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Israel has recalled its ambassador to Switzerland after Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz met with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The meeting happened on the sidelines of a U.N. racism conference that Israel says had an anti-Israeli agenda. Israel's government saw the meeting between the Swiss leader and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad as an insult and recalled its ambassador to Switzerland to show its displeasure. Mr. Ahmedinejad has called for the destruction of Israel and has suggested the Holocaust, in which six million Jews perished, did not happen. Israel: Swiss decision 'a mistake' Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor tells VOA Israel considers Switzerland...

Federal agents in Geneva on Sunday escorted Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz away from the Geneva hotel were Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz were meeting, after he declared plans to challenge the Iranian leader about his views on the Holocaust and Israel. Merz met Ahmadinejad upon the latter's arrival in Geneva on Sunday, a day before the United Nations was to open its first global racism conference in eight years. Merz described the presence of Ahmadinejad at the Durban II conference as a good chance to discuss ways to mature bilateral ties as well as regional...

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel's deputy foreign minister said a planned meeting between Switzerland's president and his Iranian counterpart is "pathetic." Hans-Rudolf Merz is to meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday ahead of a UN conference on racism in Geneva. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said the meeting "caught us by surprise." He told Army Radio that Merz's meeting "hurts him and Switzerland more than anything else." Ahmadinejad has suggested the Holocaust never happened and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat. Swiss government officials had no immediate comment. The United...

Berlin - Germany is likely to stay away from a UN meeting against racism next week in Geneva amid western concerns that the event may take on anti-Semitic overtones, a senior official confirmed in Berlin Thursday. To the dismay of UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, the United States, Australia and other western nations have objected to wording about Israel in a draft declaration and said they do not plan to send any envoys to the five-day meeting in Switzerland. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has caused upset by calling the Holocaust a "myth" and demanding the abolition of Israel,...

Libya is suing the Geneva authorities for more than 500,000 Swiss francs ($435,500) following the arrest of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son last July in an assault case, their lawyer said on Thursday. The lawsuit alleges police used disproportionate means when arresting Hannibal Gaddafi, now 32, and his pregnant wife Aline on charges of mistreating two domestic employees. Some 20 armed police forced open their luxury hotel suite after being alerted to repeated altercations. The couple had come to the Swiss city to give birth to their second child. "We are seeking a finding by the court that the police...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- The founder of Dignitas, the pro-euthanasia group that operates the Switzerland-based euthanasia clinic, has revealed plans to kill a healthy woman in an assisted suicide. Backers of the practice claim they want suicides for terminally ill patients and the elderly, but they are pushing the envelope even further.Ludwig Minelli calls killing a healthy patient a "marvelous opportunity" and says assisted suicide should no longer be reserved for the disabled or very ill patients.The Dignitas clinic has killed more than 100 people and reports from Zurich University indicate at least 20 percent of them were not terminally...

The Swiss government's racism watchdog issued an unusual warning Friday about rising animosity toward German immigrants being stereotyped as boorish, domineering or even Nazis. Swiss racism laws forbid spreading hateful ideologies or discrimination against groups because of their race, ethnicity or religion. The rules cover denying the Holocaust or the World War I-era genocide of Armenians in Turkey. But they have never been invoked — or needed — to protect Germans. Anti-German sentiment has risen, however, as Switzerland has opened its borders and labor market to its European neighbors. Germans have taken the greatest advantage, with over 220,000 now living...

Three thousand motorists who were victims of a miscalibrated speed camera in the town of Lausanne, Switzerland were issued full refunds along with a letter of apology ... After innocent motorists began complaining to the local media, police began to look into whether the automated ticketing machine may have malfunctioned. The investigation concluded that a manufacturer's defect had caused a "technical problem" forcing the detected speeds to read high. Despite the false readings, the device had passed all of the standard calibration and approval tests required for issuing citations. Police insisted all other speed cameras in the area were perfectly...

European banks among top beneficiaries of AIG bailout ...http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2009/03/15/business/OUKBS-UK-FINANCIAL-AIG-COUNTERPARTIES.phpGerman and French banks got $36 billion from AIG Bailout ...http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/economicsunbound/archives/2009/03/german_and_fren.html[US tax dollars at work] Societe General (FRANCE) - $11.9 Billion Deutsche Bank (GERMANY) - $11.8 Billion Calyon (FRANCE) - $2.3 Billion Barclays (U.K.) - $8.5 Billion UBS (Switzerland) - $5.0 Billion DZ Bank (GERMANY) - $700 Million Wachovia - $1.5 Billion Rabobank (HOLLAND) - $800 Million KFW (GERMANY) - $500 Million Banco Santander (SPAIN) - $300 Million Danske (DENMARK) - $200 Million HSBC Bank (U.K.) - $3.5 Billion Bank of Montreal (CANADA) - $1.1 Billion Royal Bank of Scotland (U.K.) -...

