The US Justice Department didn’t say who the Uzbek national sent to Switzerland was. Last month Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said he will get immigrant status and be eligible to work. Switzerland agreed to take the Guantanamo detainee on humanitarian grounds and said that he posed no danger, having been cleared for release in 2005.

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Angela Merkel says Germany will buy a list of alleged tax evaders hiding money in Switzerland, if it is genuine. The BBC reports that up to 1,500 Germans are alleged to have stashed millions in secret bank accounts across the border. The information is apparently being offered by an IT specialist who once worked at HSBC in Geneva. 

However Doris Leuthard, Switzerland's president, has warned foreign governments against using illegally acquired bank data to pinch tax evaders; she says that governments should not use information obtained from criminals. According to the media reports, the secret informant approached the German fiscal authorities and demanded 2.5 million euros for the data; according to some estimates the information could net the German taxman as much as 200 million euros in recovered taxes.

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 A new British government safety campaign warns young Brits against the dangers of drinking in the mountains. Swissinfo reports that posters with the slogan “Don’t catch your death” have been put up at Geneva airport and several Swiss ski resorts to raise awareness among British tourists of the risks of binge drinking on a skiing holiday.

The initiative was jointly launched in Switzerland, France and Italy just before the Christmas holidays to target the one million British tourists visiting the Alps this winter.

According to British diplomats, more than 30 Britons were involved in alpine accidents last year, half of them under 25. Many died because they underestimated the risk of drinking at high altitude.

However Swiss police, tourist authorities and ski resorts largely reject the notion that there is an alcohol problem with British holidaymakers. One bar owner said that Brits don’t usually go over the top, especially with the current dire exchange rate.

The swine flu pandemic is apparently running out of steam. Swiss Health officials reckon that swine flu will have largely gone from the country within the next couple of weeks, along with the normal strains of seasonal flu. In the second week of this year, after about 13 weeks of pandemic, doctors in the national notification system recorded 8 suspected cases of flu out of 1,000 consultations. The peak for cases was in December.

An estimated 1.5 million people in Switzerland have been infected with the virus so far but in most cases the illness was mild. 18 people died from the disease, most of whom were elderly or already suffering from a chronic disease. The Swiss government bought 13 million doses of vaccine to contain a swine flu pandemic that luckily never happened. However, it is estimated that only one in five of the 7.7 million Swiss residents took advantage of the free vaccinations.

The FT reports that Daniel Vasella is stepping down as chief executive of Novartis to concentrate on his role as chairman. Up to now he was both chairman and CEO, which many saw as too much power for one pair of hands and certainly too much money. Confounding his critics, Novartis has just announced a 10 billion dollar profit for last year on sale which increased by 44 billion dollars.

Novartis are holding a press conference later today to explain why Mr Vasella has decided to step down from the top job and to introduce Joe Jimenez, Mr Vasella's American successor.

And staying with business in Basel, the Swiss chemicals company, Clariant, has confirmed a newspaper report that it will shed a further 500 jobs. The Basel-based firm cut more than 3,000 jobs last year, and at the end of 2009 had fewer than 18,000 staff worldwide. A Clariant spokesman confirmed that employees at Swiss plants could also be affected by the cuts.

Clariant, like many chemical firms, has been hit hard by problems in key markets like cars and building and so far has closed factories in France, Britain and Mexico.

If all goes as expected, former Swiss cabinet minister Joseph Deiss will become the next president of the United Nations General Assembly. Deiss was chosen as the official candidate for the office of president for the 65th General Assembly by the western regional group of nations, whose turn it was to pick the next head.

Deiss, who was chosen over Belgium s Louis Michel, a former European Commissioner, recently told La Liberté newspaper that he sees this as a chance to show that Switzerland is ready to commit itself to play its full role as a UN member and actor in global public life. The recent Swiss referendum banning minarets is not thought to be an obstacle to Deiss election but will likely focus more international attention on the controversy.

The Swiss cabinet first put forward Deiss’ candidacy in September. The UN General Assembly will hold the official election in spring 2010.

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Swiss ski champion Didier Cuche announced yesterday that he competed over the weekend with a broken rib in a tournament at Val d’Isère.  In breaking the news on his website, he shared that the injury may force him out of this weekend’s World Cup ski races. 

