Is Switzerland ready to phase out nuclear power? Experts weigh in on the November 27 nationwide vote on the country’s nuclear plants. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Banning construction of nuclear power plants and limiting the use of existing ones to 45 years: that’s what the people’s initiative from the Green ...

Flesh and bones meet machines in a bid to improve healthcare (Keystone) At the University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg 6,000 patients are waiting for a diagnosis of their rare conditions. In a good year, doctors can only diagnose 1,000 of them. A Zurich-developed artificial intelligence system it...

Rare Swiss breeds are being saved from extinction by the foundation ProSpecieRara. Every five years, animal lovers get a chance to see them up close. (Julie Hunt, swissinfo.ch)xa0 The non-profit organisation was set up in 1982 to prevent endangered species of animals, crops, fruit and vegetables fro...

In many places in Switzerland, the traditional post office is just a memory (Keystone) The Swiss Post’s announcement to close 600 traditional post offices follows a trend across Europe, although there are marked differences between countries. In detailed presentations released on Wednesday, Swiss Po...

Gruyère may be renowned for its cheese, but its double cream is also highly prized. It was presented in all its variations at the region's first festival dedicated to the dairy product.xa0 Rain didn’t deter the many foreign and local tourists who gathered at the event in the town of Gruyères. Equipp...

Assad has said that taking the city of Aleppo from rebel forces would act as a springboard to 'push terrorists back to Turkey’ (AFP) Syria's President Bashar al-Assad told Swiss public television, SRF, that fighting ‘terrorists’ in Aleppo was the only way of ‘protecting civilians’. He denied gove me...

Care work third most-chosen apprenticeship for young people in Switzerland (swissinfo.ch) Who will be crowned the best care worker in Switzerland? With a looming staff shortage in nursing homes and hospitals, a high-stakes contest is a way to attract young people to the profession.xa0 Rahel Pomaro’s...

Ambassador LeVine plans to hold talks with Swiss bankers (Keystone) Several Swiss banks have received a letter from the United States Ambassador to Be , Suzan LeVine, asking them not to shun US citizens who want to open accounts in Switzerland. Many Swiss banks have frozen out US clients, and even c...

Guterres pledged on Thursday to act as an "honest broker"and said he would take a humble approach in trying to deal with global issues (Getty Images) Switzerland has welcomed the official appointment of the new United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, although media wa ed that he had his ...

Three-quarters of the 20 states most affected by land grabbing are in Africa and Asiaxa0 (Reuters) The worrying rise in foreign investors buying up land in poor countries is set to get worse in future, taking valuable resources from local populations. A report out later this month by a Be database i...

The initiative demands the end of nuclear energy production in Switzerland by 2029 (Reuters) Banning construction of nuclear power plants and limiting to 45 years the use of existing ones: that’s what a people’s initiative from the Green Party, to be voted on in November, proposes. It has not been e...

King Bhumibol of Thailand, who reigned for seven decades, died in hospital aged 88 (Keystone) Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej has died at the age of 88, having ascended to the throne in 1946 to become the world’s longest-serving monarch. Early in his reign, he lived and worked in the Swiss city o...

In 1971, fights broke out in Geneva over the Schwarzenbach initiative, which aimed to limit the number of foreigners in Switzerland. (Keystone) Fear of an excess of foreigners and isolationism: Donald Trump’s political profile is a Swiss invention. By Michael Hermann Whenever the US election campaig...

ABB's YuMi robot can work, uncaged, alongside humansxa0 (AFP) It is hoped that robots can stem, or even reverse creeping deindustrialisation. An automated future is already becoming a reality in Switzerland. Squeezed by the strong franc some Swiss firms have been moving production to cheaper countri...

Over a century the percentage of over-65s has risen from 6% to 18% of the total population (Keystone) The Swiss population is extremely dynamic and much better educated than in the past, but it is also getting much older, new figures show. According to the results of the 2010-2014 census presented b...

In Germany people have been fighting for the introduction of a third gender (AFP) From the 1950s children bo in Switzerland with no clear biological gender were given surgery or hormones to assign them a gender. A scientific review in Zurich aims to shed more light into this dark chapter of medical ...

The idyllic communes Arth-Goldau in canton Schwyz (RDB) Nestled between deep blue Lake Zug, majestic Mount Rigi and the greenery of farmland and forests, the villages of Goldau, Oberarth and Arth in canton Schwyz look typically Swiss. Yet their citizens have a hybrid form of democracy that is almost...

Of all the multinational Swiss firms, commodity traders have been most criticised by NGOs (Keystone) Swiss companies must comply with human rights and environmental standards when they operate abroad – or be brought to account before Swiss courts. This is the demand of the Corporate Responsibility p...

Bubbling ozone gas through wastewater is one way to neutralise micropollutantsxa0–xa0a growing environmental threat.xa0 (Eawag) Are systems designed to remove micropollutants from wastewater treatment plants enough to protect lakes and rivers? That’s what the Swiss gove ment is betting on. Many of u...

Santiago Calatrava has unveiled his design for new building. It’s just a few steps away from one of his other iconic projects, Zurich’s Stadelhofen rail station. (SRF/swissinfo.ch/cp) The Spanish-Swiss architect lives between New York and Zurich. In 1990 he rebuilt Zurich’s Stadelhofen’s station, tr...