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NOVEMBER 29, 2009 Switzerland and the Minaret Sunday's vote keeps European heads in the sand about Muslim immigrants. Nearly 58% of Swiss voters Sunday cast their ballots in favor of banning the construction of new minarets in the Alpine republic, a surprise result that led at least one Swiss member of parliament to declare that "the foundations of Switzerland's direct democracy have failed." That is clearly wrong. Swiss direct democracy shows its mettle when Swiss voters use it to stand up to their political elites, as happened here. Having said that, Sunday's vote, for all the hand-wringing leading up to...

The legally-binding referendum result had not been widely expected and was a huge embarrassment for the neutral government in Switzerland. In the run-up to the vote it had warned that a ban would "serve the interests of extremist circles" and damage economic ties with Muslim states. Anti-immigrant right-wing populists had championed the vote and led an emotive campaign. The Swiss People's Party (SVP), the country's largest in terms of popular support and membership in parliament, used posters depicting a woman in a burka in front of minarets shaped like missiles rising from a Swiss flag.

GENEVA – Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a surprise vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population. Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland's international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there. "The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights," said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of...

Swiss Voters Display Rare Crusader Spirit thelastcrusade.org 57 per cent of Swiss voters have said “enough is enough” to the Islamic takeover of their plot of the European landscape. In a vote that displeased the Swiss Government, fed up citizens approved a national ban on the construction of minarets. "The initiative would appear to have been accepted, there is a positive trend. It is a huge surprise," said Swiss television said after polls closed at midday. Ignoring Obama's Cairo declarations, the Swiss still prefer Lederhosen to burqas and turbans.

Early results indicated Sunday afternoon that voters in Switzerland had approved a law that would prohibit construction of minarets atop mosques in the country. The measure was decided in a referendum conducted Sunday.

Bloomberg stories may not be posted on FR. Title only. Link below...

Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.” According to the respected gfs.bern polling institute an estimated 59 per cent of voters backed the ban. A majority of cantons were also in support of the initiative. “A majority have voted for a nationwide ban on the construction of minarets,” said the institute’s director Claude Longchamp, speaking on Swiss Radio DRS.

A right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques in a referendum being held in Switzerland today has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women. A “stop the minarets” campaign has provoked ferment in the land of Heidi, where women are more likely than men to vote for the ban after warnings from prominent feminists that Islam threatens their rights. Forget about tranquil Alpine scenery and cowbells: one of the most startling features of the referendum campaign has been a poster showing a menacing woman...

Swiss media say that exit polls appear to show a 59% yes vote for banning the construction of new minarets on mosques. However a definitive result will be known later today. The populist Swiss People’s Party put forward the proposal – Switzerland has four mosques minarets with two more planned.

Switzerland appears to have backed minaret ban Voters in Switzerland appeared to have backed a call to ban minarets from mosques, according to early exit poll results. By Alexandra Williams in Geneva and Bruno Waterfield Published: 10:16AM GMT 29 Nov 2009 Thirty minutes after the referendum finished at midday, Swiss television reported: “The initiative would appear to be accepted. There is a positive trend. It’s a huge surprise.” According to the respected gfs.bern polling institute an estimated 59 per cent of voters backed the ban. A majority of cantons were also in support of the initiative. “A majority have voted...

Swiss Vote On Anti-Islam Move To Ban New Minarets By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer November 28, 2009 Swiss voters are deciding in a referendum Sunday whether to accept a ban on the construction of minarets, which right-wing parties regard as symbols of militant Islam. The move — led by the Swiss People's Party, which has campaigned in previous years against immigrants — has stirred fears of boycotts and violent reactions from Muslim countries. Polls indicate growing support for the proposal, but doubt remains about whether it will pass. The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government has spoken...

Anti-capitalism protesters have brought havoc to central Geneva during a demonstration against the World Trade Organisation. They burned cars and faced up to riot police in a zone near the central bus station of the Swiss town. They also smashed the windows of shops, bank and cafés. The violent protesters were a fringe minority on an otherwise peaceful march of some 2000 people ahead of a three day conference of the World Trade Organisation which starts on Monday. They accuse the WTO of not doing enough to tackle climate change, claiming it is a mouthpiece for the interests of multinational...

