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A new counter-terrorism treaty between Switzerland and the United States is expected to come into force this autumn, according to a senior Swiss diplomat. State Secretary Michael Ambühl made the announcement after two days of talks in Washington on issues such as terrorism, the future status of Kosovo and the Middle East. Ambühl said the new Operative Working Arrangement (OWA), which has been approved by both chambers of the Swiss parliament, would replace an existing treaty in force since 2002. The agreement follows a decision by the Swiss government two years ago to put its cooperation with the US authorities...

ZURICH, Switzerland, July 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Swiss assisted-suicide group Dignitas has been evicted from its operation site in a suburban area due to growing complaints from neighbors.For nine years the assisted-suicide clinic at Gertrudstrasse 84 received people who wanted to kill themselves, Spiegel News reports. The organization took up two apartments of the apartment block; but recently the owner cancelled their lease because residents were horrified by the stream of body bags that were carried out on the elevator and are frustrated by the police and ambulances that constantly come to the door. The landlady has given Dignitas...

Switzerland is preparing for a lively debate this summer over its long-standing tradition of keeping army guns and ammunition at home. Opposition to its guns-at-home culture seems to have gained momentum and critics are launching a people's initiative on the issue. Attitudes towards firearms may be changing in Switzerland, which is well known for its militia army, strong traditions and liberal gun laws. A recent survey found that two out of three Swiss want to ban army weapons from private households. Centre-left political parties and pacifist groups are hoping to build on these signs of public disapproval to force a...

Switzerland has opened the world's longest rail tunnel on land - the 34-kilometre (21-mile) Loetschberg tunnel under the Alps. It will cut the journey time between Germany and Italy by at least a third.

The non-governmental organisation Handicap International has criticised Switzerland's position on cluster bombs, as a key conference on the issue gets underway. It said Switzerland had adopted an "ambiguous" standpoint by supporting a partial moratorium on cluster bombs, and called on the country to implement a full ban. The three-day conference in Peru, which starts on Wednesday, is aimed at broadening support for an international declaration banning cluster munitions by 2008. This was initiated by 46 nations in February in Norway. Switzerland was among those to sign up and it is expected to send a delegation to the Peruvian capital, Lima....

What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein. According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back. ...

How about telling us all your age, gender and location. Also, if you want, who you like in the upcoming presidential primary.

Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy:Rey has held informal discussions with Iran's national security chief Ali Larijani over his country's atomic programme. But no details concerning the talks in the capital Bern or whether Switzerland had submitted a proposal to bring back the Iranians to the negotiating table over their use of nuclear technology were revealed. "The meeting provided an opportunity to exchange views and information on the Iran's nuclear programme as well as on a number of other current international issues," said Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Jean:Philippe Jeannerat on Monday. Jeannerat declined to elaborate on what proposals neutral Switzerland might...

GENEVA (AFP) - A Swiss-made catamaran has become the first solar-powered boat to cross the Atlantic after reaching the French Caribbean island of Martinique, the boat's owners said. Sun21 reached Martinique's Le Marin harbour at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Friday, 63 days after leaving the Spanish port of Chipiona near Cadiz, the Transatlantic21 partnership said on its website. The 14 metre (46 feet) boat largely followed the historic route sailed by explorer Christopher Columbus on the first known maritime crossing of the Atlantic in the 15th century, making its last stopover in the Canary Islands. The catamaran covered the...

19. January 2007, Swissinfo Swiss archaeologist digs up West Africa's past A Swiss:led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC. The sensational find by Geneva University's Eric Huysecom and his international research team, at Ounjougou near the Unesco:listed Bandiagara cliffs, reveals important information about man's interaction with nature. The age of the sediment in which they were found suggests that the six ceramic fragments : discovered between 2002 and 2005 : are at least 11,400 years old. Most ancient ceramics from the Middle East and the central...

A small earthquake that struck Basel on Friday was caused by drilling work for a planned power plant that would produce electricity from heat in the Earth's crust. The canton Basel-City prosecutor has launched an investigation to find if the company behind the Deep Heat Mining project can be held responsible for any possible damage. The tremor was felt shortly before 6 pm and measured 3.4 on the Richter scale according to the Swiss Seismological Service. The local police and fire departments received hundreds of phone calls from worried citizens, and some buildings suffered from cracks and broken tiles....

While Iran continues to deny that Israel has the right to exist, Iranian and Israeli representatives are holding clandestine talks in Europe to settle an old Israeli debt, Ha'aretz reported Wednesday. Iran is still owed hundreds of millions of dollars for oil it supplied to Israel in the years before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and representatives of the two countries, now sworn enemies, are holding contacts meant to settle the debt, according to the report in Haaretz. The report was attributed to anonymous Israeli and Swiss officials involved in the negotiations. Two mediation processes involving different parts of the...