Cuche was quoted as saying the injury, which occurred during training, is rather embarrassing but not serious. After the crash, he competed in the super combined and super-G races but the pain forced him out of Sunday’s giant slalom race.

Cuche, who leads the World Cup downhill standings, said he would travel to Val Gardena and would decide there whether he is able to compete.

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And finally….With climate talks underway in Copenhagen , Switzerland says it can meet its targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A Federal Environment Office report released yesterday in Copenhagen outlines how Switzerland will meet its obligations of reducing greenhouse gases by eight per cent by 2012.  The report says that Switzerland will need to rely on use of carbon sinks as well as purchase international emissions certificates. 
In 2007, which was the year before Switzerland s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol went into effect, 51 million tons of greenhouse gases - or nearly 7 tons per Swiss citizen were released in Switzerland . By 2020, Switzerland has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent compared with 1990 levels.

This past week a march in Lausanne attracted up to 5,000 supporters, while a demonstration in Geneva was attended by more than 2,000 people, with smaller protests taking place in other towns. In Lausanne the crowd marched from the cathedral to the mosque shouting "no to exclusion" and "no to discrimination".

In front of the mosque, representatives of the Muslim community thanked the four cantons – Geneva , Vaud and Neuchâtel and here in Baselstadt – which voted against the minaret ban. "You warmed our hearts," they said.

The protests were organized by the Movement Against Racism with support from the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim communities.

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Swiss skiers are off to a strong start this season.  Historically, Switzerland has been one of the world’s great ski powers, but recent years have not been so good.  This year may, however, be different with the Swiss mens’ team won big at the World Cup in North America .

Switzerland 's Carlo Janka, just 23 years old, won all three of his races -- a super combined, downhill and giant slalom -- and leads the World Cup overall standings. His 35-year-old teammate, Didier Cuche, is second in the standings while Austria 's Benjamin Raich, who won the overall in 2006, is a distant third.

Janka has three wins so far this season and Cuche has two. At least for now, it's good to be Swiss, taking great momentum into the European schedule.

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And finally…..a rare Swiss apple is being hailed in the cosmetic and fashion world as a possible anti-aging breakthrough.

The Uttwiler Spätlauber apple has long been known for its excellent storability – staying fresh looking for up to four months after harvesting. Now Swiss scientists are trying to bring the apple’s ingredients to the fight against human skin aging. 

Having concluded that the apple’s amazing longevity is due to its stem cells, Mibelle Biochemistry, which is a division of Migros, is developing the apple’s ingredients into a cream for humans.  As skin ages, the number of skin stem cells decreases and their ability to repair the skin becomes less efficient.  Stem cells from the Uttwiler Spätlauber apple are thought to protect skin cell regeneration and, in the process, delay the onset of wrinkles. 

While this may sound fanciful, this technology is attracting lots of attention. There is no word on when this will be available broadly but stayed tuned for more on this from the English Show.

According to Sonntag Zeitung, UBS CEO Oswald Gruebel made the threat in a Zurich speech to businessmen on Thursday, citing the possibility that authorities would force major banks to reorganize as holding companies.

Following the Swiss government’s 6 billion Swiss franc bailout of UBS last year, there have been calls for tougher regulatory banking standards – this includes forcing large banks to operate as holding companies.

A UBS spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

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The Large Hadron Collider is operational again - and yesterday the world’s largest atom smasher broke the record for proton acceleration.  According to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which operates the collider, Hadron sent beams of particles at 1.2 trillion electron volts. This eclipsed the previous record of just under 1 trillion electron volts at another collider in the US . 

The Large Hadron Collider is located near Geneva and is intended help answer some of the most fundamental questions in physics.  It was shut down last year shortly after its debut because of problems with its superconducting magnets.

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Good news on the economic front – it seems that Switzerland is coming out of the  recession in a very solid way.  Seco, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, is reporting that the economy increased by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, compared to a drop of 1.3 percent last year.

Seco says that the economic growth is solid because it occurred in different sectors and that this quarter of growth after six negative quarters. Private consumption remains robust, growing by 0.6 per cent, and exports and even financial services are on the rise.  