The Swiss are to decide this weekend whether to ban minarets on mosques, in what is in effect the first direct vote in a European country on Islam and the practices of Muslims. "The minaret has got nothing to do with religion. It's a symbol of political power, a prelude to the introduction of sharia law," argued Ulrich Schlüer, of the rightwing Swiss People's party, an architect of the campaign. UN experts and human rights activists condemned the campaign as overtly racist. The rightwing anti-immigrant lobby has led the campaign, but it has been joined by some secularist leftists and...

Banner only .... Polanski könnte gegen Kaution freikommen Laut Bundesstrafgericht in Bellinzona könnte Roman Polanski gegen eine Kaution von 4,5 Millionen Franken freikommen. Dies meldet die Tribune de Genève.

Switzerland's data protection commissioner on Friday announced that he was taking Google to court in a dispute over privacy concerns on the US Internet giant's "Street View" facility. Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, Hanspeter Thuer, said in a statement that he was taking the case to the Federal Administrative Tribunal after Google had refused to apply the majority of measures he had recommended. The Street View facility allows users to take a ground level panoramic view of some locations on Google Maps, based on still photographs taken by specially-equipped vehicles. The Swiss data protection commissioner had repeatedly complained since...

SAN FRANCISCO — Cells from fetuses have “unique properties” that aid in healing, boasts a Swiss biopharmaceutical firm, in response to complaints that it uses fetal cell lines in skin-care products.A Christian watchdog group called Children of God for Life brought attention to the fact that the company, Neocutis, used the cell lines, derived from an abortion, in the products.“It’s absolutely deplorable,” said the Tennessee group’s founder and executive director, Debi Vinnedge. “It’s not even for humanitarian reasons. They are exploiting the remains of a deliberately slaughtered baby for nothing other than vanity.”Vinnedge usually concentrates her watchdog efforts on...

Swiss Muslims Open Mosque Doors Swiss Muslims hope to promote better understanding of their religion Muslims in many parts of Switzerland have invited the public into mosques - three weeks before a vote on whether to ban the construction of minarets. Muslim organisations say they hope their open day will counter what they say are fears and prejudices. The conservative group that initiated the vote - the largest party in the Swiss parliament - says minarets are a symbol of Muslim political power. Opinion polls suggest the proposed ban will be rejected by voters. A Muslim community leader in Zurich,...

Delaware beats Switzerland as most secretive financial center By: Reuters | 31 Oct 2009 | 07:59 PM ET Text Size By Kim Dixon WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Move over Switzerland. The tiny state of Delaware beats the Alpine country in a contest for the most secretive financial jurisdiction, a tax justice rights group said on Saturday. The United States, led by the eastern seaboard state, took in $2.6 trillion in deposits from non-resident corporations and individuals in 2007, according to a survey of financial jurisdictions analyzed by the Tax Justice Network. The survey of laws, practices and size of inflows in...

Polanski's arrest has caused his victim health problems and job worries, and she just wants to be left alone, her attorney wrote in a court filing. Attorney Lawrence Silver urged a California appeals court to dismiss the criminal case against the "Chinatown" director. The filing with the Second District Court of Appeal on Friday said Samantha Geimer and Silver have received nearly 500 media calls seeking comment since Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on Sept. 26. Geimer, who long ago identified herself publicly, and her family have to contend with such pressure whenever Polanski is in the news, the six-page...

Director Roman Polanski lost an appeal Tuesday to be freed from a Swiss prison ahead of his possible extradition to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. The Swiss Criminal Court said releasing Polanski on bail or under house arrest posed a high risk of flight.

A poster featuring a Muslim woman in a chador surrounded by minaret towers that resemble missiles is causing outrage in Switzerland ahead of a referendum next month on whether to ban mosques from having minarets. The campaign is proving so controversial that even some die-hard members of the country's far right are uncomfortable with it. Wangen bei Olten has already been lost. The small Swiss municipality at the foot of the Jura Mountains has become home to a minaret. The Christians in the village fought hard to prevent it -- they collected signatures, lodged official complaints, spoke publicly against it...

