Category: Switzerland

Amnesty International seeks George W. Bush’s arrest

Amnesty International accused Bush of 'responsibility for crimes under international law.' | AP Photo

By TIM MAK

The human rights group Amnesty International called on Canadian authorities Wednesday to arrest former President George W. Bush when he attends an economic summit in the province of British Columbia next week.

The group accused Bush of “responsibility for crimes under international law including torture.”

Amnesty International asked that Canada either prosecute or extradite Bush for violations that they allege took place during the CIA’s secret detention program between 2002 and 2009. The organization wrote a 1,000 page memorandum addressed to Canadian authorities to make the case for human rights violations by the 43rd president.

“Canada is required by its international obligations to arrest and prosecute former President Bush given his responsibility for crimes under international law including torture,” Susan Lee, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

The Canadian government responded to the request with critical words for Amnesty International.

“I cannot comment on individual cases… that said, Amnesty International cherry picks cases to publicize based on ideology. This kind of stunt helps explain why so many respected human rights advocates have abandoned Amnesty International,” Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney told POLITICO, noting that Amnesty International had never sought a court order to bar Cuban dictator Fidel Castro or Tongolese dicator Gnassingbé Eyadema from Canada.

“Perhaps this helps to explain why Salman Rushie has said that ‘it looks very much as if Amnesty’s leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy,’ and why Christopher Hitchens has written about the organization’s ‘degeneration and politicization,’” Kenney added.

Bush cancelled a visit to Switzerland in February after facing similar public calls for his arrest by the other human rights groups.

Amnesty International said that Canada was obligated to arrest Bush under its commitments to the UN Convention Against Torture. The human rights organization objected to the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” and violations they characterized as “cruel, inhuman and degrating treatment and enforced disappearances.”

“A failure by Canada to take action during his visit would violate the UN Convention against Torture and demonstrate contempt for fundamental human rights,” said Lee.

www.politico.com, 12.10.2011

October 13, 2011
Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness

By Kate Kelland

LONDON

(Reuters) – Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.

With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden — measured in the hundreds of billions of euros — as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.

“Mental disorders have become Europe’s largest health challenge of the 21st century,” the study’s authors said.

At the same time, some big drug companies are backing away from investment in research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.

“The immense treatment gap … for mental disorders has to be closed,” said Hans Ulrich Wittchen, director of the institute of clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Germany’s Dresden University and the lead investigator on the European study.

“Those few receiving treatment do so with considerable delays of an average of several years and rarely with the appropriate, state-of-the-art therapies.”

Wittchen led a three-year study covering 30 European countries — the 27 European Union member states plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway — and a population of 514 million people.

A direct comparison of the prevalence of mental illnesses in other parts of the world was not available because different studies adopt varying parameters.

Wittchen’s team looked at about 100 illnesses covering all major brain disorders from anxiety and depression to addiction to schizophrenia, as well as major neurological disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

The results, published by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ENCP) on Monday, show an “exceedingly high burden” of mental health disorders and brain illnesses, he told reporters at a briefing in London.

Mental illnesses are a major cause of death, disability, and economic burden worldwide and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease across all ages.

Wittchen said that in Europe, that grim future had arrived early, with diseases of the brain already the single largest contributor to the EU’s burden of ill health.

The four most disabling conditions — measured in terms of disability-adjusted life years or DALYs, a standard measure used to compare the impact of various diseases — are depression, dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, alcohol dependence and stroke.

The last major European study of brain disorders, which was published in 2005 and covered a smaller population of about 301 million people, found 27 percent of the EU adult population was suffering from mental illnesses.

Although the 2005 study cannot be compared directly with the latest finding — the scope and population was different — it found the cost burden of these and neurological disorders amounted to about 386 billion euros ($555 billion) a year at that time. Wittchen’s team has yet to finalize the economic impact data from this latest work, but he said the costs would be “considerably more” than estimated in 2005.

The researchers said it was crucial for health policy makers to recognize the enormous burden and devise ways to identify potential patients early — possibly through screening — and make treating them quickly a high priority.

“Because mental disorders frequently start early in life, they have a strong malignant impact on later life,” Wittchen said. “Only early targeted treatment in the young will effectively prevent the risk of increasingly largely proportions of severely ill…patients in the future.”

David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacology expert at Imperial College London who was not involved in this study, agreed.

