GENEVA (Reuters) – A French artist has painted a large biodegradable fresco on the lawn of the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva, marking Friday’s 75th anniversary of its founding. Saype, who was born Guillaume Legros, created the “World In Progr... More »
WALENSTADT, Switzerland (Reuters) – Two Swiss conceptual artists are offering seven open air “hotel rooms” this summer across a “performance space” encompassing eastern Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Guests “perform”, without an audience, by spending the night... More »
BERN (Reuters) – Environmental activists delivered a petition to a special session of the Swiss parliament on Monday demanding that a government aid package should promote a “green recovery” from the coronavirus crisis. With some lawmakers wearing protective f... More »
CHAMBLON, Switzerland (Reuters) – In the battle against coronavirus, Swiss soldiers are using smartphones to test a new contact tracing application that could prevent infections while also protecting users’ privacy. Switzerland hopes to launch the app on May 1... More »
GLAND, Switzerland (Reuters) – Street artist David Perez has found his own way to pay tribute in Switzerland to the people he regards as the unsung heroes of the coronavirus crisis. Perez, 35, has adorned a pedestrian underpass in the town of Gland with a port... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland faces a shortage of the raw material needed to make disinfectant to tackle the coronavirus pandemic after the country abandoned its emergency reserve of 10,000 tonnes of ethanol two years ago, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported on... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss government on Friday boosted its powers to order companies to raise production of critical medical supplies like drugs and protective gear should more be needed in the fight against coronavirus-caused COVID-19. “If the supply…canno... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – The Swiss government has filed a criminal complaint over the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s alleged use of a cryptography company as a front to spy on various governments’ secret communications, the Swiss attorney general’s office said o... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss National Bank appeared to remain on the sidelines as the Swiss franc surged to its highest level in nearly three years on Monday, driven by concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. The franc fell to 1.069 versus the euro EURCH... More »
MARTIGNY, Switzerland (Reuters) – Christoph Blocher’s vast collection of works by Switzerland’s master painters is a fitting accompaniment to the 79-year-old billionaire’s decades at the vanguard of right-wing Swiss politics. A 127-piece sample from his privat... More »
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Switzerland’s supreme court on Friday voted in favor of handing over historical data on over 40,000 UBS clients to French authorities in a landmark ruling. Three of the five judges voted in favor of overthrowing the lower cour... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland’s highest court has rejected Italy’s request for the return of an oil painting attributed by some to Leonardo Da Vinci, ruling no Swiss laws were broken when the work was brought over the border. Titled “Portrait of Isabella d’Es... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland on Wednesday announced plans to abolish the nation’s emergency stockpile of coffee, in place for decades, after declaring the beans not vital for human survival, though opposition to the proposal is brewing. Nestle, the maker of ... More »
BURGDORF, Switzerland (Reuters) – Exposing cheese to round-the-clock music could give it more flavor and hip hop might be better than Mozart, Swiss researchers said on Thursday. Nine wheels of Emmental cheese weighing 10 kilos (22 pounds) each were placed in s... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt have paid a relatively modest 380 million Swiss francs ($379 million) for fifth-generation wireless frequencies that will tighten their grip on the Swiss mobile market. The three were able to secure an attractively... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – A Swiss museum will retain ownership of a Paul Cezanne painting in a Nazi-era collection after agreeing to exhibit the work regularly at a museum in the French artist’s hometown of Aix-en-Provence, the artist’s heirs said on Tuesday. La Mont... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Helicopters airlifted about 400 people off the Swiss mountain featured in the 1969 James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” on Thursday after a cable car broke down, stranding them briefly at about 10,000 feet above sea level. The ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Switzerland’s banking and monetary system is facing the possibility of a huge shake-up, and while the possibility looks remote, investors are buying up insurance against swings in the franc and the shares of the biggest Swiss lenders. Swiss ... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss firefighters said on Monday that the impact in a fatal accident involving a Tesla electric car may have set off a fire in the vehicle’s battery. A 48-year-German driver died when his car hit the barrier in the central reservation of a ... More »
FILE PHOTO: Cryptocurrencies are seen on a website that tracks the value of initial coin offerings (ICO) in this illustration. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration/File Photo ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland’s financial watchdog will regulate some digital currency ... More »
(This February 1 story has been refiled to fix typo in 13th paragraph) By John Revill and Michael Shields ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss private bank PKB Privatbank SA Lugano committed serious breaches of money laundering regulations in business linked to Brazilian ... More »
FILE PHOTO: Girls sit on a bench on the banks of the Rhine River, in front of the old town of the northern Swiss city of Basel, March 28, 2008. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland is again at the center of a dispute over a Nazi-era ... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland has banned the common culinary practice of throwing fresh lobsters into boiling water as part of an overhaul of its animal protection rules. “Live crustaceans, including the lobster, may no longer be transported on ice or in ice ... More »
