HOSTAGE TAKERS SEIZE SPANISH CONSULATE
Several people are thought to be being held hostage after in a siege at the Spanish consulate in Switzerland.
Police do not know the identity of the kidnappers and have closed the area around the building in the capital, Berne.
It is still not clear if the hostage takers were armed.
An official said a man had entered the building and hit a security man over the head.
Police spokeswoman Franziska Frey said: "We received information about a hostage seizure. I don't know any more right now."
Many foreign diplomatic missions are located in the affluent part of the city.
Spain launches immigrant amnesty
By Danny Wood BBC News, Madrid
The Spanish government is starting a process of granting legal amnesty to up to 800,000 undocumented immigrants.
The new rules apply to people living in Spain without legal residency or working papers.
The move is an attempt by Spain's Socialist government to manage the country's illegal immigration problem.
The authorities are preparing to deport a group of 227 suspected illegal migrants found on a boat drifting off the Canary Islands on Saturday.
For weeks all over Spain tens of thousands of people have been queuing at embassies and local councils to prepare their documents.
Residency
Now they have three months to submit their forms. Under the rules, an immigrant with a six-month work contract who is registered at the town hall and social security office is eligible for Spanish residency, the right to legally work and live in Spain.
The move is designed to ease Spain's illegal immigration problem. It will also bring in millions of euros of tax revenue up until now lost in the black market.
It is estimated that more than one million people live and work in Spain illegally. With out any legal status, they form the most vulnerable layer of Spanish society.
Thousands work in two of Spain's most important industries: agriculture and construction. But immigrant groups say this legal amnesty lacks flexibility and is not the way to solve Spain's immigration problems.
And already the government has been forced to change the rules for the agriculture sector. The sub-zero temperatures across Europe have damaged thousands of crops and shortened the harvest season in the south of Spain.
For that reason, the minister for work is allowing agricultural workers to apply for residency with three-month rather than six-month work contracts.