) Where in the Swiss Alps do you get access to the most ski slopes for your money? We crunched the numbers and found there’s a reason you’re asked to pay more at Adelboden than Airolo, or at Zermatt than Zuoz. Our graphic shows the inteational resort of Zermatt exteal linkrivalled in price by only a handful of other ski areas at CHF79 ($81) a day, while a pass at Zuoz exteal linkcosts only CHF56. However, the additional CHF23 in Zermatt buys you access to 360km of groomed pistes, compared to only 15km in Zuoz. At the lower end of the scale are stations where you c...

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 ...

Mike Müller in the role of mayor at a town hall meeting(André Albrecht) A few times a year, the locals of some small and medium-sized Swiss communities get together to discuss the community’s budget, the aual accounts, tax rates, a new school building or anything else that’s going on. The discussions are often heated, and afterwards the people cast their votes by raising their hands.+ How can communities improve the appeal of town hall meetings?Four-fifths of Switzerland’s communities still have this tool of direct democracy which forms the legislative arm instead of having a parliament.In his comedy “Town Hall Meetings Today”, Müll...

Embed code The production of artificial snow uses a lot of natural resources and energy.Some ski resorts have been using a different technique to try and make artificial snow production more efficient in terms of both natural resources, and money.Gstaad, for example, is now using a snow depth measuring system. Every time a snow groomer (the truck that prepares the pistes)drives over the snowy surface, the depth of snow is measured, and the data sent back to a database.Drivers can see theinformation on the spread of snow on screens inside their cabins, and can react, based on...

In the view of the crypto community, consumer power will force the traditional banking system to accept a transition to decentralised currencies.(Keystone) However, they are likely to run into quite some resistance from the traditional financial players in Switzerland.The likes of SCX Exchange, Swissborg, Smart Valor, Melonport, Lykke and Crypto Finance appear to be timing their arrival to catch a wave that has propelled bitcoin through the $10,000 (CHF9,900) and $15,000 barriers in a matter of days.They will join the “old” guard, Bitcoin Suisse and Bity, which have been servicing the Swiss crypto market for the past four years. The...