Switzerland has the highest proportion of cremations in Europe, and they have tripled over the past thirty years. (RTS/swissinfo.ch) In 1983, 30% of all deceased were incinerated. By 2013, the figure had risen to 90%. The number of cremations is higher in cities than the countryside. Even in Catholi...

Demonstrators, some dressed as robots, campaign for the basic income in Zurich (Keystone) As anxiety grows about technological disruption, the idea of a guaranteed basic income is being embraced by union leaders, libertarians and Silicon Valley executives. Is this the future of welfare? Switzerland’...

Switzerland will likely join the EU in granting visa-free access to Turkish citizens as part of a controversial agreement on migration with Turkey. But travellers from many other countries need a visa to enter the Alpine nation. swissinfo.ch took a closer look at how Switzerland divides up the world...

Switzerland has the highest proportion of cremations in Europe, and they have tripled over the past thirty years. (RTS/swissinfo.ch) In 1983, 30% of all deceased were incinerated. By 2013, the figure had risen to 90%. The number of cremations is higher in cities than the countryside. Even in Catholi...

The cartoon of the week is a new series at swissinfo.ch. Cartoonist Marina Lutz has worked with different Swiss media as a caricaturist, including the Nebelspalter satirical magazine. Lutz has won several awards for her work, notably during the Fumetto inte ational cartoon festival.xa0Click through ...

M-Pesa has proved a big hit in Kenya, but there is still plenty of scope for expansion (Bloomberg) Will a financial revolution follow the Jasmine uprising in Tunisia? A Swiss start-up, Monetas, is proposing just that, saying a new mobile phone payment technology will transform people’s lives there. ...

Byron visited the Château de Chillon in 1816 but historians remain divided over the authenticity of his signature in the dungeon (Château de Chillon) Two hundred years ago, the great British poet Lord Byron retreated to Switzerland with fellow Romantics for what would become an exceptionally creativ...

Ten days ago promoters of a proposal to introduce an unconditional basic income revealed the world's biggest poster. But support for the initiative is not big enough for a victory on June 5 (swissinfo.ch) The final opinion poll ahead of a nationwide vote on June 5 has found an overwhelming majority ...

Many foreign workers can claim unemployment benefits in their home countries during winter breaks. In order to comply with the free movement of people regulation, Switzerland has to pay for the costs. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Last year Switzerland paid unemployment benefits for 27,000 people living abroad...

BSI failed to clean up its act despite multiple wa ings from the Singapore and Swiss regulators (Keystone) On Wednesday, the Swiss financial regulator effectively ordered the liquidation of Lugano-based BSI private bank following “serious breaches of money laundering regulation”. This is by far the ...

(Keystone) As voters prepare to vote on reforms to Switzerland’s asylum law on June 5, the conservative right Swiss People’s Party has insisted that most applicants arriving in the country are not fleeing for their lives. In an interview with swissinfo.ch, Albert Rösti, a member of parliament and th...

The countries of the world represented at the United Nations in Genevaxa0 (United Nations) “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education,” American author Mark Twain once declared. While lea ing about politics, I’ve rarely had that problem. In Switzerland, my exposure to a distinctly Am...

It's all downhill to Wengen, for skiers competing in classic Lauberho race (Keystone) When it comes to Brexit, there’s probably no better place to gauge the views of Switzerland’s faithful British contingent than Wengen. The village is home to one of world’s oldest alpine ski clubs, the Downhill Onl...

According to the Swiss Transport minister Doris Leuthard, no other country in the world has public services as good as the ones in Switzerland. swissinfo.ch did some fact checking. “We have the best public services in the world. With the Swiss Railways or the Post buses you can reach even the most r...

An ICRC humanitarian convoy delivering aid to the residents of a suburb of Damascus held by rebels and under siege from gove ment forces since 2013xa0 The Geneva Conventions form the heart of Inte ational Humanitarian Law (IHL), which is supposed to protect non-combatants in time of war. Yet not onl...

Looking to the future - the Tonhalle needs renovation work (Keystone) What does a world-class orchestra do when its concert building urgently needs renovation, but the project needs public approval? It takes its music to the people to show them why they should vote yes to the project. That’s what th...

Airbnb should be accepted for what it is: an online platform that has simplified the entire travel business. (Keystone) Airbnb could have the answer to the woes besetting the Swiss tourist industry – that is, if anyone is willing to listen instead of seeing the booking platform as unfair competition...

There’s more trouble for Switzerland’s struggling tourism sector. New visa requirements are discouraging the Chinese from travelling to Europe. swissinfo.ch’s Chinese service reports on the challenges for the Swiss tourist industry. Chinese tourists enjoy the view from the Pilatus near Luce e (Keyst...

Here are the stories we'll be following the week of May 21, 2016. (Pedro Szekely via Flickr Creative Commons) Monday – Tuesday Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter heads to Istanbul for the World Humanitarian Summit - talks on how to address the Syrian refugee crisis and improve humanitarian aid. He’l...

An improv theatre troupe for scientists called The Catalyst is exploring – and exploding – the grey area between fiction and non-fiction. Let's block ads! (Why?)