Bitesize News

The Geneva government has been blindsided by the effect of the new car tax and are now scrabbling to explain why.

The Federal Council has come down firmly on the issue of foie gras.

The Geneva luxury Fairmont Hotel on the Quai Wilson will close its doors for renovation next month. The work could last for up to three years.

The time frames are immense – but plans have been revealed on a new nuclear waste storage site, which, by law, has to be viable for a million years.

A section of the A12 autoroute running between Vevey and Châtel-St-Denis was closed over night following a multicar pile up, caused by the snow.

A young woman in Geneva has launched a search for the woman who saved her life when she was swept away by the Rhone last spring.

The political fallout of the new Geneva car tax is continuing.

The price watchdog is criticising the price of generic medicines – noting the cost in Switzerland is far more than any other European country.

Prosecutors in Bern have taken the unusual step of releasing unpixellated images of two men suspected of being involved in a brutal attack in the city last April.

The Foreign Minister, Ignazio Cassis, has pulled out of an event at the University of Fribourg after pro-Palestinian students called for a demonstration aimed at disrupting the event.

Swiss Federal Railways have unveiled the carriages of the future.

Despite voters agreeing to the move in March – some Geneva car owners are shocked at the new tax they will have to pay next year.

The Russian Permanent Mission in Geneva seems to be strengthening its electronic eavesdropping.

There’ll be a few legal changes from the 1st December.

Some right-wing politicians hope that the new Trump Whitehouse will restart talks on a free trade agreement with Switzerland.

The Swiss People’s Party is raising concern that a small Italian company is making life easy for thousands of Brazilians to obtain an Italian passport.

The Federal Meteorological Office is closing down the blog it’s been running on its website at the end of the month.

Religion is of little importance in Switzerland – and becoming more irrelevant.

French police in Thonon were placed on high alert after messages were posted on Snapchat suggesting the Jean-Jacques Rousseau School was to be attacked with bombs and threatening the principal with kidnapping.

It was supposed to be one of the biggest international e-sport tournaments in the country – but now it’s been cancelled because of a controversial abortion comment.

Switzerland has had the lowest wheat harvest for the last 25 years.

The Swiss army is planning to have its own satellite network in the next few years – the first is due to be launched in January.

Fans of the sport Padel swill have more courts they can play on in Geneva.

A Patek Phillipe watch that Yoko Ono gave to John Lennon two months before his death belongs to her. That’s a ruling from the Federal Court.

Yet another warning about a scam – this one involved the weather.

The government has decided that Swiss wine growers don’t have to follow new EU regulations on labelling information if the wine is only to be sold domestically.

Plans for a CHF 100m development in canton Valais have been unveiled.

Public opinion seems to be moving away from expanding the autoroute network.

Negotiations with France on frontalier unemployment payments are due to conclude at the end of the week.

Ten people have been arrested at Zurich airport with fake passports.

A group of holiday home owners on the Simplon pass are scuppering plans by the army to expand a firing range.

Switzerland may be under-reporting its unemployment numbers compared to the international norm.

The use of gravel in gardens could be banned across the country. Canton Solothurn has already banned them, saying gravel hinders biodiversity.

Switzerland has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for its decision to deny asylum to a gay Iranian.

Questions are being asked after a former judge in canton Graubünden has escaped jail, despite being found guilty of rape.

It’s the instruction they didn’t want to hear – the residents of Brienz in Graubünden have to leave their homes by 1pm on Sunday.

A man has been found guilty of setting a series of fires at the Lignon housing estate in Geneva and will have to undergo psychiatric treatment at a secure centre.

Lausanne police are investigating a video which has gone viral that shows an attack on a 22-year-old black man by ten others while being racially insulted.

It’s probably not what a spy agency wants – but the Federal Intelligence Agency is making headlines.

A Geneva police officer has been given an 18-month suspended prison sentence for firing his service weapon inside the police station on Boulevard Carl-Vogt while drunk.

A garbage truck driver has died in Vernier after his vehicle was hit by a second truck.

Yet again the number of people working in Geneva and living in France has climbed.

A man is in court in Geneva, accused of starting a series of fires at the Lignon housing estate.

The Health Observatory of canton Valais wanted to check the stereotype that young people in their canton drank more than the national average. The answer is yes.

Several mountain passes have now closed for the winter.