A French physicist with the European atomic research centre near Geneva was charged with terrorism offences by a Paris judge last night after investigators said that he offered to work with the North African branch of al-Qaeda. Adlène Hicheur, 32, who is of Algerian origin, was arrested last week with his younger brother after intelligence agents intercepted his alleged internet contacts with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The physicist, who works at the giant atomic collider at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), which straddles Swiss and French territory, told the Islamic group that he was interested in committing an...

William White predicted the approaching financial crisis years before 2007's subprime meltdown. But central bankers preferred to listen to his great rival Alan Greenspan instead, with devastating consequences for the global economy. William White had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life after shedding his pinstriped suit and entering retirement. White, a Canadian, worked for various central banks for 39 years, most recently serving as chief economist for the central bank for all central bankers, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Then, after 15 years in the world's most secretive...

The New York Times published an article last Thursday on the Swiss health care system, which can be viewed here: www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/health/policy/01swiss.html?_r=1&em. The system is simple. There is no "public option," that is, there is no government health insurance program, such as Medicare or Medicaid. There is very little employer-provided health insurance, presumably because employee health benefits are not tax exempt; almost all health insurance is therefore bought by the insured. Everyone is required to buy a health insurance policy that provides a specified minimum of benefits (they can buy more expensive policies if they want), but there are subsidies for...

Now that the "public option" health care proposal has become a political hazard, the far left and its water-carrying media are turning to other proposals. The New York Times recently produced a piece lauding the Swiss health care system as a model to emulate. It's all the rage amongst elitists and perhaps it can revive Mr. Obama's "plan" from life support. In the piece, "Swiss Health Care Thrives Without Public Option," the author notes that, "Like every country in Europe, Switzerland guarantees health care for all its citizens. But the system here does not remotely resemble the model of bureaucratic,...

You have the Hollywood deviants and their fellow travelers overseas bending over backwards to defend child-rapist Roman Polanski. On the other hand, we the "commoners" should thank the Swiss government for honoring its extradition treaty with the United States and taking the critical first step in bringing the low-life back to our shores to face justice. The e-mail address to the Swiss Embassy in Washington is was.vertretung@eda.admin.ch.

Lawyer: Polanski to ask for freedom today (USA Today can only be linked to)

In court filings this summer, they said the L.A. County district attorney's office had made no effort to arrest the fugitive filmmaker. Sources say the allegations caught officials' attention.Roman Polanski's attorneys helped provoke his arrest by complaining to an appellate court this summer that Los Angeles County prosecutors had made no real effort to capture the filmmaker in his three decades as a fugitive, two law enforcement sources familiar with the case told The Times. The accusation that the Los Angeles County district attorney's office was not serious about extraditing Polanski to facing sentencing in a child sex case he...

Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum serves up a sickening rationale to excuse film director Roman Polanski fleeing justice for his rape of a thirteen-year-old girl in the 1970s: the Holocaust.Polanski was arrested today in Switzerland on an arrest warrant based on his fleeing justice in 1977.Wrote Applebaum in a web posting at "Post Partisan":He can be blamed, it is true, for his original, panicky decision to flee. But for this decision I see mitigating circumstances, not least an understandable fear of irrational punishment. Polanski's mother died in Auschwitz. His father survived Mauthausen. He himself survived the Krakow ghetto, and later...

ZURICH – Director Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, authorities said Sunday. Polanski was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the festival when he was apprehended Saturday at the airport, the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. It said U.S. authorities have sought the arrest of the 76-year-old director around the world since 2005. (snip) In Paris, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "dumbfounded" by Polanski's arrest, adding that he...

PARIS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - France's political elite rallied to the defence of Roman Polanski on Sunday, calling on Switzerland to free the 76-year-old film director rather than extradite him to the United States. Artists and film makers also urged the release of Polanski, who faces charges of having sex with a girl of 13 in 1977, accusing Switzerland of being overzealous in pursuing the case. Polanski was due to receive a prize for his life's work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, but was arrested on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday....