BERN, Switzerland -- Swiss authorities have found enough evidence to seek a full investigation into allegations the CIA was trying to obtain personal details of about 500 labor union members, most of them Arabs, officials said Friday. Espionage by foreign agents in Switzerland is illegal and often results in expulsion of the suspects. The investigations began Sept. 12, the same day the daily tabloid Blick first reported that an unidentified CIA agent based at the U.S. Embassy in Bern had paid a Swiss informant in an attempt to obtain information about Arabs in Switzerland suspected of involvement in terrorist financing....

Swiss Banks Broke Law by Passing Banking Data to CIA, Data Protection Chief Says BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- Swiss banks violated the law by passing banking information on to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the country's top data protection official said Friday. The banks, usually known for safeguarding the privacy of their clients, should have informed customers making international money transfers via the Belgium-based SWIFT money-transfer service that their data could be passed on to third parties, Hanspeter Thuer said. Just the possibility of the data being leaked should have been grounds enough to warn customers, he said. After the...

One in three Swiss thinks it is "definitely false" that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to an international survey on evolution. How seriously should we take the news that only Austria is less enlightened among "old" European countries? Is it simply a reflection of Switzerland's religious history and dislike of change – or a serious failure of the education system? The journal Science recently published a survey by Jon Miller at Michigan State University which put the following statement to more than 34,000 people in 32 Europe countries, the United States and Japan: "Human beings, as we...

GENEVA (AFP) - The United Nations has boosted security at its European headquarters after receiving warnings of a possible terrorist attack, according to an internal document obtained by AFP. "The Swiss authorities have contacted us to inform of a possible terrorist attack against United Nations premises in Geneva," the UN security service said in a note to staff Thursday. "This attack would take place between 5th of October and the 10th of October. No information has been provided about the possible authors or the means to be used, and no specific target has been mentioned." The security service told staff...

Swiss Voters Ratify Tougher Asylum and Immigration Laws Sunday, September 24, 2006 GENEVA — Swiss voters ratified new asylum and immigration laws on Sunday, making it more difficult for refugees to receive assistance in Switzerland and effectively blocking unskilled workers outside Europe from moving to the country. Over 67 percent voted in favor of the stricter rules on asylum, originally approved by the Swiss government in December, the office of the federal government said, announcing official results. The proposal was overwhelmingly accepted in all of Switzerland's 26 states. The government says the law is designed to prevent abuses in the...

Voters in Switzerland have backed tougher laws on asylum-seekers. In a national referendum, some 67.8% of voters supported the new measures, which the government says are needed to combat abuse of the asylum system. The new laws cut welfare payments to those whose applications are rejected, and restrict applications from those unable to produce identity documents. The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, described the referendum result as regrettable. The vote gives Switzerland some of the strictest asylum and immigration laws in Europe. Justice Minister Christoph Blocher says they will prevent abuse while protecting real refugees. Ahead of the vote,...

Swiss voters are going to the polls to decide whether the country should impose more restrictive asylum laws. The UN says that the measures under consideration in the nationwide referendum could lead to breaches of the Geneva Convention on Refugees. The laws include demands for valid identity papers and cuts on welfare for asylum seekers and the detention of rejected applicants until deportation. The Swiss government says the changes will reduce abuse of its asylum system. The Swiss Refugee Council say the measures are far too strict, especially at a time when the number of people applying for asylum in...

Baghdad, 1 Sept. (AKI) - The latest frontier in al-Qaeda's cyber propaganda war is an attempt to win the hearts and minds of young Muslims living in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. The Global Islamic Media Front, the 'media arm' of the terror netework, has launched a webpage that translates into German all the statements of the Iraqi guerilla groups and publishes their videos. The site is updated daily publishing the most interesting of the Jihadi douments that can be found in jihadi forums in Arabic. The latest update contains a video testament of a young Saudi suicide bomber Abu Omar...

BERN, Switzerland -- For centuries, this Alpine nation has successfully relied on a strict policy of political neutrality to insulate it from the wars, invasions and revolutions that have raged outside its borders. These days, a new threat has emerged: one from within. As they have elsewhere in Europe, Islamic radicals are making inroads in Switzerland. Last month, Swiss officials announced the arrests of a dozen suspects who allegedly conspired to shoot down an Israeli airliner flying from Geneva to Tel Aviv. In a related case, a North African man has been charged with organizing a plot from Swiss soil...