The apprentice dictator speaks the berntütsch. By Julie Zaugg, Titus Plattner North Korea. Kim Jong-il chose her son junior to succeed to him the Stalinist report heading. One is unaware of him almost very. Revelations on the stay in Switzerland of Kim Jong-un. Every Friday, Kim Jong-un threaded her skis and left to descend the tracks of Zweisimmen or Grindelwald with her Bernese classmates. Ten years later, the junior by Kim Jong-il, who was 26 years old on January 8, is had a presentiment of to become the next leader of the North Korea. That which will reign without division...

A tax row between Switzerland and Germany took a venomous turn on Thursday, with Nazi accusations against German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, and Chancellor Angela Merkel wading in to the debate. Steinbrueck -- no stranger to scandal over his own remarks -- revealed in an interview published Thursday that he had received hate mail and had been compared to a Nazi for his attacks on Switzerland's cherished traditions of banking secrecy. "I get threatening letters from Switzerland and get called a Nazi henchman," Steinbrueck told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.

<p>Germany's finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, has been described by an MP in Switzerland as behaving like a 'jackbooted Nazi' for challenging banking secrecy in the country.</p> <p>Mr Steinbrueck, whose government has campaigned against tax havens and has called for Switzerland to relax its code of banking secrecy, said that he had received hate mail after he was compared on Wednesday by Thomas Mueller to a "generation of Germans ... who went through the streets wearing leather coats, boots and arm-bands".</p>

APPENZELL, Switzerland — The Swiss like their secrecy, particularly in banking. At other times, they are more open. Take hiking. In recent years, it has become fashionable for a growing number of Swiss and some foreigners to wander in the Alps clad in little more than hiking shoes and sun screen. Last summer, the number of nude hikers increased to such an extent that the hills often seemed alive with the sound of everything but the swish of trousers. In September, the police in this mountainous town detained a young hiker, whose friends will identify him only as Peter, wandering...

AP story, here's a blurb: The Swiss government said Friday, March 13, it would cooperate on cases of international tax evasion, breaking with a long-standing tradition of protecting wealthy foreigners accused of hiding billions of dollars in the Alpine nation.

<p>It all began 20 years ago today with a frustrated 29-year-old programmer who had a passion for order.</p> <p>Tim Berners-Lee, now famous as the founder of the World Wide Web, was working as an obscure consultant at Cern, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, in the suburbs of Geneva. Berners-Lee loved the laboratory. It was full of stimulating projects and creative people, but his work, and the work of his colleagues, was stymied by the lack of institutional knowledge.</p>

Over the past six months companies including offshore drilling contractors Noble Corp and Transocean, energy-focused engineering group Foster Wheeler and oilfield services company Weatherfield International have all announced plans to shift domicile to Switzerland. "Switzerland has a stable and developed tax regime and a network of tax treaties with most countries where we operate," Transocean Chief Executive Bob Long said in a statement in October, when it announced its move. "As a result, the redomestication will improve our ability to maintain a competitive worldwide effective corporate tax rate." Guido Jud, head of Zug's tax office, said about 1,200 companies had...

In 1934, the Swiss Federal Parliament explicitly introduced the notion of bank secrecy for the first time in a section of the law and created criminal sanctions. Why was this law created? The first and most common explanation is the one taken up by the Swiss Bankers Association, which considers the event to be a political act by the Federal Parliament to demonstrate its independence and its neutrality in the face of the threatening power of Nazi Germany. In the wake of the 1931 financial crisis, the Weimar Republic introduced strict foreign exchange controls. Many cases of economic espionage led...

OECD puts Switzerland on list of tax havens (DPA) 12 March 2009 PARIS - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has drawn up a new list of uncooperative tax havens made up of about 30 countries, including Switzerland, the online edition of the French daily Le Figaro reported on Thursday. The list, described by the OECD as a ‘working paper,’ has been sent on to London to be used as a basis for possible measures to be taken against these tax havens by the G20 group of nations, which will be meeting there on April. The OECD prepared the...