“If you can get in early you may be able to change the trajectory of the illness so that it isn’t inevitable that people go into disability,” he said. “If we really want not to be left with this huge reservoir of mental and brain illness for the next few centuries, then we ought to be investing more now.”

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Matthew Jones)

www.reuters.com, 4 Sep 2011

September 7, 2011
Anonymous hacker group members arrested in all over Europe

Police in Italy and Switzerland searched more than 30 apartments as part of an investigation into online activist collective “Anonymous,” amid a growing global law-enforcement crackdown on high-profile computer attacks claimed by the group’s followers.

The move is the latest enforcement activity in a probe that since December has netted more than 40 arrests of individuals authorities in the U.K., Netherlands, Spain and Turkey have linked to Anonymous.

In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation is continuing a probe that has involved dozens of searches over recent months.

That includes the raid last week of the home of a Hamilton, Ohio, man believed to have links to an Anonymous splinter group called LulzSec.

Italian police said they suspect some 20 people, five of whom are ages 16 or 17, are behind so-called denial-of-service attacks, in which websites are bombarded with data with the aim of knocking them offline.

The searches conducted on Tuesday included the home of someone the police identified as a leader of Anonymous’s Italian cell, a 26-year-old man who goes by the nickname “Phre” and lives in Switzerland.

According to Italian authorities, the attacks targeted the websites of the Italian Parliament and top companies including Enel SpA, ENI SpA and Mediaset SpA, the country’s largest commercial broadcaster, which is owned by Silvio Berlusconi. No arrests were made.

Anonymous grew out of an online message forum formed in 2003 called 4chan, a popular destination with hackers and gamers.

It entered the spotlight late last year, claiming cyberattacks against companies and individuals the group said tried to impede the work of document-sharing website WikiLeaks. That included MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc.

Over recent months, followers of Anonymous and LulzSec—which takes its name from Internet slang for laughter—have claimed responsibility for a number of denial-of-service attacks and computer breaches of a number of high-profile targets, ranging from corporations like Sony Corp. to the FBI and other government organizations.

British police, who are cooperating with the FBI, have arrested seven individuals this year. That includes 19-year old Ryan Cleary, who had been a prominent figure in Anonymous and then LulzSec.

U.K. prosecutors late last month charged him with five computer-related offenses.

Authorities allege he infected computers in order to form a computer network, called a botnet, which he then used to launch online attacks against websites including that of the U.K. Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Essex-based Mr. Cleary, who is out on bail, is cooperating with police, his lawyer has said. The other six individuals arrested in the U.K. have been released on bail and haven’t been charged.

The Wall Street Journal

July 20, 2011
Novartis Chairmain Vasella lends helicopter to Swiss Police at Bilderberg 2011

Swiss Mainstream News: Novartis Chairmain Vasella lends helicopter to Swiss Police at Bilderberg 2011

by Stefan Bisculm

Global Research, July 11, 2011

At the Bilderberg Conference host Daniel Vasella provided a helicopter to be used for free by the Police of the Canton Grison. Critics of the Meeting consider this as evidence of creeping privatization of the police force.

St.Moritz. – The police is neutral, they neither distinguish between rich and poor, nor between VIPs and normal citizens. To the police only the law counts, the ones that don’t comply, will be held accountable. This self- proclaiming principle of a democratic state is viewed by critics of the Bilderberg Conference as being endangered. A source of suspicion is a photo published recently by the blog alles-schallundrauch.blogspot.com.

The picture shows a helicopter of army-green color, which wasequiped with markings of the Police of the Canton of Grison on its side. As the license number reveals, the helicopter belongs to the company Japat AG, a 100% subsidiary of Novartis. The vehicle was possibly used exclusively for the transporting of Novartis executives.Thomas Hobi, press spokesperson of the Police of Canton of Grison confirmed the helicopter in question was used by the police for transport and air surveillance. The helicopter was provided for use free of charge by the host organization of the meeting. it is important to know that Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella was this years host of the Bilderberg Conference at the “Suvretta House”. People of influence from politics and economics are invited to this private international meeting. The agenda as well as the list of participants usually remain secret.

Swiss Legislator demandes Parliamentary Investigation Comity

A prominent critic of the mystery- shrouded meeting is Jura- based National Councilor of the Swiss Peoples Party Dominique Baettig. He confirmed on inquiry that he will lounge a petition to establish a Parliamentary Investigation Comity (PUK), which aims on shedding light one the procedures of this years conference. In the petition hi asks for instance: “Why could Mr. Vasella provide his helicopter to the police and what are the costs of this corruption?” For Baettig the lending of a helicopter means a first step to privatization of state and police. “This procedure is a bad sign for the separation of state and private sector.

