Switzerland

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Swiss Tunnel Bus Crash Kills 22 Kids, 6 Adults

Belgium in mourning after ski holiday bus crash

(Newser) - A bus carrying students returning from a ski holiday crashed into a wall in a Swiss tunnel last night, killing 22 Belgian 12-year-olds and six adults. Another 24 students were hospitalized with injuries after the crash near the Alpine city of Sierre. The cause of the crash has not been...

Swiss 'Janitor Satellite' to Clean Space Junk

It will push defunct satellites into the atmosphere to burn up

(Newser) - Switzerland is on a mean cleaning bender: The fastidious folks at the Swiss Space Center are building a "janitor satellite" that will grab space junk orbiting the Earth and push it into the atmosphere to burn up, the AP reports. The first of these spacecraft, the $11 million "...

Protesters Occupy Davos —in Igloos

Group set to protest World Economic Forum

(Newser) - The Occupy movement has hit Davos ahead of the World Economic Forum, and this time protesters aren't pitching mere tents in the frigid weather. Instead, they're building an igloo village near where the WEF is set to convene, the New York Times reports. The igloos are half as...

World's Timekeepers: Kill 'Leap Seconds'

Debate rages over fundamental shift

(Newser) - Countries across the globe are divided—and it's only a matter of time. Some, including Britain and China, want to retain a special "leap second" occasionally added to the calendar to keep atomic clocks in line with the Earth's rotation. The US, France, Germany, and others, however,...

Special Skier's Underwear Banned at World Cup

It apparently gives athletes an unfair advantage

(Newser) - The newest suspicions of cheating in sports come not from the use of performance enhancing drugs but from the wearing of special underwear. Professional skiers who will compete in the upcoming World Cup in Switzerland were bluntly told by officials they cannot don a "full-bodied, plastic-neoprene hybrid sheath" worn...

Swiss Fear Vast Glacier Chunk Might Fall

There's a massive crack in the ice

(Newser) - Swiss authorities have blocked off hiking trails near the Giesen glacier in the Bernese Alps and sent a crisis team to monitor it, for fear that it’s about to shed a slab of ice the size of 12 football fields. A huge crevasse has been discovered in the glacier,...

Scientists Back Up Frankenstein Moon Tale

Author Shelley could have been inspired by moonlight, as she said

(Newser) - Literary critics have long doubted Mary Shelley's claim that the idea for Frankenstein came to her one night in a vision of sorts, when she woke up and saw moonlight streaming through her shutters. But now researchers have proven that Shelley was telling the truth—or at least possibly...

UBS Chief Resigns After Trader's $2.3B Loss

Oswald Gruebel steps down from Zurich bank

(Newser) - UBS chief executive Oswald Gruebel has resigned over a $2.3 billion rogue trading loss . The bank said Gruebel's decision was an attempt to allow UBS to start afresh following the latest major scandal to hit Switzerland's biggest bank. Bank President Kaspar Villiger said the board tried to...

Swiss Political Party Forms to Ban PowerPoint

They hope to get a referendum on the ballot

(Newser) - How much do you hate PowerPoint? Probably not as much as Matthias Poehm. He’s founded an entire political party dedicated solely to the eradication of the dreaded (but oh-so-user-friendly) presentation software, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The Anti-PowerPoint Party, or APPP, held its first meeting earlier this week, with...

Google Threatens to Erase Street View in Switzerland

Search engine refuses to grant 'absolute anonymity' in Street View images

(Newser) - The time for a virtual trip to Switzerland is now. Google is threatening to wipe photographs of streets and houses in Switzerland from its online maps unless the country's supreme court overturns a ruling requiring an absolute guarantee of anonymity for people captured by the popular Street View service....

Germany Shuts Down 7 Nuclear Reactors

Older reactors will cease operations for at least 3 months

(Newser) - Japan’s growing nuclear crisis has led Germany to shut down seven of its nuclear power plants for at least three months, the New York Times reports. Plants that began operating before the close of 1980 will temporarily close while officials complete a safety review for all 17 of the...

Swiss Reservists May Have to Give Up Guns

Referendum would change tradition of keeping weapons at home

(Newser) - Switzerland's gun laws are closer to America's than those of most other European countries, but a referendum this weekend may curb the centuries-old tradition of armed households. Most Swiss males under 50 are military reservists and usually take their military-issue rifles home with them, but the initiative being voted on...

Mubarak's Net Worth? Figure $5B, Not $70B

Switzerland freezes his accounts

(Newser) - Switzerland has temporarily frozen all assets that might belong to Hosni Mubarak and his family. It's not clear how much that might be, but the AP notes there was $3.5 billion in Egyptian deposits in Swiss accounts at the end of 2009. Mubarak and his family probably have a...

Father of Missing Twins Admitted Killing Them

Told wife in his suicide letter they were 'resting in peace'

(Newser) - The father of two missing Swiss twins told his wife in a suicide letter that he killed them, reports Global Post . Matthias Schepp wrote that the twins were "resting in peace" and "did not suffer" and that he would soon follow them. He later threw himself in front...

Facebook Plea for Missing Twins

Girls, 6, last spotted sobbing on Corsican ferry

(Newser) - A heartsick Swiss mother has turned to Facebook in a plea to the public to help find her young twin daughters, missing since they were snatched by their suicidal father. Alessia and Livia Schepp, both 6, were last spotted crying on a ferry to Corsica with their dad after he...

Bush Cancels Swiss Visit Amid Torture Complaints

Organizer say he feared legal action

(Newser) - A visit by George W. Bush to Switzerland later this month has been called off because the host charity says it feared leftist protests would get out of hand. Human rights groups, meanwhile, say the real reason is because they planned to lodge a criminal complaint against Bush accusing him...

Why Baby Doc Really Returned: Cash?

Struggling Duvalier has money frozen in Switzerland

(Newser) - In all the speculation over the reason for “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s sudden return to Haiti, a possible new motive has emerged: The former dictator may have been seeking access to cash, the New York Times notes. The former ruler allegedly embezzled $300 million from his country, but insiders...

'WikiLeaks Banker' Rudolf Elmer Arrested in Switzerland
 Swiss Arrest WikiLeaks Banker 
Jan 20, 2011 5:04 AM CST

Swiss Arrest WikiLeaks Banker

Whistleblower Rudolf Elmer accused of breaking secrecy laws

(Newser) - From one legal mess to another: The Swiss last night arrested an ex-banker who appears to have broken the country's strict banking secrecy laws in spectacular fashion. Rudolf Elmer—who handed Julian Assange details on 2,000 holders of offshore accounts this week—is being detained while authorities investigate the...

Swiss Village: Pay Dog Tax, or We Kill Fido

That's one way to get residents to pay...

(Newser) - Don’t want to pay your dog tax? Then your dog will be executed—at least, that’s how one Swiss village is handling the problem. A Reconvilier official says the town—population 2,245 humans, 280 canines—can legally kill a dog if its owner doesn’t cough up...

Swiss Debate Legalizing Incest
Swiss Consider
Legalizing Incest
Dec 16, 2010 3:51 AM CST

Swiss Consider Legalizing Incest

Not a bad idea, says Columbia prof's lawyer

(Newser) - The Swiss parliament has drafted a law that would allow parents to have sex with their children or siblings to have sex with each other, provided everybody involved is a consenting adult. "First-degree" incest is already legal in countries including France and Russia, but the Swiss measure hasn't won...

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