Top brass flew to Baghdad with publicity-shy empowerment businessman Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, Jessica Bezuidenhout and Andre Jurgens Two of the ANC's most powerful officials travelled to Iraq with a controversial Johannesburg businessman just weeks before he landed a R1.2-billion state oil deal. Sandi Majali is one of about 270 people around the world who have been named in an alleged sanctions-busting scam involving oil from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime. The names appeared in Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organisation documents found after the fall of Saddam. Majali, 41, who heads the media-shy empowerment company Imvume Resources, has for the...

Swiss con man Helg Sgarbi has been sentenced to six years in jail after admitting sleeping with and blackmailing a succession of rich women out of millions of pounds including BMW heiress Susanne Klatten. The 44-year-old wined and dined a string of rich wives and widows, including Germany's wealthiest woman Mrs Klatten, winning their confidence and then asking for money.

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese business delegation inked trade deals worth more than 300 million U.S. dollars with Swiss companies on Thursday, ending the second leg of their four-state procurement tour in Europe. The agreements covered products ranging from software to electric equipments and metals, which meet China's domestic needs, according to Chinese trade officials. Among those agreements, Switzerland's ABB, a global leader in power and automation technologies, signed a letter of intent for the supply of generator circuit breakers to China Nuclear Power Engineering Company. Switzerland's Glencore, one of the world's largest suppliers of a wide...

Eugenics … death of the defenceless The legacy of Darwin’s cousin Galton By Russell Grigg Few ideas have done more harm to the human race in the last 120 years than those of Sir Francis Galton. He founded the evolutionary pseudo-science of eugenics. Today, ethnic cleansing, the use of abortion to eliminate ‘defective’ unborn babies, infanticide, euthanasia, and the harvesting of unborn babies for research purposes all have a common foundation in the survival-of-the-fittest theory of eugenics. So who was Galton, what is eugenics, and how has it harmed humanity?...

Switzerland's part-time soldiers could lose their famous right to store their weapons at home. A coalition led by the country's Social Democrat party and the Greens has collected nearly 120,000 signatures to force a national referendum on whether the weapons should be stored at military bases. The coalition of 74 groups says the weapons are involved in too many suicides and murders in the country and tighter controls are needed. Switzerland's armed forces consist of just a few thousand permanent full-time staff, with the rest essentially a militia. Service in the militia is compulsory for men aged between 19 and...

NEW YORK (AFP) – Banking giant UBS has accused the United States government of ignoring Swiss sovereignty and forcing its employees to break the law, as lawyers seek to fend off an IRS fraud probe into the firm.

BERN, Switzerland (AP) - The Swiss government said Sunday it will not attend a U.S. Senate hearing on tax havens - an apparent protest against a U.S. lawsuit aimed at forcing banking giant UBS AG (UBS) to hand over data on tens of thousands of American customers. Switzerland declined an invitation to the March 4 hearing by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Finance Ministry spokesman Roland Meier said.

Switzerland threatened with bankruptcy Posted by Edward Harrison on Tuesday, 17 February 2009 In an interview with Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger, a well-known economist has warned that Switzerland risks bankruptcy, if the recent market turmoil centering on Eastern Europe is not contained quickly. At issue are loans made in Swiss francs to Eastern European debtors. With many countries in the region falling into depression, currencies and asset prices are plunging. Therefore, debtors domiciled in Eastern Europe are increasingly expected to have difficulty with mounting foreign debt loads — and that spells trouble for Switzerland. Below is my translation of the Tagesanzeiger...

Tough controls on offshore regimes as avoidance costs taxpayers billions A worldwide crackdown on tax havens, from Switzerland to the Cayman Islands, will be spearheaded by Gordon Brown as the world's richest nations use the global economic downturn to close loopholes that are costing them hundreds of billions in lost revenues. As he embarks on a mini-tour of EU capitals in advance of the G20 summit in London in April, the prime minister announced yesterday that he was negotiating with fellow world leaders the terms of a tough regulatory system on tax and banking that will cover every country. Speaking...

Surprise and even shock were among the reactions to my recent column about how elite members of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, were considering a proposal for a new global television network to usher in a state of "global governance." It sounded authoritarian, even totalitarian, to some. Here are more of the troubling details. The media proposal, which was included in "The Global Agenda 2009" report, is to create "a new global network" with "the capacity to connect the world, bridging cultures and peoples, and telling us who we are and what we mean to each...