"Alpine scenery". 'Nuff said. Well, maybe better said: "Spectacular alpine scenery". First two are of La Corne de Chamois (second one's not clickable for bigger) Look for the two waterfalls. Classic reflection shot of snow-capped mountains Waterfalls in the cirque

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Relations between Switzerland and Libya remain strained, with Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi repeating a call he made at the G8 summit in Italy in July 2009, for Switzerland to be considered a non-country and its linguistic districts to be shared among its neighbours. The rhetoric itself has ruffled few feathers, given Qadaffi’s widespread reputation for stepping outside the usual boundaries of diplomatic talk, but Libya’s upcoming turn as president of the United Nations General Assembly, which opens its new session 15 September, gives him a platform. It will be the first time he has joined a...

This Wednesday morning, I received a phone call from Rob Vrijhof, (right) our long time investment and banking associate in Zurich and a member of the Sovereign Society Council of Experts. Rob called my attention to the announcement today by the venerable Wegelin & Co., Switzerland’s oldest private bank, that it will stop doing business in the United States and with Americans. Founded in 1741, the St. Gallen-based bank, said their decision was a response to stricter measures introduced in the U.S. against tax evasion and projected changes in U.S. estate tax laws, which could make some non-U.S. citizens liable...

"UBS and the US government have agreed an out-of-court settlement to end one of the most bitter assaults on Switzerland’s hallowed bank secrecy. The case has significant implications for the future of client confidentiality, amid fears among many Swiss bankers that a dilution of traditional secrecy rules could prompt a defection by worried foreign customers. No details of the deal were revealed on Wednesday, pending formal signing, probably early next week. However, lawyers said the settlement would involve UBS supplying the names of least 5,000 US offshore clients and possibly paying a big fine. Shares in the bank closed up...

BERN, Switzerland – Drug maker Novartis AG said Tuesday that animal rights activists have stolen the ashes of its CEO's mother and set fire to his Austrian hunting lodge. Swiss authorities, however, said they didn't know who was behind the attacks. In the latest incident, CEO Daniel Vasella's Tyrollean lodge in Bach, Austria, was badly burned early Monday morning. "It was arson with a professional fire accelerator," Novartis spokeswoman Isabel Guerra said in Basel.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department says it's aware of Iranian media reports that three American citizens have been detained in Iran. Spokesman Robert Wood says the U.S. has asked the Swiss, who represent American interests in Iran, to confirm the reports with Iranian authorities and arrange for diplomatic access to the three, if the reports are true. The Americans reportedly were detained Friday after crossing into Iran's Kurdistan province—when they failed to heed warnings from Iranian border guards.

One of Britain's most respected conductors, Sir Edward Downes, and his wife, Joan, a choreographer and TV producer, have died at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, their family said today.Downes, 85, was almost blind when he and his 74-year-old wife, who had become his full-time carer, travelled to Switzerland to end their lives, a family statement released to the BBC said.Born in Birmingham, Downes had a long and distinguished career, including conducting the first performance at the Sydney Opera House. He worked with the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Opera House in London.The statement from the couple's son and...

LONDON – British conductor Edward Downes, a longtime stalwart at the Royal Opera and maestro of the first-ever performance at Sydney's iconic Opera House, has died with his wife at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. He was 85. The couple's children said Tuesday that Downes and his 74-year-old wife, Joan, died "peacefully and under circumstances of their own choosing" on Friday at a Zurich clinic run by the group Dignitas. "After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems," said a statement from the couple's son and...

In America – formerly the home of free enterprise – the government now owns the banking system, AIG, and General Motors...

The US company, which opened its first restaurant in London in 1974, joins other large US corporations that have based their European operations in Switzerland Photo: BLOOMBERG Senior executives, including Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald's operations in Europe, will be based there. The US company, which opened its first restaurant in London in 1974, joins other large US corporations that have based their European operations in Switzerland, including Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and Yahoo. Google also chose Zurich for its European headquarters, despite having a large office in the UK capital. McDonald's said the move "enables us to...

