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Employee of Panama Papers Law Firm, Mossack Fonseca, Is Arrested in Switzerland
An employee of the law firm at the center of the leaks of the Panama Papers, which have revealed offshore wealth held in secretive accounts worldwide, has been arrested here on charges of data theft, one of the employee’s lawyers, Romain Jordan, said on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear what connection, if any, the person might have had with the Panama Papers, a trove of 11.5 million documents from a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca. A consortium of news organizations began...
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Chess legend Korchnoi dies in Switzerland aged 85
Chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who defected from Russia to the West in 1976, has died in Switzerland aged 85. Born in 1931 in what is now St Petersburg, Korchnoi survived the siege of Leningrad during World War Two and is seen as one of the best players never to be World Champion. He was a four-time USSR champion and ranked number one in the world in 1965. However, he became convinced he had to leave the Soviet Union after being banned from playing internationally.
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Switzerland 'rejects basic income', poll projections suggest
Projections from a referendum in Switzerland suggest voters have rejected a plan to introduce a guaranteed basic income for all.Some 78% of voters opposed the plan, a GFS projection for Swiss TV suggested. The proposal had called for adults to be paid an unconditional monthly income, whether they worked or not. Supporters said since work was increasingly automated, fewer jobs were available for workers. Switzerland is the first country to hold such a vote. No figure for the basic income had been set, but those behind the proposal suggested a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs...
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First commercial carbon-capture plant set to open in Switzerland
What is the best way to get rid of greenhouse gases? The Swiss company Climeworks thinks the answer is to feed them to a greenhouse. The company is now building what is expected to be the world’s first plant to do so commercially. The firm expects to be opening the plant near Zurich in September or October. The plant will suck carbon dioxide out of the ambient air and sell it to an agricultural company to spur the growth of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.
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A Swiss village has banned refugees, and decided to pay a £200,000 fine instead
A Swiss village, one of the wealthiest in Europe, has refused to take in its government imposed quota of asylum seekers, voting to pay a fine of £200,000 instead. The residents of Switzerland’s alpine resort Oberwil-Lieli, where there are 300 millionaires among a population of 2,200, voted “no” in a referendum over whether to accept just 10 refugees. Swiss government proposals had outlined a quota across its 26 counties in order deliver on promise to take 50,000 asylum seekers across the country, but Oberwil-Lieli voted by 52 per cent to 48 to reject the refugees.
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Global first? Every Swiss could be guaranteed $2,600 a month tax-free
Chalk it up to Swiss affluence. Voters here will decide next month whether all 8 million citizens and legal residents should be guaranteed a generous monthly income, something no country in the world has ever done. On June 5, Swiss voters will weigh in on a radical proposal that would mandate the government to guarantee $2,600 a month tax-free to every adult citizen and legal resident, and $650 to each child.
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U.S. Labels Switzerland an Internet Piracy Haven
Every year the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) publishes its Special 301 Report highlighting countries that aren’t doing enough to protect U.S. intellectual property rights. In 2016 the report sticks to a tried and tested format, with countries such as China, Russia, India and Ukraine all making the Priority List once again. However, just as the USTR wasn’t afraid to place Canada on the Watch List several years ago, this year it has added another ally.
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Swiss snowboard star Estelle Balet killed in avalanche
World champion extreme snowboarder Estelle Balet was killed in an avalanche on Tuesday while making a film in her native Switzerland. Police said the 21-year-old Swiss athlete was struck by the snow slide early in the morning above Orsieres, near Switzerland's southern border with France and Italy. She had been following another snowboarder, who was not caught in the avalanche. Valais state police said in a statement that rescuers...
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Swiss banker whistleblower: CIA behind Panama Papers
Bradley Birkenfeld is the most significant financial whistleblower of all time, so you might think he'd be cheering on the disclosures in the new Panama Papers leaks. But today, Birkenfeld is raising questions about the source of the information that is shaking political regimes around the world. Birkenfeld, an American citizen, was a banker working at UBS in Switzerland when he approached the U.S. government with information on massive...
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Swiss voters reject plan to expel foreigners for minor crimes
People in Switzerland have rejected a plan to automatically expel foreigners who commit minor crimes, results show. Some 59% of voters have said "No" to the proposal put forward by the right-wing Swiss People's Party. The vote happened amid growing unease at rising immigration and the problems which, the party says, come with it. But opponents said the law would create a two-tier justice system unfairly targeting foreigners...
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Switzerland votes on expelling foreigners for minor crimes
Voters will be asked if foreign national guilty of two minor crimes, such as traffic offences, in 10 years, should be expelled
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'Swiss Army knife' armoured vehicle unveiled
BAE Systems unveils its reworked 'Swiss Army knife' armoured vehicle - aptly named the Terrier
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The European country that wants to pay all of its citizens £1,700-a-month – whether they work or not
Switzerland is set to vote on a proposal that wants to pay everyone 2,500 Swiss francs (£1,700) a month regardless of whether people are working or not. If the plans go through, it will become the first country in the world to provide a basic unconditional monthly income, and they are already the first country to vote on the matter.
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How a Small Company in Switzerland Is Fighting a Surveillance Law — And Winning
A small email provider and its customers have almost single-handedly forced the Swiss government to put its new invasive surveillance law up for a public vote in a national referendum in June. “This law was approved in September, and after the Paris attacks, we assumed privacy was dead at that point,” said Andy Yen, co-founder of ProtonMail, when I spoke with him on the phone.
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Dramatic footage shows avalanche sliding down Swiss mountain
This is the dramatic moment an avalanche covered an alpine road with ice, rock and snow as it thundered down a mountainside. The avalanche was deliberately triggered by authorities in the Swiss town of Saxon in order to minimise the risk of motorists and residents being caught off guard by an uncontrolled downpour. Two men who filmed the breathtaking scene from the road are heard exclaiming in shock as huge mounds of snow spill on to the road just yards from where they are stood.
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Swiss taxman says delay payments to beat negative interest rates
Taxpayers in parts of Switzerland this year face an unusual request from fiscal authorities: please delay settling your bill.
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Let Artificial Intelligence guess your attractiveness and age at this Zurich University website
Scientific researchers of ETH Zürich together with dating app BLINQ created this machine learning algorithm. Try your own photo now!
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Switzerland signs deal to end banking secrecy
Switzerland, in an effort to combat tax evasion and money laundering activities, has agreed to a deal with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) agreeing to exchange data with 60 other countries that will effectively end its banking secrecy. Switzerland is the world’s largest offshore wealth center, with an estimated $2.2 trillion in assets compared to a $632.2 billion GDP.
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Palaces, Penises, and Parties With the Young Jet Set
Forty-eight hours in Gstaad, made for Instagram. By Maureen O'Connor.
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A watchmaker's paradise
In the Joux Valley, in the south-west corner of Switzerland, the traditional craft of watchmaking is flourishing, as John Laurenson discovers.
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