Germany and Switzerland Relations

A long awaited meeting between Germany and Switzerland took place Friday in Berlin to talk about a new double-taxation agreement and exchange information on tax cheaters.

According to AP, both sides agreed to not disclose details aboutthe meeting but have said that they expect to receive their final approval from their governments "in a few months."

Earlier this year German official received a stolen disk holding information on Germans that had accounts in Switzerland banks.

AP reports, "Switzerland has always said that in such cases, independent of the country, we don't give legal assistance," Swiss Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said. "That's how it will stay -- the theft of tax data is a criminal offense in Switzerland and will be in the future too."

While German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said "He isn't enthusiastic about the idea of an amnesty for German tax offenders," according to AP.

Although both countries have had their differences in the past Merz and Scheaunle have decided on a working group to answer questions about taxation in the future and improving German and Swiss banking relations.

According to AP both countries said Friday's agreement, "will help place Swiss-German relations back onto an objective and constructive footing that is worthy of friendly neighboring states."

Famous Director Flees Accused of Rape

Film Director, Roman Polanski, accused of having sex with a 13-year-old girl fled to France to aviod extradition.

Swiss authorities arrested 76-year-old Polanski at the lifetime achievement award film festival in Zurich. Polanski is an Oscar-winning director of "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist." Polanski was imprisoned for more than two months before being transferred to his Alpine chalet in the luxury resort of Gstaad where he was put on house arrest after a $4.5 million bail.

Meanwhile the California Spreme Court has ruled that Polanski must appear before a U.S. court to be sentenced.

According to the LA Times, Justice Ministry spokeman Folco Galli confimed that Switzerland recieved an offical copy of the ruling.

"We've said that we will wait for this decision to ensure that our proceedings are harmonized with those in the United States," Galli told The Associated Press. "That doesn't mean an extradition decision will now be immediately sent out."

Switzerland and Media

One of Switzerland's main broadcasting companies is subsidized by the federal government but the printed press is said to be free of government involvement.

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, marketed as SRG SSR idée suisse was founded in 1931. According to Swissinfo.ch the Swiss public broadcasting organization is non-profit and funded mainly through radio and television licence fees (70%) and making the remaining income from advertising and sponsorship.

The country has four official languages German, French, Italian, and Romansh which make public broadcasting difficult.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Switzerland was ranked seventh for 2008 in the yearly "Worldwide press freedom ranking of countries."

Smoke Strands Thousands

Air traffic was halted Thursday and may last for a week or more because of a volcanic eruption if Iceland.

Switzerland among other northern European countries have all put a stop to air travel because of the volcanic ash in the air from the Icelandic eruption, according to the A.P. The ash has put a thick blanket of smoke covering most European countries.

One country receiving the majority of the smoke cover is Britain. Subsequently all air flights have been restricted.

The Britain's National Air Traffic Control Service said that "there will be no flights permitted in U.K.-controlled airspace other than emergency situations," concluding, "It is very unlikely that the situation over England will improve in the foreseeable future."

According to the LA Times, Britain's National Air Traffic Control Service issued the order at midday and said later that it would last until at least 6 a.m. Friday morning. (10 p.m. Thursday PDT).

About 100 aircraft encountered volcanic ash from 1983 to 2000. In some cases, engines shut down briefly after sucking in volcanic debris and also interferes with visibility, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

According to the LA Times, Dr. Hazel Rymers, a vulcanologist from the Open University, told the BBC that the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull caused such a massive ash cloud because "its source is underneath an icecap about 200 meters thick, not so much lava flows but rocks turning into ash shooting up between 8 and 11 kilometers up, and that's what's causing the cloud."

Bullet Proof Cotton

Researcher in Switzerland have discovered a cotton that can be combined with boron, the third hardest material on the earth. This new discovering has given light to the idea of bullet proof T-shirts.

Boron originally used to protect tanks, it being looked at to see really how much it can be manipulated and how strong its mechanical properties are.

Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), led by Brad Nelson, have been looking at the strength of the new material.

“At this point what we’ve shown is a technique for incorporating this boron carbide material into a T-shirt and this material has some very important strength properties,” he told swissinfo.ch.

