(swissinfo.ch) On June 23, British voters will decide on whether to leave the European Union, 43 years after joining. A British author living in Switzerland explains Brexit to a Swiss audience in a new inte ational affairs programme on Swiss public television, SRF. Each month #SRFglobal analyses and...

Experts say involving both prisoners and prison staff in research is one way to respect prisoners' autonomy (Keystone) The over-50s make up just over 10% of Switzerland’s prison inmates, and that number is set to increase with Europe’s ageing population. But are prisons equipped to meet the needs of...

Sometimes asylum seekers go underground, as they have no hope of getting official refugee status. They’re known as “sans papiers” (without papers). (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Asylum is only granted to those who face persecution or imprisonment in their country of origin for reasons of race, religion or nati...

Scene of the leak: the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama City (Keystone) A 2.6 terabyte data leak out of a law office in Panama has revealed a staggering amount of questionable banking activity around the world – including Switzerland. Of the ten financial institutions requesting the most offshore ...

A new language law was approved in Graubünden in 2007 to put Italian and Romansh on a more equal footing with German in the canton. (Keystone) If you only speak one language, and you happen to live in a multilingual country like Canada or Switzerland, Graham Fraser is the guy to have on your side. I...

Syrian refugees reflected in the Orontes River while crossing from Syria to Turkey (Keystone) The Swiss gove ment, host to talks aimed at ending the ruinous five-year Syrian conflict that has seen half the country’s population displaced, has been quietly encouraging peace on lesser known fronts thro...

In 2008, inflation in Zimbabwe was ru ing at more than 100,000% and you would have needed 25 million local dollars to buy one US dollar. Ha-Joon Chang says everyone should have an understanding of basic economic concepts such as inflation (Keystone) Are some popular votes too complicated for those o...

To help urban pla ers and architects in their choices, Geneva’s city pla ing department has been mapping the architectural landscape of the city into a miniature model of the city. After 30 years of work, it’s being shown to the public for the first time. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) With several new neighbou...

Apr 2, 2016 - 11:00Candidates and assistants, wi ers and losers, joy and despair – federal elections have it all. Ten photographers followed last year’s elections in Switzerland, catching the action in memorable images. They attended party gatherings out in the country and watched candidates in publ...

Police say affordable guns could be one of the reasons why there's a rise in gun permits (Keystone) Across Switzerland, there was a surge in people applying for gun permits in 2015. Does that mean gun crime has gone up? In some cases, yes. Switzerland is becoming safer. Police recently flagged up th...

One of the many exhibitions last year in the Käfigturm tower focused on the history of parliamentary elections in Switzerland (Keystone) A recently rejected hardline deportation initiative has once again highlighted the importance of public debates, a key element of a vibrant democracy in a complex ...

Intensive political campaigns cause to people to vote, such as the February 2016 ballot on expelling foreign criminals. Ads for the campaign were eventually ba ed from the train stations. (Keystone) In a recent study, political scientist Simon Lanz found that more Swiss people vote than was previous...

50 years ago on March 22, the Eiger mountain saw an accident that shocked the climbing world. Hear about that moment from jou alist Peter Gillman, from a German climber who survived, and from the son who lost his father, John Harlin. (Photo: John Harlin III collection) Let's block ads! (Why?)

The ministry decided to give the five therapies the benefit of the doubt (Keystone) The interior ministry has a ounced plans to give five complementary therapies including homeopathy the same status as conventional medicine. Homeopathy, holistic medicine, herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional...

Consumer surveys show that the reputation of Swiss banks has suffered in the US and UK. (Keystone) After the unravelling of its banking secrecy laws, scandal at FIFA and economic pressures dealt a further blow to the country’s reputation for stability. But Swiss officials and businesspeople are in a...

For 16th century zoologists, it was like Google's arrival. Rather than punch a keyboard, they could thumb over Conrad Gessner’s sensational work – the world’s first-ever encyclopaedia of all known animals on the planet. Gessner’s four-volume work in Latin, the ‘Historia animalium’ (History of the An...

Celebration at Sikh temple in Langenthal in canton Be (Ex-press) Political and media debates on religion in Switzerland focus mainly on Muslims and Islam. But the country also has many people of Hindu, Jewish and Sikh faith. What do they think of this imbalance? Whether the issue conce s school, the...

The 'Gnomes of Zurich' is a disparaging term for Swiss bankers, coined in 1964 by British cabinet minister George Brown. In fairy tales, gnomes are regarded as secretive and greedy, and Swiss banks – many of which are located on Paradeplatz in Zurich – have been accused more than once of secretivene...

Switzerland has a longstanding reputation for making exquisite chocolate, but which countries buy the most from the Swiss? According to the latest foreign trade figures from the Swiss Customs Administration, Switzerland exports the most chocolate to Germany. By weight, that was a delicious 21,381,46...

Solar panels are some of the most common symbols of energy efficiency, but there are other technologies being used in Swiss homes that are having a big impact on CO2 emissions. (Keystone) Household CO2 emissions in Switzerland have experts talking. Despite its growing population and the amount of sp...