The UN today attacked Switzerland’s ban on building minarets as “clearly discriminatory” and deeply divisive.

THE Swiss agreed to continue the policy of giving EU citizens free access to jobs in their country and to extend it to Bulgaria and Romania, despite recession and fear of an influx of foreigners.

Years of campaigning is on the verge of bringing the Israelis and Palestinians into the Red Cross humanitarian movement, thanks to a pending solution in Switzerland to bridge long-standing sensitivities over Crusaders, crosses and crescents.

Switzerland has taken the unusual step of summoning both the US and British ambassadors to demand respect for international law in the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, a Foreign Ministry official said today.