In two more days, only 8 teams will remain in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. TODAY'S GAMES: Italy-Australia (11:00AM EST) followed by Swiss-Ukraine (3:00 PM EST).

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey -- Police used tear gas and fired in the air to stop an enraged crowd from attacking five men suspected of raping a Swiss tourist in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, officials and witnesses have said. The woman and her boyfriend, also Swiss, were attacked on May 31 as they were camping outside the town of Muradiye, in the province of Van which borders Iran. Press reports quoted the woman as telling police they were approached by several men, who, after chatting with them for a while, beat and tied up her boyfriend after which one of them raped...

Switzerland is to replace all the staff at its embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, following an investigation into visa applications. The investigation found that some applicants had been able to obtain visas under false pretences. The foreign ministry said it had uncovered poor organisation and a failure to comply with regulations, but found no evidence of crimes by staff. The visa section will be closed until staffing is reorganised. The ministry said the investigation had been set up to establish whether the visa section was effectively organised and whether Swiss employees were involved in human trafficking. Two Pakistani...

The Colombian government has slammed Switzerland for allegedly supporting the main leftwing rebel group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). The foreign ministry refused to comment, while a non-governmental group rejected the accusations as unfounded. Vice-president Francisco Santos told a news conference in Bogotá on Friday that the Swiss foreign ministry's Agency for Development for Cooperation (SDC) funded an aggressive campaign against the Colombian authorities. Officials added the two Swiss church charities, Lenten Fund and Bread for All, had been running an anti-Colombian poster campaign ahead of Easter. They also criticised a door-to-door fundraising effort in Geneva. Colombia's ambassador...

A Swiss judge has issued an arrest warrant for the former head of Iran's secret police for his role in the killing of a leading Iranian dissident 16 years ago. Ali Fallahian is charged with masterminding the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a renowned human rights advocate, near Geneva in April 1990. According to a report in Lausanne-based newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, the international arrest warrant was issued by Swiss investigating magistrate Jacques Antenen on March 20. It called on law enforcement agencies to arrest Fallahian – who for years headed Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is currently...

Tehran, 4 April (AKI) - The Iranian government is reported to have withdrawn its financial deposits from Swiss banks after the decision by the UN atomic watchdog to refer Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council over Western fears that Tehran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Anonymous sources say that in the past few weeks, Iran has withdrawn 700 tonnes in gold reserves and 26 billion euros. The gold reserves were transferred to the Markazi bank, the central bank of the Islamic Republic, while the cash was deposited in banks in the United Arab Emirates. Tehran decided to...

The Secret of Swiss Prosperity Dean Russell Here's an approach to securing student participation in class discussions. At the beginning of the very first class (even before the housekeeping chores), I ask a seemingly simple question. "What makes Switzerland prosperous?" Over the years, I've asked that question of hundreds (perhaps thousands) of students in my "international" courses. After first temporarily ruling out participation by "Prior" students, I've never yet gotten an immediate response. Just silence. So after waiting a few moments, I continue. "It is prosperous, you know-one of the most prosperous nations in the world. And before we can...

MADISON, Wis. - It was all in the cheese's eyes. An emmentaler swiss cheese crafted in Switzerland with near perfect distribution of the holes that make the cheese famous took top honors Thursday at the World Championship Cheese Contest. The cheese, with a taste the top judge described as nutty and sweet, beat out two gouda entries from the Netherlands as the overall winner. There were 1,793 entries from 18 countries, ranging from cheddar to edam to flavored spreadable cheese. After tasting some 50 cheeses in a two-hour championship round, judge Mark Johnson said the swiss crafted by Walo Von...

Sun Feb 5, 2:58 PM ET Lebanese Islamists tear a Swiss flag in front of the Danish consulate in Beirut February 5, 2006. Angry demonstrators set the Danish consulate in Beirut ablaze on Sunday and the violent turn in protests over publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammad drew condemnation from European capitals and moderate Muslims. REUTERS/Adnan Hajj

Democrats — at least those seeking the Democratic nomination for president and those who are desperate for money from extremist Left deep pockets — are trying to "out-Liberal" each other on the Alito nomination, even when it is clear a bipartisan majority of senators intend to make the Judge Alito "Justice Alito" in just a few days. John Kerry, after launching the first international filibuster from the slopes of the Swiss Alps with the help of Ted Kennedy, gave a speech earlier on the Senate floor that rivals Kennedy’s 1987 smear of Judge Bork. Kennedy claimed that in “Judge Bork’s...

