Search Results for: Switzerland

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT might be one of the world’s smallest countries but you could hardly ask for a more emphatic turnaround from villain to hero in the fight against money laundering than Liechtenstein has managed over the last five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CAMPAIGN to reduce the growing number of collisions between road vehicles and deer on Britain’s roads has called on both drivers and highways officials to deal with this potentially deadly risk.

The Deer Initiative estimates that between 30,000 and 50,000 deer are hit by cars, vans and lorries in the UK annually, with 10-20 people being killed in such accidents.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
‘CATCH me if you can’ might well be the motto of international money launderers. Despite laws criminalising the practice being well established, international organisations are continuing to extend their legal and geographical scope. Keith Nuthall reports.

IF a continent has need of comprehensive cross-border anti-money laundering legislation, it surely has to be Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SWISS government has agreed in principle to charging a flat tax on bank accounts held by European Union (EU) citizens, removing the last hurdle to the EU passing its long-debated savings directive. However, because Switzerland will hold a referendum on the issue, the European Commission has proposed delaying the legislation’s launch date six months until June 2005.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHARGES have been laid against alleged fraudsters in an Italy-based cigarette smuggling scam costing European treasuries Euro 31.6 million in duty. The public prosecutor of Asti, Italy, released details of the alleged con, involving 287,884 kg of cigarettes being smuggled with forged customs stamps being presented to Italian customs officials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has authorised Europol to strike a deal with Switzerland, on swapping information, including personal data, on illegal trafficking in nuclear and radioactive substances. Europol and Swiss law enforcement units would also swap data on terrorism.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has released a paper outlining where the world’s drinks producing countries agree over the long-running World Trade Organisation debate on an international register of protected wine and spirit terms. It claims all sides agree generic terms should be unprotected, member countries can decide on protecting geographical indications within their own systems and a register should “facilitate” protection.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has struck a deal with the European Union (EU) over the controversial savings tax issue, agreeing to levy a flat tax on EU citizens holding accounts in the country. The decision means the Swiss have joined Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino in imposing withholding taxes rather than change their laws on banking secrecy.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL meeting on ridding the world of PCBs has been staged in Geneva, Switzerland, linking aid donor governments with commercial firms with clean-up expertise and technologies. Coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme, the meeting aimed to help fulfil the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which targets PCBs for elimination.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOVERNMENTS should avoid forcing national telecommunications utilities to make broadband services available to rural and remote areas, but rather rely on boosting competition in the sector, an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report has claimed. Indeed, making such demands “would reduce competition and innovation.…