Free Republic

Switzerland will on Thursday officially lift sanctions against Iran that had been suspended since January 2014, the government announced on Wednesday, according to Reuters. “The Federal Council (government) wishes today’s steps to be seen as a sign of its support for the implementation of the nuclear agreement and its interest in deepening bilateral relations with Iran,” said a statement quoted by the news agency. […] Switzerland will also introduce a new exemption clause that lets Berne implement UN Security Council resolutions on Iran, according to Reuters. The government said Switzerland wished to “promote a broad political and economic exchange with...

A gay rights group has filed a criminal complaint against a Roman Catholic bishop after he quoted Bible verses calling for gay people to be killed and said the passage made clear what Church policy was on homosexuality. Vitus Huonder, the Catholic Bishop of the city of Chur in eastern Switzerland, made the speech on 31 July, during a debate on marriage and family organised by the German Catholic Forum in Fulda, Germany. According to Swiss media reports, Huonder, 73, read out a passage from Leviticus 20:13: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman,...

Vitus Huonder, the controversial Catholic bishop of Chur in eastern Switzerland, has once again attracted criticism for quoting homophobic Bible passages and denouncing non-traditional family models. At the “Joy in Faith” forum in the German city of Fulda, he quoted a passage from the Bible which said homosexuals should be punished by death. In his 50-minute address on Friday, titled “Marriage – a gift, sacrament and order”, Huonder quoted various passages backing up his views. He also slammed gender theory, divorce, sex education and gay marriage. Regarding homosexuality, the 73-year-old bishop quoted two verses from the book of Leviticus, including...

Donations to the Clinton Foundation by Swiss bank UBS increased tenfold after Hillary Clinton intervened to settle a dispute with the IRS early in her tenure as secretary of state, according to a published report. According to the Wall Street Journal, total donations by UBS to the foundation grew from less than $60,000 at the end of 2008 to approximately $600,000 by the end of 2014. The Journal reports that the bank also lent $32 million through entrepreneurship and inner-city loan programs it launched in association with the foundation, while paying former President Bill Clinton $1.5 million to participate in...

Swiss Post, Swiss WorldCargo and Matternet are jointly testing the commercial use of logistics drones. The three companies are investigating specific uses of drone technology and examining the cost-effectiveness of these business ideas. They will be carrying out drone tests in July 2015 for this purpose. The widespread use of drones is not expected within the next five years. The focus is primarily on their use in exceptional cases or the transport of special items. In spring 2015, Swiss Post, Swiss WorldCargo (the air freight division of Swiss International Air Lines) and Matternet (a logistics drone manufacturer based in California)...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Millionaires are expected to control nearly half of the world's personal wealth by 2019, according to a new study, suggesting that the wealth gap will continue to widen. The Global Wealth report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said the number of millionaires in the world grew to 17 million in 2014, up from 15 million in 2013. The world's millionaires now control 41 percent of the $164 trillion in global private wealth, up from 40 percent in 2013. The report said millionaires are expected to control 46 percent of the world's wealth in 2019. The growing fortunes of the...

Even as the gun-control debate rises again in the U.S. in the aftermath of the horrific school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the gun-loving Swiss are not about to lay down their arms. Guns are ubiquitous in this neutral nation, with sharpshooting considered a fun and wholesome recreational activity for people of all ages. Even though Switzerland has not been involved in an armed conflict since a standoff between Catholics and Protestants in 1847, the Swiss are very serious not only about their right to own weapons but also to carry them around in public. Because of this general acceptance and...

Zurich, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- A Swiss euthanasia group that says it has coordinated the deaths of more than 600 people at its clinics there is coming under fire after a German woman apparently suffered tremendous pain when she died at one of its facilities. The SonntagsZeitung newspaper in Zurich reported Sunday that a 43 year-old German woman with the initial A.H. screamed in pain for over four minutes before her death. The Dignitas group gave her a lethal cocktail last November that eventually took her life. Friends who accompanied her to her death told the newspaper the woman cried out,...