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And finally, the prison release of film director Roman Polanski may have benefited by help from French president Nicholas Sarkozy.  Following news that Polanski will soon be released from a Swiss prison, Polanski’s sister-in-law, Mathilde Seigner, told a Paris newspaper that Sarkozy’s efforts had been “very effective.“

Last week, Swiss authorities agreed toa $4.5 million bail arrangement on the condition that Polanski remains under house.  If released, he would remain at his home in Gstaad.  

New of Sarkozy’s intervention surprised few people, because Sarkozy expressed outrage after the director, who lives in France , was arrested in October at the Zurich airport on an outstanding U.S. arrest warrant. The London Times speculated that Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni, may have pressured her husband to intervene because she used to hob nob with Polanski and wife Emmanuelle Seigner.

Despite the release, Polanski is still embroiled in a legal fight over whether he will be extradited to the US.  

The Swiss government says Google has declined to comply with earlier requests to make changes to the system.  Citing concerns that Google’s cameras are intrusive and literally focusing on people’s backyards, the commissioner filed affidavits this week with the federal administrative court.

Switzerland isn’t alone. Germany , Greece , Japan and the U.K. have all made their concerns clear – in some cases, requiring changes to the different views before “Street View could be seen in their respective countries.

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Today the Swiss government released criteria it will use ïn determining whether to help U.S. tax authorities track down U.S. residents suspected of committing tax fraud. This stems of course from recent case involving UBS bank.

The Swiss Federal Tax Administration set up a task force to evaluate client files from UBS and determine the criteria for assisting governments in the future.  It said the criteria include cases where there is a reasonable suspicion of "tax fraud or the like," and in this case covers "American clients of UBS, who directly held undisclosed accounts in excess of 1 million Swiss francs at any time between 2001 and 2008."  It also covers U.S. citizens with offshore company accounts between 2001 and 2008," when there is a reasonable suspicion of "tax-fraud."

The Swiss actions are being closely watched by other countries like Australia and the UK that have recently requested tax information about their citizens living in Switzerland .

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And finally, in a follow up to a story we told you about last week, two Swiss businessmen held in Libya for more than a year will be put on trial.

Last week the two men — identified as Max Goeldi and Rachid Hamdani — were handed over to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli , leading to expectations they would be released and allowed to return home.  However, in a turn of events, a Swiss Ministry official says Libya now says the men will stand trial tax evasion and violating residency laws.

There’s no more word about what comes next for the two, who were originally detained in July 2008 for alleged visa violations as a spat erupted between Switzerland and Libya , involving leader Moammar Gadhafi's son.

The businessmen, who were returned to the Swiss embassy without explanation, were as well as could be expected under the circumstances, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said, but it is not clear whether they will now be free to leave Libya . The pair were refused exit visas in July 2008, following the arrest in Switzerland of the son of Libya 's leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife were detained that same month after being arrested at their luxury hotel in Geneva accused of beating two of their servants. The couple was released on bail within days and returned to Libya . The charges were later dropped, but the case infuriated Tripoli .

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Switzerland has opened its own investigation into the case of a nuclear physicist from France with suspected links to al-Qaeda, according to a Swiss official.

Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Walburga Bur said the investigation was opened last week and is directed at a man suspected of supporting criminal activity, but officials in both Switzerland and France have refused to identify him. They do say, however, that the man is a 32-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin who had been working on the Hadron Collider and teaching at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne . He was arrested recently at his home in Vienne , France .

Bur confirmed the investigation after a report appeared in the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper but refused to say more about the case.

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Britain and Australia have requested information from UBS after the Swiss bank agreed in August to disclose some 4,450 client names to settle a U.S. tax case.

UBS revealed this past week, that tax and regulatory authorities in a number of jurisdictions had requested information on cross-border wealth management services provided by UBS and other banks.

The British and Australian tax authorities confirmed that investigations areunderway to the Swiss Sonntag newspaper over the weekend but declined to give further details.

In a statement, UBS said it is "cooperating with these information requests strictly within the limits of financial privacy obligations under Swiss law and that it is premature to speculate on the outcome of any such inquiries."

