A free-trade agreement between Switzerland and Serbia will soon go into effect. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, said today the agreement will be effective October first, reducing tariffs on industrial and processed agricultural goods.

Switzerland is Serbia’s second largest trading partner outside of the EU, sending more than 200-million francs worth of goods to Serbia in 2009.

Doctors in the canton of Bern are in the midst of a campaign against hospital working conditions, which they say make family life and work life incompatible.

Doctors across the canton have taken to the streets in recent weeks to share their views, even producing a shortfilm entitled Doctors with Borders. There is also a faux newspaper insert in the free newspaper ’20 minutes’ from the doctors.

They say a doctor at a modern hospital in Bern works 62 hours per week. The doctors are circulating a petition urging more funding for hospital personnel.

A ride on the tram or bus in Geneva will cost you more in December. Fares will rise 50 centimes to CHF 3.50.

The cantonal government made the announcement yesterday. Left-wing parties are opposed.

Fribourg is rallying to save the Cardinal brewery.

On Monday, Feldschlossen said it was cutting production and closing the plant.

One local group wants to try to buy the site to keep making beer at the landmark brewery.

A facebook group now has nearly 15-thousand members.

That’s more than the 10-thousand or so Friburgers who took to the streets in 1996 when the brewery was last threatened with closure.

Schaffhausen’s lights will be burning a little bit less brightly. Officials  will start turning off street lights—about one out of every two.

They say they’ll do it when the clock strikes half past midnight and public safety won’t be harmed. The city says the savings should total 70,000 kilowatt hours, or CHF 11,000.

The Swiss Federal Railways says sales for annual passes are up 6 percent in the first half of the year. That’s in line with growing passenger and profit figures. But the railways says it is not enough to finance future infrastructure projects.

The yearly pass is a good deal for regular commuters. If you use it every day between Bern and Zurich, it pays for itself by February.

But the federal railways says a good deal for passengers is a raw deal for them. Director Andreas Meyers told reporters that transport costs about 16 cents a kilometer. However, a general pass brings in just ten cents a kilometer.

Passes are scheduled to go up next year from CHF 3,100  to CHF 3,300 for second class.

Meyer wouldn’t say what he thinks the pass should actually cost. But he did say other types of rail passes might have to be created.

Zurich media giant Tamedia saw a positive first half of the year but not necessarily because of a boon in the newspaper industry. The owner of the Tagesanzeiger, Bund, and Basler Newspapers increased its profits to a little more than 48 million francs, from 9 million a year before.

Sales for Tamedia increased by 2.4 percent, but the increase is likely due to the group’s acquisition of a search engine and two small Zurich papers as well as cost cutting measures.

The government may have gotten a windfall this year but the Federal Council is not letting up on its austerity program.

Ministers approved budget cuts of CHF1.6 billion for the years 2012 and 2013.

Items on the chopping block include funding for some regional train and bus lines and possibly even some embassies and consulates.

That package of cuts goes to parliament.

The Swiss People’s Party says it’s going to try to get a seat on the federal council in elections next month. Parliament has to elect replacements for Hans-Rudolf Merz and Moritz Leuenberger.

It’s widely expected that those two seats will stay with the center-right Liberal party and the left-wing Social democrats.

But the Swiss People’s Party says it will propose businessman and Fribourg MP Jean-François Rime. It says as the country’s largest party it deserves another seat in the seven-member government.

It ejected justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf from the party in 2008, and since then has had only one minister.

Jura’s police chief has been suspended by the canton’s government.

This after prosecutors opened an investigation against Henri-Joseph Theubet for allgedly abusing his authority.

Over the past year press has been rife with tales of the chief demanding quotas for traffic tickets and harassing subordinates.

Theubet’s been on medical leave since Friday.