Farmers lay carcasses in front of government building in Lausanne to press for resumption of wolf cull

Farmers in Switzerland dumped the carcasses of sheep that were killed by wolves in front of a regional government building on Saturday as part of a protest to demand more action against the predators.

About a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthélemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay 12 carcasses in front of Lausanne’s Chateau Saint-Maire, the regional government headquarters, AFP reported.

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Authorities warn there could be more deaths as strong winds and heavy snowfall continues

An avalanche at the top Swiss ski resort of Zermatt has killed three people and injured one, as authorities warned of the risk of more disasters due to heavy winds and snowfall.

Video images on social media showed a wall of snow crossing an off-piste sector of the Riffelberg sector of Zermatt, one of the most luxurious ski resorts in the Alps. A major rescue operation was launched despite the bad weather.

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Bill being laid before Scottish parliament could, if approved, allow people in Britain to take their own lives within the law

UK membership of Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying association, has jumped to 1,900 people – a 24% rise during 2023 – as an assisted dying bill is laid before the Scottish parliament.

People from the UK now make up the second largest group who have signed up to the organisation, which is based near Zurich and helps people take their own lives. The largest group is currently Germans, although they can now get help to end their lives at home after a 2020 court ruling .

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Paola Marra ended her life last week in Switzerland after being told by doctors she could not be guaranteed a pain-free death from bowel cancer in the coming months. Robert Booth reports

Last week Paola Marra arrived in Zurich for the last journey she would ever make. She was in the final months of her life with stage-four bowel cancer and had an appointment with Dignitas for an assisted death. She had gone alone, partly because she wanted peace in her final moments, but also because of the legal risk to her friends or family who could be seen to be assisting her.

She spoke several times over the final days of her life to the Guardian’s social affairs editor, Robert Booth . He tells Hannah Moore about Paola’s decision to take control of her death and why she was so disappointed that she didn’t have the option to stay in the UK for it.

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Paola Marra says assisted dying is about reclaiming control and calls current UK law ‘unfair and cruel’ in the posthumous clip

Paola Marra, the 53-year-old from London who took her own life at Dignitas in Switzerland on Wednesday, has urged the public and politicians to help change the law on assisted dying in a posthumous video.

In a clip filmed before she flew to Zurich this week after suffering terminal bowel cancer since 2021, Marra said: “As you watch this, I am dead. But you watching this could help change the laws around assisted dying.”

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Police in Valais canton say emergency response is being hampered by ‘very bad’ weather conditions

Police are searching for six people who have gone missing during a ski tour that departed from the Alpine town of Zermatt in Switzerland’s Valais canton.

The skiers went missing around Tête Blanche mountain on Saturday on the Zermatt-Arolla path, near the Matterhorn mountain that straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy, police said on Sunday.

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Proposal focuses on technique that fills atmosphere with particles, reflecting part of sun’s heat and light back into space

Switzerland has initiated a global debate on whether the “risks, benefits and uncertainties” of dimming the sun should be studied by a United Nations expert group.

It is proposing that the world body should gather information about ongoing research into solar geoengineering, and set up an advisory panel that could suggest future options for the untested and controversial approach to reduce global heating, which would have implications for food supply, biodiversity, global inequality and security.

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I take risks on solo hikes, navigating animal traps and dangerous terrain. But for a woman, men are the biggest threat. I do it to be more open to the world, in the hope it will be more open to me

The path, more of a faint depression in the field I had just crossed, disappeared into a wood: yes, I could see an opening in the vegetation. The day before, I had left the official walking route of the Via Francigena , an ancient pilgrimate route from Canterbury to Rome, to stay at a B&B that was highly rated and affordable. Early next morning, after stuffing my pockets with the breakfast my hostess had set out for me, I cracked open the massive gate in the wall surrounding the little country compound and sneaked through.

The village was quiet. Not even roosters were up as I found my stride on a dirt path that would, according to Google, take me back to the route. All I had to do was follow the track that cut south through a forest that showed on the map as a fairly small green blob between me and my destination. No problem.

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Inquiry to focus on whether emergency state-backed UBS takeover breached criminal law

Switzerland’s federal prosecutor has launched an investigation into whether last month’s state-backed takeover of the stricken bank Credit Suisse by its bigger rival UBS broke Swiss criminal law.

The office of attorney general said it was looking into potential breaches by government officials, regulators and executives at the two banks who thrashed out an emergency merger over a frantic weekend in mid-March to prevent a wider financial meltdown.

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