Criticism of the practice has increased following recent cases have drawn more attention to "suicide tourism," in which people who can't legally seek assisted suicide in their home countries travel to Switzerland , where it is allowed.

Switzerland's Parliament is now considering two proposals from the federal council, the seven-member cabinet that heads the government. If either proposal is adopted, people suffering from a chronic illness or who have a mental illness could no longer legally take advantage of assisted suicide.  Parliamentary discussions about the proposals are expected to last until March of next year.

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Over the past year, Switzerland has come under strong international scrutiny for its role as a tax haven, but according to ABC News a new study puts Switzerland as only number three in the world when it comes to secrecy in the banking sector.

Surprising to many, at the top of the list is the American state of Delaware . Luxembourg was second ahead of Switzerland .

The rankings come from new research by the Tax Justice Network, which campaigns for fairer banking practices.
 
Following Switzerland to round out the top five were the Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom .
 
According to the Tax Justice Network, which commissioned the study, some 700,000 companies are registered in Delaware , but only half of them publicly conduct business in the United States . UBS and Credit Suisse have about 200 entities in the state, according to the group. 

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Despite all the news about swine flu, there’s not much enthusiasm for the vaccine here in Switzerland .  According to a new survey, nearly 87 percent of people in Switzerland plan to ignore advice from the Federal Health Office to get the jab against the H1N1 virus.
 
60 percent of respondents in the study also said they felt that swine flu warnings have been overblown.
 
In response, the head of the Federation of Swiss Doctors, Jaques de Haller, said that “there’s work to be done” in explaining the importance of the flu jab, especially for high-risk people like young children, people with chronic illnesses and pregnant women. 
 
He pointed out that in the Northern hemisphere, the H1N1 flu has been taking a toll—with a thousand deaths already in the US , and several hundred in the UK .

Teenagers, planted by the Federal Health Office to try to buy alcohol under the legal age limit, are showing that it is getting easier for them to illegally purchase alcohol. According to the government, the undercover and underage test shoppers were sold alcohol 35.6 percent of the time in the study, up from 27.7 percent in 2007.

More than 2,000 attempts were made by the teenagers in the study to buy alcohol. Only 40 percent of the teens were asked for ID, 30 percent were asked their age but without needing to give proof and 30 percent weren’t questioned at all before being sold alcohol.

In Switzerland the legal age for buying beer and wine is 16 years, and 18 years for spirits.

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A new indoor skiing event is being planned for November.  Organizers from Switzerland, France, Austria and Italy have revealed plans to hold a European skiing championship indoors next month.

The first slalom races for men and women are scheduled to be held on an artificial course in Amneville, France, on Nov. 7 and organizers said on Sunday that they already have 80 professional skiers registered from 12 nations.

However, the plan is not welcome by everyone.  International Ski Federation president Gian-Franco Kasper had intimated that World Cup skiers could be suspended if they compete in the new competition.

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Ever-increasing immigration is putting pressure on areas of natural beauty in the country, according to some members of the Green-party, who are calling on the government to limit immigration.

Bastien Girod and Yvonne Gilli argue that if Switzerland’s population continues to grow at last year’s pace, it will have doubled within 50 years. They say that would have a very negative impact on quality of life here.

The two Green party members also highlight that poorer sections of Switzerland’s population in underprivileged residential areas are being marginalised, suffering from increased traffic problems, noise pollution and environmental degradation because natural retreats are being destroyed.

The head of the Green party, Ueli Leuenberger, has distanced himself from the comments, saying he finds it ’difficult’ to make such a link between demographics and infrastructure.

Authorities say they first spotted the 47-year-old driver as he sped his jeep past an unmarked police car at 160 km.h (100 mph) in a rainstorm Sunday.

Driving dangerously close to other cars on the autobahn, he then ignored police attempts to pull him over — first with a stop sign, and then with flashing lights and sirens.

The man drove through a construction zone at 140 km/h (87 mph), nearly twice the speed limit, before being stopped. Police seized the man's driver's license, and a judge ordered him tested for medications and illegal drugs.

Police said Monday the man racked up 15 traffic violations in 11 minutes.