The process starts with scientist dipping the T-shirt into a boron solution. Next the T-shirt is removed and heated in an oven where the heat changes the cotton fibres into carbon fibres, whuich react with the boron solution and produce boron carbide. This produces a lightweight, tougher and stiffer T-shirt but it is still flexible.

According to Swissinfo.ch, mechanical engineer Xiaodong Li at the University of Southern Carolina has described the process as a “true breakthrough”.

"The research a conceptual change in fabricating lightweight, fuel-efficient, super-strong and ultra-tough materials that offered unprecedented opportunities," Li said.

Foreign Students Cram Classes

Switzerland schools are beginning to overcrowd with students from different countries and officials are wondering if they should raise school tuition to theses foreigners.

Overseas students flock to Swiss universities in hope of a better education than their home country can provide as well as the attractive low fees, on average SFr1,500 ($1,400).

According to Swissinfo.ch with statistics that show foreigners attending Swiss schools with bachelor and master degrees are at around 19-20 percent. As well as almost 50 percent of those students in the doctorate programs are foreigners, Swiss officials are wondering if boosting the tuition prices is really what they need.

“The advantage is that there is more competition, we hope to bring in excellent students which improve quality and there is an international atmosphere and culture which is also a benefit to our Swiss students,” said Rector Dieter Wüest.

“On the other hand we have to take care that we don’t exceed our capacities,” he told swissinfo.ch

Switzerland Blacklists 188 Libyans

Switzerland and Libyan are now in a heated debate over why the Swiss government blacklisted 188 Libyans from obtaining a Schengen visa.

A Schengen visa allows for travel between European countries. Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline-Calmy Rey talked Feb. 18 with Libyan's Minister, days after the officials had blocked the visas to citizens of the 25-nation Schengen area.

Switzerland has been accused of abusing the visa system and has been told that it needs to get rid of the blacklist. Italy and Multa have strong econimic ties with Libya so they are pushing for this issue to be resolved in a timely manor.

The Swiss News Agency reported, European Union officials hope the conflict can be resolved “in the next 48 hours.”

Globalization creates problems for Swizz Bank

Information on at least 1,500 Swizz Bank clients has been stolen. The accounts combined amounts are €2.5 million (SFr 3.7 million) and Swizz investigators are saying this information could net €100 million in undeclared tax money.

With new technology comes new problems, more and more governments are on the watch safe-guarding their information as much as possible. Hackers are continually finding new ways around firewalls protecting the most sensitive information and then selling this stolen information to the highest bidder.

"From a law-abiding point of view it is “shocking” that the German government wants to buy the stolen goods," writes commentator Patrick Feuz in Bern’s Der Bund newspaper.

With the world growing smaller countries are pressured to all play on the same level, even if it means giving up their citizens personal financial information.

Switzerland senses new climate change

The Aletsch glacier in Switzerland is the largest glacier in the Alps but scientist are wonder if it is going to stay that way with the predicament of global warming shrinking this beautiful ice river.

Acorrding to Swissinfo.ch the glacier spans more than 23 kilometers and is up to 900 meter thick in some parts, it really is a aw-inspiring site.

From the village of Fiesch in the Rhone valley you can take a cable car over the river and up to Eggishorn where you are rewarded with a breathtaking view of the Aletsch glacier 2,500 meters below. The river can be seen from start to finish where it's mouth opens flowing into one of Europe's major waterways, the Rhone River.

It is at the mouth of the river where most of the action is happening and scientists are buzzing around taking measurements. The scientist are measuring the receding glacier which they refer to as the tongue. It is by measuring this tongue that scientist can check how much the ice is melting and the effect that global warming is having on this frozen river. Measurements are carried out by the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) and they have calculated that the glacier weighs 27 billion tons and is getting smaller at the mouth.

Andreas Bauter, a glaciologist at the ETHZ told swissinfo.ch. On such a huge glacier as the Aletsch, the tongue reacts very slowly.

“The impact of occurrences in the lower parts of the glacier can quickly be seen at the tongue, but it takes about 50 years for signals from the Jungfraujoch to show up there,” he explained.

Overall, he explained that retreat in the ice tongue is due to the climate change from global warming.

More and more people around the world are seeing the effects of global warming. Action must be taken now before it is too late.