It was an attack that shocked two ­nations — a 26-year-old Brazilian woman living in Zurich claimed to have been attacked by racist skinheads who carved the initials of Switzerland's main rightwing party into her body and caused her to miscarry her unborn twins. When news reached Brazil earlier this week, the foreign minister, Celso Amorim, condemned the assault as "grave" and "shocking" and called in the Swiss envoy. The president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said: "We want people to respect Brazilians overseas in the same way that we respect them here. We cannot accept and stay silent faced...

ZURICH (AFP) – Two of Switzerland's largest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, are set to announce combined losses for 2008 of 29 billion Swiss francs later this week, the Sonntag newspaper reported Sunday. According to the report, UBS will announce an annual loss of 21 billion Swiss francs (14 billion euros, 18 billion dollars) on Tuesday, the largest in Swiss history and reflecting the fact the company was one of the banks hardest hit by the US subprime loan crisis. Last November, UBS posted a net profit of 296 million Swiss francs for the third quarter following a year of...

Swiss voters gave a resounding "Yes" today to an agreement extending the right of European Union citizens to live and work in Switzerland, despite fears of immigrant labour and job losses in the deepening recession. Official results showed 59.6 per cent of voters had backed the deal, renewing an existing agreement allowing migrant workers into Switzerland and extending it to new EU members Bulgaria and Romania. Swiss workers also have access to EU countries.

SNIPPET: ""Spanish police suspect terrorism links in arrests," from the Associated Press, February 3 (thanks to all who sent this in): The Spanish police arrested 13 people on Tuesday on suspicion of links to organized crime and terrorism groups. A police statement said the detainees — 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian — are suspected of belonging to an international criminal gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and the smuggling of people." SNIPPET: "The police statement said the group is suspected of having contacts in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Thailand. The group allegedly stole passports in...

DAVOS, Switzerland — Are you looking for a little excitement in your life? Imagine what fun it would be to live through a rebel attack . . . to navigate a minefield … to negotiate with corrupt officials and border guards in a desperate effort to survive. Thanks to a U.N.-sponsored exhibition, visitors to the World Economic Forum in Davos last week got just that opportunity -- at a theme park with a name right out of Disney: "Refugee Run." Visitors were given the opportunity to experience the harsh conditions that millions of refugees and internally displaced people face daily...

It is hard to believe, but a majority of Americans (including Christians and conservatives) seem oblivious to the fact that there is a very real, very legitimate New World Order (NWO) unfolding. In the face of overwhelming evidence, most Americans not only seem totally unaware of this reality, they seem unwilling to even remotely entertain the notion. On one hand, it is understandable that so many Americans would be ignorant of the emerging New World Order. After all, the mainstream media refuses to report, or even acknowledge, the NWO. Even "conservative" commentators and talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh,...

President Obama’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, is being urged to lay the foundation for “global governance” by considering “international taxation” measures to loot more money from U.S. taxpayers. The recommendation is included in the report, “The Global Agenda 2009,” which is being considered by the World Economic Forum (WEF), meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 28th - February 1st. The WEF is not an official government group but does include dozens of government, corporate and labor leaders at its annual meetings. Media companies such as News Corporation (parent of Fox News, the Fox Business Network, and the Wall Street...

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss man suspected of being involved in the world's biggest nuclear smuggling ring claims he supplied the CIA with information that led to the breakup of the black market nuclear network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. In a documentary airing Thursday on Swiss TV station SF1, Urs Tinner says he tipped off U.S. intelligence about a delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya's nuclear weapons program. The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. The 43-year-old Tinner...

The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at US President George W Bush is seeking asylum in Switzerland, Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve reports. Muntadar al-Zaidi has been in custody in Iraq awaiting trial since the incident during a visit by Mr Bush to the country in mid-December. He fears for his safety in his Baghdad prison, the paper says, quoting his lawyer, Mauro Poggia. The lawyer argues his client likewise cannot resume his old job in Iraq. Since his arrest, the Iraqi has reportedly been beaten in custody, suffering a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his older...

HP-1353 "Treasury Designates Additional FARC International Commission Members" SNIPPET: "Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated three international representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a narco-terrorist organization. The OFAC action was taken pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), which applies financial sanctions against significant foreign narcotics traffickers and organizations, like the FARC. "Today's action exposes three additional members of the FARC's International Commission," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of OFAC. "The FARC is one of the world's largest suppliers of cocaine and continues to be...

