Switzerland

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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...

Swiss Vote to Expel Foreign Criminals

53% vote in favor of referendum

(Newser) - The Swiss have voted narrowly in favor of automatically deporting foreign nationals guilty of crimes including murder, drug dealing, and social security fraud. Around 53% of voters backed the referendum, instigated by the right-wing Swiss People's Party, which proposed expelling foreign criminals after they had served their sentences in Swiss...

Monks Seek to Recruit High-Flying Execs

Ad campaign offers stressed bankers a different life

(Newser) - Unlike most ads in Switzerland's leading "executive search" magazine, a prominent one that appeared over the weekend was most notable for what it promised candidates they wouldn't get. Bankers-turned-monks will enjoy a life "free of personal material riches and a couple relationship," read the ad from the...

Swiss Finish World's Longest Tunnel

Train will connect Switzerland to Italy

(Newser) - Switzerland is expected to break through the last few inches of rock to complete the world’s largest tunnel today. The 35.4-mile Gotthard Base rail burrows under the Gotthard massif on the route connecting Switzerland to Italy, the AP reports. The trains running through the tunnel will one day...

Women Take Control of Swiss Government

Ruling council gains female majority for first time

(Newser) - Women in Switzerland, who weren't allowed to vote or run for office just 40 years ago, now control the country's government. Women gained a four-person majority in the country's ruling seven-member Federal Council with the election of Social Democrat Simonetta Sommaruga, who defeated a candidate from a right-wing party, the...

Now in Swiss Vending Machines: Pregnancy Tests

It's supposed to promote privacy

(Newser) - Privacy is cherished in Switzerland, so it only follows that the country should ... start selling pregnancy tests in vending machines? Apparently. The move, which will bring the product to 3,000 machines at the end of this month, is part of an effort to ensure that young people can purchase...

Speeding Swede Faces $1M Fine

Driver was going 180mph on Swiss road

(Newser) - A 37-year-old Swedish driver won't be forgetting his trip to Switzerland in a hurry. The man faces a record-breaking $1 million maximum fine after being caught driving his Mercedes SLS AMG at 180 miles per hour, over 100 miles per hour over the limit. The Swiss determine speeding fines by...

Unpublished Kafka Story Discovered

Israeli judge orders secret archives opened

(Newser) - Kafka fans may have some reading to do. A team of lawyers and scholars have found a previously unpublished piece believed to have been authored by the late, great Franz Kafka. The discovery came after months of wrangling over the contents of ten locked vaults in Israel and Switzerland. An...

US Not Giving Up on Nailing Polanski

Rape of a 13-year-old 'is not a technicality'

(Newser) - The US is "deeply disappointed" by the Swiss decision to free film director Roman Polanski, and authorities are considering what action to take, said a Justice Department official. Polanksi, 76, was freed after 9 months under house arrest when the Swiss Justice Ministry refused to comply with America's "...

'Rat' Polanski Deserves a Boycott

 'Rat' Polanski 
 Deserves 
 a Boycott  
Eugene Robinson
Jul 12, 2010 1:54 PM CDT

'Rat' Polanski Deserves a Boycott

Confessed rapist 'has never shown remorse'

(Newser) - The Swiss government's decision to free Roman Polanski on a technicality is bad enough; the fact that a lawyer for the filmmaker and confessed rapist called the move "a great relief after the pain suffered by Roman Polanski and his family" is "the definitive textbook example of unmitigated...

Swiss Free Polanski, Refuse to Extradite

US didn't make case for extradition on 33-year-old charges, say Swiss

(Newser) - It's over: The Swiss government declared Roman Polanski a free man today after rejecting a US request to extradite him on a charge of having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. The Swiss blamed US authorities for failing to provide confidential testimony about Polanski's sentencing procedure in 1977-1978. The...

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