The Federal Council is launching a new programme to address poverty in Switzerland

The National Program for the Prevention of Poverty launches next year after it was found 10 percent of people lived in poverty in the country in 2010.

The focus of the initiative is on improving educational standards of young people to ensure future entry into the job market.

Support will also be available for people who find it difficult to work because of their personal circumstances.

The project will run until 2018 at both federal and cantonal level and has been welcomed by most experts.

However, the Federation of Trade Unions was skeptical about the project’s 9 million franc budget.

The head of Swiss International Air Lines has warned that there may be layoffs ahead.

Harry Hohmeister says that it’s already expensive for Swiss to operate out of Zurich airport and if the airport raises its taxes any more, Swiss would need to think about “all the possible unpleasant consequences such as loss of jobs”.

He says authorities need to take into account that the airline’s average revenue per passenger has dropped by 30 percent since 2008.

Hohmeister added that Vienna, Frankfurt or Munich might make viable alternatives for the airline to based out of.

The Federal Council says the housing shortage in Switzerland isn’t a serious problem.

That’s according to a recent debate which found that there is sufficient good quality housing available.

However, it did recognize that in hotspots such as in Zurich and around Lake Geneva it was tougher to find suitable accommodation.

Changing expectations of house hunters and rising divorce statistics were given as reasons.

The Federal Council has agreed to make loans available for construction firms to buy land for build new social housing but won’t introduce any major new legislation.

Balthasar Glettli from the Zurich Tenant’s association called the new measures a placebo: “There needs to be new regulations written into tenancy laws to counter the price explosion. But the Federal Council showed no willingness to address that. The long-term plan to invest more in social housing is correct – what isn’t clear is the timeframe.”

A pear-shaped diamond—the largest ever offered at auction—has sold for a record 25.9 million francs at Christie’s in Geneva.

The 101.73 carat diamond was bought by jewellery and watch firm Harry Winston.
 
The auction took in a record total of $102 million for 257 lots, showing that the appetite for gems remains undiminished.
 
On Tuesday, a set of diamond and natural pearl earrings belonging to Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida sold for $2.37 million at rival auctioneer Sotheby’s, another auction record.

The Federal Council’s plan to lift the ban on genetically modified organisms is being met with strong resistance.

The consultation period on the proposal to allow GMOs to be used in crops as of 2018 has just ended.

It’s being opposed by farmers and left-leaning political groups.

The Social Democrats say there’s not sufficient protection to guarantee that the GMO crops won’t accidentally taint traditional crops.

The Christian Democrats say they doubt the economic and social benefits and want a cost-benefit analysis.

The Greens have threatened to launch a referendum should it go into effect.

The number of businesses declaring bankruptcy is on the rise.

After a slight drop in 2011, the number was up last year.

More than 12,000 businesses went bankrupt last year. 

According to the Federal Office for Statistics, that was an 8.5 percent increase from the previous year.

There was wide variation among the cantons.

The biggest increases in corporate bankruptcies were in Zurich, with a 20 percent jump and the Lake Geneva region, with an increase of 15 percent.

Ticino fared best with 6 percent fewer bankruptcies last year.

A Yemeni militia group says it’s secured the release of the three International Committee of the Red Cross workers kidnapped on Monday by another tribal group.

The local commander of the militia group says the kidnappers—a tribe of Marakicha—released a Swiss, a Kenyan and a Yemeni after tribal mediation. 

The ICRC says it is not yet able to confirm the claims.

The group also says that two Egyptians working for a Yemeni cement plant, who were kidnapped last week, have also been released.

The kidnappers were demanding the release of one of their members who’s been detained by authorities.

Swiss politicians scored poorly in a league table to establish which jobs people have the most confidence in.

The Reader’s Digest study “European Trusted Brands 2013” surveyed 18,000 citizens in 12 EU countries.

In Switzerland, firefighters topped the league with a 92 percent approval rating followed by nurses and pilots.

However, languishing at the bottom of the table were footballers, car salesman and politicians.

Swiss politicians were trusted by only 19 percent of those surveyed.

A five-year project spearheaded by the Federal Social Insurance Office has delivered interim results.

Project workers and experts met to exchange information as the “Youth and Violence” project reaches its halfway stage.

They found that repressive methods such as policing and CCTV surveillance don’t work as well as direct communication with young people.

Statistics also show that while violence in schools has been in decline since 2010, incidents have instead shifted into the public sphere.

The project, run by the Department of Youth Protection in Bern, is a collaboration between the Federal Council, cantonal authorities and local councils.

The man who’s confessed to kidnapping and killing a 19-year-old woman this week has led police to her body.

Police say the body that was discovered overnight in a forest near Payerne is “almost certainly that of Marie.”

She was abducted on Monday night. Last night police arrested a 36-year-old man who had previously spent 13 years in prison for raping and murdering a former girlfriend.

The man was under house arrest and was ordered to wear an electronic bracelet which he had removed.

The man’s confessed to killing Marie and led police to her body, but isn’t giving police any more details.

New statistics show that residents with a migrant background are often overqualified for the jobs they do.

The Federal Office for Statistics found that last year 16.6 percent of people with a migration background did not have employment suitable to their qualifications.

In contrast only 9.6 percent of Swiss nationals were overqualified.

Language skills also doesn’t play a role in finding better employment.

In 2010 almost 27 percent of second generation immigrants could speak two of Switzerland’s four national languages and 6,3 percent had proficiency in three.

People with a migration background were also found to be three times more likely to be unemployed than Swiss nationals.

A report shows that the majority of zebra crossings in the canton of Bern are safe for pedestrians.

The study, carried out by the cantonal Construction, Traffic and Energy Authority, found that 80 percent of the 3,100 crossings in the region were in good order.

It did however also highlight where work has to be done.This includes improvements to street lighting and widening of traffic islands.

As it could take quote “a few years” until upgrade work is carried out, cantonal authorities are calling on motorists to drive with increased caution.

The report was commissioned in 2011 after a spate of accidents happened on zebra crossings across the country.

Working as a police officer in the canton of Solothurn will continue to be possible only for Swiss nationals.

Proposals to relax the regulation were met with controversy during talks to implement changes to laws regarding police powers in the canton.

The local government said in a letter to the Cantonal Council that the idea had been shelved as no majority for it was reached.

Current regulations requiring applicants to be Swiss for police training school remain in force.

Police Chief Thomas Zuber thinks the decision was reached by fair means: “It would be wrong to pick out individual participants and say what their objections were. In the end it was decided to restrict access to police training schools to Swiss citizens. But in the end you had to say, the issue was opened up to public debate, it was properly evaluated and this was the conclusion that was reached.”

Objectors who refused to carry out military service are demanding a formal apology after their lives were made a misery.

The group, led by Piet Dörflinger, claim thousands were socially ostracized or imprisoned for refusing to carry out military service.

The incidents all predate 1996, when the alternative civil service was introduced.

Those affected are now demanding what they call “moral reparations” from the Federal Council.

However, not everyone is taking their claims seriously.

Swiss People’s Party MP Thomas Hurter sees no reason for a formal apology: “If mistakes were made, they can be corrected if they haven’t been already. I see absolutely no reason for any additional special treatment now.”

The Federal Council countered that if any suffering took place, it was a case for district courts and not grounds for “political rehabilitation”.

Prisoners escaped this morning from the Bois-Mermet prison in the canton of Vaud.

The escape happened at 10:20 a.m.

Police haven’t said how many prisoners were involved in the break but think they had help from the outside.

The unnamed prisoners, who were on remand, escaped during a walk on a nearby football pitch.

Several police divisions are working on the case.