Several people have been killed in a shooting in the Swiss canton of Aargau, police say.

Intimacy is the key to your breaking through in your days ahead . So persevere as Daniel and Gabriel for I will send My angels of My Presence as Michael (AS GOD) as you spend time in mine . . . DANIEL 10:12-21 12 Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael,...

At the print edition of Swiss news weekly “Weltwoche”, science journalist Markus Schär writes that not only has the global temperature trend suspiciously been tampered with, but so have the datasets of the Swiss Meteorological Service:

Geneva, Switzerland — What is the happiest place? Last week in its annual “World Happiness Report,” the United Nations reported that Switzerland was No. 1. The United States ranked No. 15, and the African country of Togo came in last, at number 158. Switzerland is arguably the world’s most successful country — and most improbably so. It is landlocked and without much in the way of natural resources. It has four official languages, many different religious groups, and is surrounded by warring neighbors. Yet, it has remained an island of peace and prosperity. The last armed conflict on Swiss territory...

Switzerland is the world's happiest nation thanks to healthy GDP figures, strong social bonds and an increasing life expectancy, a new study of global wellbeing has revealed. The list is dominated by European nations, particularly those in Scandinavia, and measures a country's population by factors contributing to its citizens' contentment, rather than wealth. Britons are happier now than they were two years ago, the study found, but still ranks in at a relatively lowly 21st place. And despite often mocking its northern neighbour as an inferior nation, the United States is a full 10 places below Canada, ranking at 10th...

The Random Darknet Shopper was let go after being held by police for three months. A robot given $100 a week in bitcoins to buy whatever it wanted from the deep web, has purchased a Hungarian passport, a baseball cap fixed with a hidden camera, fake Diesel jeans, a stash can, 200 Chesterfield cigarettes and 10 yellow pills containing 90mg of MDMA each.

Over the protests of his family, Swiss authorities have forced the extradition to Tunisia of a 24-year-old man born in Switzerland who is a Tunisian citizen but has never been to the North African country, according to a media report. The man, identified as Medhi, was put on a plane to Tunis after his residential C permit was revoked in January because of repeated criminal convictions, 20 Minutes newspaper reported online. Mehdi, who was born and raised in the canton of Vaud has a record for theft, damaging property, fighting and driving without a permit, the daily said. But because...

VATICAN CITY – In an Easter peace wish, Pope Francis on Sunday praised the framework nuclear agreement with Iran as an opportunity to make the world safer, while expressing deep worry about bloodshed in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. Cautious hope ran through Francis' "Urbi et Orbi" Easter message, a kind of papal commentary on the state of the world's affairs, which he delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter's Square. He had just celebrated Mass in rain-whipped St. Peter's Square for tens of thousands of people, who huddled under umbrellas or braved the downpour...

HT Drudge LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Just hours after the announcement of what the United States characterized as a historic agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, the country’s leading negotiator lashed out at the Obama administration for lying about the details of a tentative framework.

The Western capitulation to Adolf Hitler in the 1938 Munich Agreement is cited as classic appeasement that destroyed Czechoslovakia, backfired on France and Britain, and led to World War II. All of that is true. But there was much more that caused the Munich debacle than simple Western naiveté. The full tragedy of that ill-fated agreement should warn us on the eve of the Obama's administration's gullible agreement with Iran on nuclear proliferation. Fable one is the idea that most people saw right through the Munich folly. True, Europeans knew that Hitler had never once told the truth and...

Significant agreements regarding Iran's nuclear program have been reached, according to tweets by officials ahead of a planned joint statement. "Found solution," Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted. "Solutions on key parameters" reached, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, tweeted, "Good news," regarding the talks.

France has left the US-led nuclear talks with Iran in Lausanne, saying it will return when it is 'useful.' French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is leaving the marathon negotiations that have gone into overtime led by the United States between world powers and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear technology activities. A French official told France 24 today (Wednesday, April 1) that Fabius was leaving the talks and would return from France when it was “useful.” Speaking at a joint news conference with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, French President Francois Hollande said it would be better to have no deal...