Cryptocurrencies were partly created as a challenge to fiat money issued by banks and central banks.(Keystone) Cryptocurrencies traded peer to peer rather than being settled through banks have so many uses that it is impossible to know how much demand is driven by criminality. One thing is clear: ba...

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, Swis...

... Print comment Reuse article "Together" is a portal for lea ing about life in Switzerland through quiz games, receiving local news in seven languages and asking questions that will be included in the appxa0(swissinfo.ch) “Together” is a smartphone app from swissinfo.ch and the Swiss Broadcasting ...

Exte al Content The loneliness foreigners often experience in Switzerland is like a bad neighbor: surprisingly fun to complain about and always getting in the way. Many foreigners describe Switzerland as extraordinary in terms of safety, beauty, infrastructure, healthcare, education and work-life ba...

Today, about 90% of Switzerland’s natural ponds are in the mountains, with only 5-10% on the plateau, where human activity is most intensive. Most ponds found in lowland areas are artificial.(Beat Oertli, HES) Only 12 kilometres to the east of the bustling city of Geneva at the Lullier Horticultural...

... Print comment Reuse article Mondayxa0In an interview with swissinfo.ch, Inte ational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer looks back at 2017, and dares a glimpse into 2018.xa0He weighs in on the refugee situation in the Middle East, and Europe’s role. (Keystone) xa0Tuesdayxa0...

... Print comment Embed code In the book, author Simone Müller describes how young women at the time fought bravely against the confines of Swiss society and for more vocational possibilities.When the Second World War broke out, a mass repatriation scheme took placexa0and many hundreds of thexa0wome...

The vault of a bank with client safety deposit boxes in Switzerland(Keystone) “We had a Swiss client who needed a lawyer in Tehran urgently. Within an hour, we had enlisted the help of a colleague in Dubai who was able to recommend one he knew well,” Gagnebin recalls at Rothschild’s sleek offices in...

Patient diplomacy:xa0xa0UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Misturaxa0speaks at a meeting with the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) in early December(Keystone) But we are used to it: this is the cold hard slog of covering the Syria talks. Lots of waiting, with very little outcome. The Syrians t...

The president of the Inte ational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer inspects the scene of the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrike that hit historic buildings in the old city of Sana’a, Yemen in 2015(Keystone/EPA/Yahaya Arhab) The list of trouble spots is long for the Inte ational Committee ...

Photo Gallery about the harvest and preparation of Mistletoe. In fact, the healing power of the plant was already known to doctors around the time of Hippocrates, in ancient Greece. However, it wasn't until 1917 that co-founder of anthroposophical medicine Ita Wegman first used it in Zurich as a tre...

... Print comment Reuse article (PatitucciPhoto) We called it the ‘Ho y Tour’ as it links up the Wetterho , Mittelho and Rosenho .Combining ski mountaineering with easy alpine skills, the route is never hard but quite long. In the end, we climbed 3600 meters over the course of 26km.Here, Christoph p...

Susan Tiberghien saysxa0life in Switzerland was difficult at first(Jeannie 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 hig...

The Swiss rigorously check that people have not spent more than €300 each on goods from France,(Keystone) Alte atively, you can go up an escalator, along a corridor and cross into the French sector where the same multinational car hire companies will offer you a different deal.Swiss regulations insi...

... Print comment Embed code (To view video subtitles in English, click on the gear icon and tu captions "on").The comedy premiered in January at the Max Ophüls Prize film festival, where it received the Audience Award. The festival, held in Saarbrücken, Germany, has been running for 39 years, with ...

Embed code Thomas Amsler, who now lives in the US,xa0first 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 swiss...

... Print comment Reuse article Students sit together in the main building of thexa0University of Zurich(Keystone/Gaetan Bally) At the end of November, the Federal Statistical Office published its latest survey on the social and economic situation of studentsexte al link – a study carried out four t...

... Print comment xa0See in other languages: 7 See in other languages: 7 xa0Languages: 7 Embed code Organic and fair trade products are booming. However, sales figures don't tellxa0the whole story. When people decide to buy something out of conviction, shopping can become a form of political partici...

Gun fans check out new weapons at a stand at the 24thxa0Inte ational Gun Fair in Lausanne(swissinfo.ch) Christian Richert leans forward on a red counter bedecked with rows of gleaming hand guns. Behind him semi-automatic and antique rifles hang from the walls of his busy stand at 24th Inte ational G...

Swiss parliamentarian Isabelle Chevalley at thexa0Mbeubeuss waste dump in the Senegalese capital Dakar(Courtesy of Isabelle Chevalley) She believes helping Africans to recycle waste, create jobs and clean up the environment can help African countries lea from the mistakes of the West and “go faster”...