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- On the eve of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, Calvin 500, the international Quincentenary celebration concluded tonight at St. Pierre Cathedral in the old town of Geneva. Following a week of over 20 academic lectures, 15 expository sermons, with numerous other associated meetings, the commemoration concluded with a closing luncheon at Restaurant La Broche, with the Rev. Geoff Thomas of Wales, addressing the banquet. Later that afternoon, Dr. Henry Krabbendam and Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda spoke on "Reformation and Revival." Nearly 1000 participants enjoyed the festivities and addresses during...

* U.S. judge orders U.S. govt to say how far it would go * Switzerland says would stop UBS handing over client data * Berne says may seize UBS client data, if necessary * Judge may be pushing for a settlement A judge ordered the U.S. government to say whether it was prepared to shut Swiss bank UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N) in the United States as part of a battle to learn the identity of 52,000 secret accounts suspected of being used by Americans to avoid taxes. U.S. District Judge Alan Gold, set to preside over a hearing Monday of...

MOSCOW - Boris Berezovsky, Russian tycoon who was granted refugee status in Britain after fleeing Moscow, said the opening of a Swiss money-laundering investigation against him was an "anti-Semitic act". The oligarch accused Swiss authorities of applying double standards. "Swiss authorities try to hide the crime of the Nazis in Swiss banks. I think it is just a continuation of the same game," Mr. Berezovsky, who is Jewish, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from London. He said he did not believe it was an independent decision of Swiss prosecutors. According to Mr. Berezovsky, he has direct evidence...

ZURICH -- Switzerland has vowed to prevent UBS from handing over client information to U.S. authorities, in an attempt to defend bank secrecy, saying a tax case targeting its main bank is souring diplomatic ties. Wealth management giant UBS is facing a court hearing in Miami next week after refusing to disclose data on 52,000 Americans holders of secret Swiss bank accounts to U.S. tax authorities. The Swiss Justice Ministry said on Wednesday that Swiss law prevents UBS from handing over client information and the government would seize UBS client data, if necessary, to stop that happening. The case, which...

Zurich, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- The Switzerland government is considering a proposal that would ban the assisted suicide clinics run by the pro-euthanasia group Dignitas. The move would end the practice of so-called suicide tourism and move the European nation out of the category with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.The 1942 Swiss law allowing assisted suicide has led to a practice where residents of other nations, especially England and Germany, travel to the country to end their lives.Federal government officials said last week that they want to discuss "legal barriers and a ban on organized suicide assistance."The proposal would limit who...

WASHINGTON--As part of the Obama Administration's aggressive efforts to enforce U.S. tax laws and reduce offshore tax evasion, the U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the conclusion of negotiations with Switzerland to amend the U.S.-Switzerland income tax treaty to provide for increased tax information exchange. Official signing of the protocol is expected in the next few months. "This Administration is committed to reducing off shore tax evasion to help ensure that all U.S. taxpayers are playing by the same rules," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. "This treaty will increase our ability to enforce our tax laws and will help...

The Kurdish Halabja Centre CHAK has submitted new and possibly incriminating evidence in the appeal case against Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat. The documents were reportedly supplied by the Iraqi tribunal that sentenced former dictator Saddam Hussein to death. In December last year, Frans van Anraat was sentenced to 15 years in jail. The court in The Hague found him guilty of supplying materials for chemical weapons to the Saddam Hussein regime in the 1980s. He was acquitted of complicity in genocide because he reportedly did not know that Saddam Hussein intended to use poison gas on the Iraqi population....

According to Japan Today, two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities. According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false...

It just gets more and more odd after my original report, with the latest coming from a German newspaper (translation courtesy of Google): Hit for the Zöllner: The contraband securities valued at 134 billion U.S. dollars are apparently real. Die italienische Finanzpolizei hatte zwei Japaner ertappt, die im doppelten Boden eines Koffers milliardenschwere Anleihen in die Schweiz schaffen wollten. The Italian financial police had two Japanese caught in the false bottom suitcase billion-dollar bonds in Switzerland wanted to create. Von dem Fund profitiert das hochverschuldete Italien. Note that this has received very little coverage in the so-called "mainstream US media"...