Concealed license plates

Manfred Petritsch was the one to post the helicopter image on the internet. As a blogger he regularly writes critical articles on government and economics and as an outspoken opponent of the Bilderberg Conference he was also present in St.Moritz.

After the helicopter deal he no longer believes in the police of Crison’s neutrality.

“Wen the CEO of a leading global corporation lends his helicopter to the police, it’s clear one who’s side they are, certainly not on ours.” For Petritsch it becomes also clear that the police distinguished between VIPs and normal citizens at least during the Bilderberg Conference by the fact that many cars of Bilderberg participants had their license plates covered up without interference of the police.

Government does not understand concerns.

Councilor of State Barbara Janon- Steiner does not understand the fuzz abate the borrowed helicopter. The Head of the Crison Justic Departement denies a conflict of interest as regarded by Bilderberg critics. Attendees the meeting included people that are protected by the vienna treaty, wherefore the Grison Police imposed security in collaboration with the Federal Security Service. “In order to fulfill this mission, we needed a helicopter anyway. That beeig provided by the host organization was as direct contribution to the costs of security. At least, in this way, we could avoid additional costs.” According to Janin- Steiner, the Bilderberg Group will contribute a substantial sum to the overall costs of the meeting. “The contribution will be several times that to be paid by the public.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/swiss-mainstream-news-novartis-chairmain-vasella-lends-helicopter-to-swiss-police-at-bilderberg-2011/25587

July 13, 2011
Parcel bomb attack on Swiss nuclear group

Reuters

Two women were injured when a parcel bomb exploded in the offices of the lobby group Swissnuclear in the northern city of Olten yesterday. The Swissnuclear employees were taken to hospital with superficial burns and hearing damage.

Switzerland has just suspended the approvals process for three new nuclear power stations so that safety standards can be reviewed in the light of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Swissnuclear says it works to promote the safe and efficient use of nuclear power and represents utilities that run the nuclear plants which produce about 40 per cent of Swiss electricity.

Olten is also home to the headquarters of the energy firm Alpiq, where about 50 Greenpeace protesters held a demonstration yesterday calling for the company to withdraw its application to build a nuclear plant.

www.independent.co.uk, 1 April 2011

April 1, 2011
Is the U.S. dollar on the brink?

By: Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold/Silver Forecaster – Global Watch

Just take a look at the chart of the U.S. dollar Index and you see a frightening sight.   If it sinks any further its support will have evaporated.   We have watched all this week the gold price rise and look good in the dollar.   But in the euro it has barely moved.   Against the Swiss Franc the dollar looks so weak.   With the Technical picture looking so poor, one turns to the fundamentals to see if they conflict or support a downturn for the dollar.

The U.S. dollar Fundamentals

Can government govern finances?

The United States, right now, is on the brink of having used up all its legislated credit capacity.   At $14.3 trillion there is a desperate need for a higher credit limit.   Unless, by Friday, they have passed legislation to raise this, the government cannot issue checks or pay staff.   Yes, they can use various tricks to delay this to accommodate political brinkmanship, but the outside world will be alarmed that the government is unable to tend to such basics or allows politics to overrule finances.   Here there is a clash of systems, the need for financial correctness against the games politicians play.   With President Obama’s administration without sufficient power to legislate as they want at a critical time when government should be strong, there is little to inspire confidence in the U.S. government.   Global confidence in the U.S. dollar will be shaken if such a financial mess were to happen.   We would most likely see the ratings agencies downgrade U.S. debt before that happens.   From outside it looks as though the U.S. is oblivious to foreign investor’s opinions at a time when the U.S. is reliant on foreign investors buying U.S. debt.

Moving down the ladder we have seen so much in the press that individual States are on the brink of bankruptcy and some already there and little seems to be being done to rectify matters to date.   Or should foreigners just presume that the Fed will rescue them with bailouts?   If that is to be the path followed that again will undermine foreign investors confidence in the dollar.

What needs to be understood is that government finances at all levels have to be sound to inspire confidence?   It seems to be a simple obvious statement, so why is it not being applied?   Even Fed Chairman Mr. Ben Bernanke is calling for government to sort out the Federal deficit but all we see is a partisan battle that seems oblivious to their countries crying needs.   Or do we misunderstand the scene.   Are politics more important than good order?   Today saw the revelation that China owns more than $360 billion of Treasuries than was thought to be the case.   Does the government not worry about this dependence?   Or does the government want to ensure that the dollar weakens?   This is a strong impression pervading so many foreign exchanges now.