Under pressure from federal authorities, the Swiss bank UBS is closing the hidden offshore accounts of its well-heeled American clients, potentially allowing their secrets to spill into the open. In a step that would have once been unthinkable in the rarefied world of Swiss banking, UBS will shut about 19,000 accounts that prosecutors suspect have gone undeclared to the Internal Revenue Service. UBS will transfer the assets to other banks or other divisions within UBS, or will mail checks directly to the account holders, creating paper trails for federal prosecutors who are examining whether UBS clients used such accounts to...

LifeNews.com Note: Award winning author Wesley J. Smith is special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. His current book is "Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World."   The similarities between the "suicide tourism" ongoing in Switzerland and Jack Kevorkian's death circus are just too striking to ignore. Both involved depressed people with disabilities, people with terminal illnesses, and some people who are not ill at all traveling from their homes to be made dead with the participation of strangers. Both involved publicity hungry vultures, Kevorkian and Dignitas' Ludwig Minelli (among others), who use their ghoulish fame...

ZURICH, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Geneva-based banks and investment funds have lost more than 5 billion Swiss francs ($4.22 billion) in the alleged $50 billion fraud by former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff, Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported on Saturday. Union Bancaire Privee (UBP), a leading bank for investment in funds of hedge funds, has lost about 1 billion Swiss francs, said Le Temps, which spoke to various unnamed banking sources for its article. A spokesman for UBP said the bank had no comment with regards to the article. UBP had 127 billion Swiss francs of assets under management at the...

Switzerland may have to print money to stave off deflation The Swiss National Bank has cut interest rates to 0.5pc and opened the door for emergency stimulus, becoming the first country in Europe to flirt with zero policy rates. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Last Updated: 1:51PM GMT 12 Dec 2008 South Korea cut to 3pc and Taiwan cut to 2pc, the lowest in 30 years. Both countries are facing a collapse in exports to China and traditional markets in the West. Thomas Jordan, a board member of the SNB, said the bank was mulling extreme measures to stabilise the financial system...

In the right to bear arms debate, pro-gun Americans point to Switzerland, where almost every adult male is legally required to possess a gun. One of the few nations with a higher per capita rate of gun ownership than the United States, Switzerland has virtually no gun crime. Therefore, argue the pro-gunners, America doesn't need gun control. Yet Handgun Control, Inc. (HCI), in its brochure "Handgun Facts," points to Switzerland as one of the advanced nations with strict handgun laws." The brochure states that all guns are registered, and handgun purchases require a background check and a permit. Gun crime...

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We gave up on the Swiss back in May when they decided that their Constitution gives plants the right not to be arbitrarily killed. Now we have more lunacy from the same bunch of fruitcakes. More . . .

UBS loses favour with angry Swiss It has been a hard year for the biggest Swiss bank, UBS. After losing millions in the US sub-prime mortgage market, it has had to beg the Swiss government for help. As Imogen Foulkes reports, its reputation in Switzerland may never recover. In Zurich, UBS head office sits astride Paradeplatz - Parade Square to you and me. But in recent months, the Swiss have renamed it Piratenplatz - or Pirate Square - to signify what they believe is the daylight robbery that has taken place over the last 12 months. Not of their biggest...

Thin people and vegans are being allowed to dodge national conscription by the Swiss army – but it will take users of cannabis and Ecstasy. Under rules issued this week, people cannot serve if they eat no animal products or if they are of average height and weigh less than 8st.

Switzerland has adopted new animal protection legislation which specifies in great detail how fish and animals are to be treated — including how to dispose of unwanted goldfish. Under the new law, live goldfish cannot be flushed down the toilet — they must be knocked out and killed first. The new law also spells out in exhaustive detail how all domestic animals are to be treated, including pets, farm animals or those destined for scientific experiments. Wild animals are also covered by the law if they reside in zoos or circuses. The Swiss law also bans catch-and-release fishing and the...

Today, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank are announcing coordinated measures designed to address the continued elevated pressures in US dollar short-term funding markets. These measures, together with other actions taken in the last few days by individual central banks, are designed to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets. The central banks will continue to work together closely and will take appropriate steps to address the ongoing pressures. Bank of England action The Bank of England will offer...

Excerpt - GENEVA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) started up a huge particle-smashing machine on Wednesday, aiming to re-enact the conditions of the "Big Bang" that created the universe. Experiments in the Large Hadron Collider, a 10 billion Swiss franc ($9 billion) accelerator built underneath the Swiss-French border, could unlock the remaining secrets of particle physics and answer questions about the universe and its origins.