Switzerland plans to introduce a flight passenger database from 2026 to collect and process personal data in a bid to combat terrorism and serious crime. The government has sent a related bill to parliament. Justice Minister Beat Jans told reporters on Wednesday that since the United States started collecting air passenger data after the 9/11 attacks...

The federal government intends to invest CHF16.4 billion ($18.1 billion) in railway infrastructure between 2025 and 2028, CHF2 billion more than for the current period. The larger financial envelope will go towards compensating for rising prices but also to provide more resources to the railways, the government said a press statement on Wednesday. The...

Swiss citizens will vote on a reform of occupational pension schemes and a biodiversity initiative on September 22, the Federal Council announced on Wednesday. A referendum against a reform of the so-called second pillar of the Swiss pension system, launched at the end of March 2023 by leftwing parties and unions, collected over 141,000 signatures,...

To date, 50 countries out 160 invited delegations have confirmed they will attend the Ukraine peace conference, due to be held in central Switzerland in mid-June, according to Swiss public radio, RTS. The meeting will take place on June 15 and 16 at the five-star Bürgenstock Hotel above Lake Lucerne in central Switzerland. “We are preparing intensely...

Switzerland’s top criminal court has convicted a former interior minister of the Gambia for crimes against humanity during repression by the west African country’s security forces against opponents of its longtime dictator, a legal advocacy group said Wednesday. Ousman Sonko, the Gambia’s interior minister from 2006 to 2016 under then-President Yahya...

The body of a Canadian man who had been missing since the deadly avalanche that hit the Riffelberg ski slope in Zermatt on April 1 has been found, Swiss police announced on Tuesday. His body was discovered by a member of the Valais police who was hiking in the Riffelberg ski area on May 10. A subsequent investigation revealed that it was the 30-year-old...