Swiss banking giant UBS AG said Sunday it has stopped doing business with Iran because of the company's economic and risk analysis of the situation in the country. UBS will no longer deal with individuals, companies or state institutions such as Iran's central bank, said company spokesman Serge Steiner. A similar policy is also being implemented in the case of Syria, he said. All existing business with customers in Iran will be canceled, but Iranians in exile are not affected by the decision, Steiner said, confirming an article in Swiss weekly SonntagsZeitung. "It is a carefully prepared measure that has...

After advising his yet-unnamed successor to grow "thick skin," Secretary-General Annan yesterday appeared to have thinned his own, lashing out at reporters who asked about United Nations and Annan family scandals. Mr. Annan refused to allow a London Times correspondent, James Bone, to ask a question, accusing him of being "an embarrassment" to his profession. The eruption...reflected frustrations...poor supervision of the oil-for-food program...failed to move on such world events as the Darfur genocide... none of the U.N. reform ideas championed by Mr. Annan were implemented beyond window-dressing. Mr. Annan's...remark that the Iraq war was illegal. The comment did not sit...

A SWISS hospital will allow terminally ill patients to commit suicide within its walls, becoming the first in the country to allow the practice. The university hospital in Lausanne had previously sent patients wishing to die home, where they could call on one of the country's assisted suicide organisations to help them take their lives. The hospital has decided to allow such organisations access from next year to patients who are so ill they cannot be transported to their homes, but will not itself help people take their lives. "We're not asking our doctors to assist ... suicide, but we...

Swiss bailiffs yesterday seized dozens of Impressionist masterpieces on loan from Moscow as part of an octogenarian businessman's long campaign to recover debts from Russia. The impounding of the paintings, insured for £720 million and including works by Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet, provoked indignation in Russia itself. The Swiss government last night overruled the canton that ordered the seizure and allowed the canvasses to return home - but not before a diplomatic scandal had blown up. "Although the paintings are kept in Russia, they are the inheritance of all people in the world and as such are...

Report: Swiss Had Role in S. African Nukes Friday October 28, 2005 4:01 AM GENEVA (AP) - Switzerland played a key role in building the nuclear weapons of the former apartheid regime of South Africa, a government-sponsored report said Thursday. More than a decade ago, then-South African President F.W. de Klerk announced that his country had dismantled its nuclear weapons program. Peter Hug, the author of a report in the Swiss National Science Foundation's six-year investigation into Swiss-South African relations, said Switzerland and other countries provided technical support for South Africa's uranium enrichment efforts. Hug, a history professor at the...

Finally, we have a solution to the threat of Islamic Jihad. Just shy of a year after the Jihadist murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh and only weeks past the four-year anniversary of 9/11, that fateful day when the world discovered such a war even existed, Holland’s Princess Irene, sister to Queen Beatrix, offers up a strategy for world peace: “Let’s talk.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The hundreds of people who guard the pope and the Vatican have created a seamless web of tight security with reasonable public access for the millions of pilgrims who flock yearly to Vatican City. Following the tradition of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI takes a long ride, weaving in and around thousands of people in an open-air jeep every time his weekly general audience is held in St. Peter's Square. While the jeep is flanked by a picket of stern-faced plainclothesmen, the pope passes just an arm's length from jubilant crowds straining against waist-high wooden security...

INTERLAKEN, Switzerland (AP) - A 184-pound stone that has been tossed for a century in a Swiss celebration of folklore and national heritage has been stolen, authorities said Saturday. The "Unspunnenstein," named after the site of Switzerland's most revered stone-throwing contest, was stolen Saturday morning from a hotel in the central Swiss city of Interlaken where it was on display before the competition scheduled for Sept. 3-4, authorities said. The stone is one of country's most cherished cultural objects and recalls a gathering called two centuries ago to reassert Switzerland's identity in the chaos of Napoleon's Europe. While stone-throwing has...

Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami has been honoured at Switzerland's Locarno film festival as "the greatest director in contemporary Iranian film-making". Organisers gave Kiarostami its Leopard of Honour, referring to him as "one of the great names in film". He won the festival's prestigious Bronze Leopard in 1989 for Where is the Friend's Home? His 1997 film Taste of Cherry won the Palme D'Or at Cannes. The 10-day Locarno film festival ends on 13 August. Clashed with censors Unlike many Iranian filmmakers who fled following the 1979 Islamic revolution, Kiarostami has stayed in Iran, often saying he felt he made his...

Swiss honour for Iranian director Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami has been honoured at Switzerland's Locarno film festival as "the greatest director in contemporary Iranian film-making". Organisers gave Kiarostami its Leopard of Honour, referring to him as "one of the great names in film". He won the festival's prestigious Bronze Leopard in 1989 for Where is the Friend's Home? His 1997 film Taste of Cherry won the Palme D'Or at Cannes. The 10-day Locarno film festival ends on 13 August. Clashed with censors Unlike many Iranian filmmakers who fled following the 1979 Islamic revolution, Kiarostami has stayed in Iran, often saying...