And the inflation coming from the food and energy worlds is globally pervasive and capable of threatening what little economic growth there is in the developed world. It will affect many, many countries and could reach into the U.S.A.   We do expect the U.K to experience a shrinking of its GDP in the first quarter of 2011 announcing the arrival of a double-dip recession, so shrinking growth could also affect the U.S. still with its lackluster economy.   What will this somewhat emasculated government do then?

The Trade Deficit

For so many years now the U.S. has run a Trade deficit balanced by a surplus on the Capital account.   This inflow of capital is the flow of power from the U.S. to foreign creditors.   Already we are seeing a tendency to try to diversify away from the U.S. dollar.   If this trend gathers momentum then the overall picture on the Balance of Payments could sink to a deficit.   How close is it now?   Or is it happening as foreign investors diversify into other currencies to stave off or reduce the impact on their surpluses of a falling dollar and overweight natures of their dollar holdings.   It’s bound to happen if only because of prudence.   And yet the U.S. is doing nothing to address the situation, why not?   We see that the main beneficiary of a weak dollar would be the U.S. on the trade front as well as on the debt front. So one question that needs an answer is, does the U.S. government want a weak dollar?   Or is the U.S. government unconcerned at the U.S. dollar’s exchange rate.

Inevitable weakness

It seems that Europe and other nations are more worried about the U.S. dollar exchange rate than the U.S. is.   This laissez-faire attitude appears to confirm that the U.S. has no intention of protecting the U.S. dollar’s exchange rate.   For that reason we have to conclude that the U.S. dollar is inevitably headed to more weakness.   In the past the ‘top dog’ nature of the U.S. currency meant that the rest of the world had to suck it up.   Now, it’s only a matter of time before the U.S. is second to China’s economy in the world.   By 202 the Chinese economy will have doubled and we have no doubt that the Yuan will be the world’s ‘top dog’ currency, eclipsing the dollar.   When that happens and it may be well before 2020, the dollar like all other global currencies will have to pay its own bills with goods not simply freshly printed dollars.

The $ and the € Gold Price

Is it any wonder then that the gold price is rising in the U.S. dollar.   The euro is, the Swiss Franc, the Pound and other currencies are rising in the dollar too.   It’s not the gold price rising in the dollar it’s the dollar falling in terms of gold. Likewise other currencies are not rising against the dollar, the dollar is falling against them.

To get a clearer picture of what is really happening in the gold price one has to look at the gold price in the euro or the Swiss Franc.   That will reflect demand and supply better.   We have and will see the gold price rise in the euro for fundamental reasons but for accuracy’s sake we have to relegate the dollar price of gold to second or third place, because that’s more about the dollar than about gold.

Gold as part of the global monetary system

Today we read that the shareholders of the Bank of Italy, the Italian banks want to use the gold held by the central bank to shore up their balance sheets.   The Bank of Italy has gold reserves of 2451.8 metric tonnes (68.6% of their foreign exchange reserves) at the moment.   As shareholders assets, by including these reserves at market value, Italian banks look a lot healthier.   Yes, this is a touch of ‘cooking’ the books, but it recognizes the fact that gold has a monetary value, recognized in the monetary world.   In inter-nation currency transactions gold is being used to secure loans.   It has a de facto role in the monetary system that is getting harder and harder to avoid.

Could gold be confiscated?

Of course gold will never be confiscated for the same reasons it was in 1933 [money supply expansion].   Its role today can be as collateral for international transactions, as we see it being used now.   In a global world it is the only real monetary asset that bypasses nations to be global money that is truly mobile.   Should a nation find itself in trouble, much like these Italian banks, then gold sits there waiting to shore up balance sheets and serve as collateral for international currency swaps for nations with questionable creditworthiness.   Will the dollar fall into that category once the Yuan is a truly international currency?   Certainly holding gold will bypass that eventuality.   Even in the hands of the U.S. government its citizen’s gold could give the dollar a golden hue.

In China it is understood by all that all assets of the nation including citizen’s gold is the property of the state.   In the U.S. citizens are allowed the privilege of owning gold and don’t have the right.   How small a step to confiscating the huge tonnage of citizen’s gold wherever it is.

news.goldseek.com, 1 March 2011

March 8, 2011