Swiss prosecutors have dropped an investigation of film director Roman Polanski after finding the statute of limitations did not allow pursuing allegations by a former German actress and model that he raped her in 1972 when she was 15 years old. More »
Some 150 art works from a massive trove amassed by a German collector during the Nazi era went on public display for the first time on Wednesday in the Swiss capital, amid lingering questions about the origins of the collection. More »
A seven-year-old girl who ran away from her parents managed to take a train to Geneva airport and board a plane despite having no ticket. More »
While London's sewers can get clogged with fatbergs made up of grease and diapers, it seems Switzerland's waste system is flecked with silver and gold. More »
A former German actress and model has told Swiss authorities that film director Roman Polanski raped her at his mountain chalet in 1972 when she was 15 years old, local prosecutors said on Wednesday. More »
Ai Wei-Wei denounced China's crackdown on lawyers and free speech on Wednesday but saw little hope that the upcoming Communist Party Congress would lead to more freedoms. More »
Geneva prosecutors are investigating after toilets in a bank and three restaurants were blocked by about $100,000 in high-denomination euro banknotes, they said on Monday. More »
Some 60 to 70 Swiss private banks are facing serious problems that could force them to close down or sell up, according to a study published on Thursday by consultancy KPMG. More »
A man uses his mobile phone as he takes a picture of the painting ‘Maschka’ by late German artist Otto Mueller during a news conference, after the arrival of the first artworks from the Dossier Gurlitt, at the Kunstmuseum Bern art museum in Bern, Switzerland J... More »
The man who served as interior minister under ousted Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh could face charges of crimes against humanity, Swiss authorities said on Monday, after a legal group filed a criminal complaint against him. More »
A Swiss flag is pictured in front of the Federal Palace (Bundeshaus) is pictured in Bern, Switzerland, January 16, 2017. Picture taken on January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse U.S. medical implant maker Zimmer Biomet’s (ZBH.N) decision on a potential $40 m... More »
Switzerland’s attorney general has halted an investigation into suspected political espionage at a Geneva hotel, which was opened a month after talks on Iran’s nuclear plans took place. More »
Firefighters attempt to extinguish flames from a fire in a building in Lausanne, Switzerland September 26, 2009. REUTERS/Valentin Flauraud/File Photo Switzerland is easing an alcohol ban for volunteer firefighters and other emergency workers using heavy vehicl... More »
Switzerland’s financial watchdog FINMA has sanctioned Falcon Private Bank Ltd after it “seriously breached” money-laundering regulations over its handling of funds linked to scandal-hit Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB, FINMA said on Tuesday. More »
Switzerland’s banks shed just over 1,000 jobs last year with the pace of staff cuts accelerating in the first half of 2016, although the outlook for the rest of the year was “stable”, the country’s banking lobby said on Thursday. More »
ZURICH A rich trove of drawings by Alberto Giacometti and photographs of the renowned sculptor and artist has been lying in sealed storage cartons in a Swiss museum for more than two years due to a legal dispute over their rightful ownership. Swiss prosecutors... More »
BERN/GENEVA Banking watchdogs across Europe have begun checking whether lenders have ties to a massive document leak from Panama that showed how offshore companies are used to stash clients’ wealth. Switzerland’s financial watchdog FINMA said on Thursday that ... More »
ZURICH Authorities searched the offices of France’s soccer federation and seized documents in support of a Swiss investigation into former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said on Wednesday. The operation, carried... More »
ZURICH A 15-year-old Swiss boy who five years ago turned in a 1,000-Swiss franc ($1,012) banknote that he had found in the street can celebrate a merry Christmas after no one claimed the money. “He was very happy. At 15, you know what to do with 1,000 francs,”... More »
ZURICH The Swiss National Bank should make more efforts to protect Switzerland’s economy from the impact of an overvalued franc, economists told several Swiss newspapers. The SNB abandoned its cap on the franc in January and is instead using negative interest ... More »
ZURICH The anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s national parliamentary election, keeping pressure on Bern to introduce quotas on people moving from the European Union. Success for the SVP, coupled with gains... More »
ZURICH The Swiss competition regulator has opened an investigation into possible collusion in the precious metals market by several major banks, it said on Monday, the latest in a string of manipulation probes. Switzerland’s WEKO watchdog said its investigatio... More »
GENEVA The remains of two young Japanese climbers missing on the Matterhorn mountain since a 1970 snow storm in the Swiss Alps have been identified through DNA testing of their relatives, police said on Thursday. Human bones spotted by a climber last September... More »
ZURICH Tunisia has filed an objection to HSBC’s agreement to pay 40 million Swiss francs ($43 million) to settle a money laundering investigation at its Swiss private bank, a lawyer representing the North African country said on Monday. After four months of in... More »
ZURICH Greece has proposed a tax amnesty in an effort to collect revenue on billions of euros that its citizens are believed to have quietly stashed in Swiss bank accounts, the NZZ am Sonntag paper reported. The plan, which still needs Greek parliamentary appr... More »
ZURICH Tunisia has filed an objection to HSBC’s agreement to pay 40 million Swiss francs ($42.5 million) to settle a money laundering investigation at its Swiss private bank, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday. After four months of inquiries Ge... More »