I know we like to post news stories on this board and go OMG OMG OMG teh udder side teh suXorZ!!11! It's rare that anyone really writes anything somewhat original so, here, I'll do something like that. I'm amazed at some of the twists that are going on in political and legal life right now. So much so that I really think it's worth commenting on. In some ways, we're going in the absolute wrong direction. Now before you get a knee jerk reaction and say i'm a "traitor" or some DUmmie here to quiety say "It's because of Bu$hco...

GENEVA -- A Swiss firm embroiled in the U.N. oil-for-food investigation said Tuesday that it has discovered more relevant documents and supplied them to U.S. congressional investigators. One document concerns the contract a Geneva-based company received to supply humanitarian services under the Iraq oil-for-food program. The company, Cotecna Inspections S.A, said the document "may result in speculation" about how it obtained the contract. But it denied any wrongdoing, insisting in a statement that it "obtained that contract fairly and on the basis of price." The company said it has released the results of two audits to an independent U.N. inquiry...

Beyond the DropZone A biweekly column by W. Thomas Smith Jr. 07 April 05 The Pope's "few good men" Over the years - and particularly in the wake of Pope John Paul II's passing - I've been asked about the Pontiff's colorfully uniformed soldiers and whether or not they are only "stood up" for ceremonial purposes. Indeed not. They are members of the Swiss Guard – often referred to as Papal guards or Swiss mercenaries – an elite company-sized military force that has defended a succession of Popes for over five centuries, and not always without bloodshed. Recognizable by their...

Swiss watchers The papal guard may dress colourfully but you would be unwise to call them dandies, writes W Thomas Smith Jr W Thomas Smith Jr Tuesday April 5, 2005 Guardian Unlimited Are the Pope's colourfully uniformed guards just for show? The question has frequently been asked in the wake of John Paul II's death. The answer is that these soldiers are indeed not only "stood up" for ceremonial purposes. They are members of the Swiss Guard - often referred to as the papal guards or Swiss mercenaries - an elite, company-sized military force that has defended a succession of...

FRANKFURT/ZURICH (Reuters) - Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa has agreed to take over Swiss International Air Lines in a deal worth up to 310 million euros ($409 million), ending three years of independence for the loss-making Swiss carrier. The long-rumored agreement on Tuesday marks the start of Europe's biggest airline merger since Air France took over Dutch KLM last year to form the world's largest airline group by revenues. Under the terms of the agreement, Lufthansa will pay up to 265 million euros to the Swiss carrier's major shareholders — the Swiss government and big companies — and about 45 million euros...

Soldiers who have completed military service can hold on to the army’s latest assault rifle from April 1, but they will have to pay for the pleasure.The government says the weapons must first have their fully automatic capability disabled – and owners have to foot the bill. Friday’s ruling means Swiss soldiers can, for the first time, take home the SIG 90 assault rifle. Previously, they had only been allowed to keep the older SIG 57 rifle and regulation pistols. But in a break with tradition, those who don’t want to be separated from their personal weapon will have to...

Arsonists have attacked a synagogue in Lugano, marking the first time in living memory that a Jewish house of worship in Switzerland has been set on fire.A fabric shop owned by a Jewish family in the southern Swiss city was also set alight. Police say both blazes are connected. The president of Lugano’s Jewish community described the attacks as "anti-Semitic", but police declined to comment on a possible motive. No one was hurt in either incident. The synagogue lost its entire library in the fire, which took hold after petrol bombs were reportedly hurled at the building. Less than a...

Moving house is said to be one of life's most stressful experiences but, in Switzerland, it is made even more stressful by strict requirements on how you leave your old home. Imogen Foulkes moved house recently and describes the day the hygiene inspector came to call. I have to confess, I have always been a bit intimidated by the Swiss devotion to cleanliness. Women in Switzerland spend a couple of hours a day cleaning the house It all began not long after I arrived in Switzerland when, as a new mother, I was invited for coffee by a woman who...

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Police have detained five Islamic extremists suspected of running Web sites that showed hostages being killed and gave details of how to make bombs and carry out attacks, authorities said Friday. The five, three of whom were still in custody, were detained Feb. 22 in anti-terrorism raids in the capital, Bern, and nearby Fribourg, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said. Police used force during the operation in Fribourg, the office said without elaborating. The prosecutor's office did not say where the killings took place, but Swiss media reports have said the high-profile beheading of an American in...