The head of the Centre Party says Switzerland should get closer to NATO after Donald Trump’s election win.

The Social Democratic Party says it has had a record number of new members in the space of three days since the election of Donald Trump.

A list of nearly 300 men who died in the First World War have been added to monument at the French Consulate in Geneva.

The village of Brienz in canton Graubünden is facing a new evacuation.

Questions are being asked about the amount of money the Federal Roads Office is spending on outside PR agencies.

An advert for an apartment in Sankt Gallen is causing a stir after it asked only for a ‘middle-aged working woman.’ All others would be rejected, it warns.

Swiss exporters are worried about the threats that President elect-Trump has made over tariffs.

A cross-border manhunt is under way after an armed man robbed a jewellery shop at the Meyrin Shopping Centre yesterday evening.

The latest figures from the Cantonal Statistics Office show that female workers in Geneva earn around 8% less than similarly qualified men.

The debate over how much money the French spend on unemployment benefits to frontalier workers is hotting up.

As the date for the next set of referendums gets closer, the two sides for and against the new footbridge to run parallel with the Mont Blanc Bridge are putting forward their arguments.

The Swiss president Viola Amherd has sent her congratulations to Donald Trump on his election success.

It will be illegal from January to cover your face in public. But the government has also allowed for many exceptions.

Vaud police are appealing for witnesses to an accident on the A1 autoroute on Tuesday afternoon just after the Coppet junction, in the Geneva direction.

If you order a kebab in Basel – you may not be getting exactly what you asked for – and be extra careful if you have an allergy.

The future of the Red Cross museum is under threat after the government says it will end its subsidy of a million francs within the next two years.

CERN has announced it will have a new head from 2026.

While it may not be obvious for those of us stuck under cloud and in the fog in Geneva – the rest of the country is experiencing highly unusual warm weather – especially in the mountains.

A major police operation in the ski resort of Verbier has led to the arrest of 15 suspected drug dealers and the confiscation of a large quantity of drugs - including 10 kilos of cocaine.

Geneva police have reissued an appeal to identify a body found in the Arve River ten years ago.

In a highly unusual move, the retail giant Migros has taken a position on an upcoming referendum.

The federal polytechnic in Zurich, the ETH, is screening students from some countries to counter the risk of espionage.

Loads of canisters of nitrous oxide- or laughing gas – have been found in the lake near Cologny.

A Geneva prison officer is now on the wrong side of the gates.

The suspect in the murder of a 19-year-old student in Paris in September will be handed over to French authorities tomorrow.

The Geneva Socialist Party has sent a proposal to the cantonal Grand Council with the aim to set up a fund to finance local media.

The city of Geneva has launched a programme to help get young people into the workforce.

Four drivers were stopped on the A40 autoroute in France near Geneva, all driving at least 50 kph over the 110 limit on Saturday night.

The Federal Councillor Albert Rösti has attracted criticism from his colleagues and raised eyebrows after he commented on the US election.

An out-of-control car leaving a Geneva Airport car park on Saturday afternoon caused major damage and injured two people.

If you’ve entered the country through the airport recently, you may have noticed several new machines in the immigration area being kept, literally, under wraps.

There are still hopes Switzerland will seal a new deal with the European Union by the end of the year - but there are still some sticking points.

A man suspected of an audacious theft from a safe deposit box in Geneva last March has been arrested in Zurich.

Police in canton Sankt Gallen are investigating several break-ins over the weekend in what’s been described as a mini-crime wave.

Hôpital de la Tour have launched their Movember campaign to raise awareness for prostate cancer and men’s health.

A disabled prisoner has been held in Geneva’s University Hospital’s prison unit for more than a year with no access to light or activities.

The Swiss army may take part in more foreign missions.

A five-car crash in canton Zurich left six injured - two of them seriously.

The Geneva Grand Council has adopted a plan which it hopes will boost people using bicycles to travel around.

The police are warning about a possible telephone scam – but are unsure what’s it’s supposed to achieve.

There’ll be major traffic disruptions this weekend in Geneva due to the 20km street races.

Residents in the threatened village of Brienz in Graubünden were allowed to visit their homes briefly yesterday.

Courtesy of the Interlaken tourist office, you can win 2 nights for two people at the Hotel Metropole in Interlaken with fantastic views of the Jungfrau.

WRS normal programming back in January