Word: switzerland
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...foreign "loan"-and defy the IRS to say it is not. That is only one of the milder variants of a sophisticated array of illegal ploys that have been made increasingly easier in recent years by the proliferation of Swiss banks in the U.S. and U.S. banks in Switzerland and the Bahamas. U.S. officials most intimately concerned with the problem conservatively estimate that the misuse of secret bank accounts may be draining the nation of hundreds of millions of dollars a year...
...same time, major U.S. banks -the Bank of America, Chase Manhattan and First National City-have set up shop in Switzerland, a move that entitles their Swiss branches to all the protection and secrecy of Swiss banking law. In several Swiss cities, the largest volume of business is done by the local branches of American banks. Americans now own or control several banks in Switzerland and in the Bahamas, which offers an equally attractive haven of secrecy and now has 52 banks for a population...
...parts of the Alps, and intermittent thaws have loosened its grip in many places. Blizzards have also caused sliding; the sound of the avalanche at Reckingen, for example, could not even be heard above the shriek of 70-m.p.h. winds. Avalanche warnings have been common all winter, especially in Switzerland, which has the world's best detection facilities (see SCIENCE). Even so, few residents pay much attention to them. Says one expert: "It's nature's whim and we have to live with...
Even as rescuers were searching for the victims of Europe's latest avalanches (see THE WORLD), scientists atop an Alpine mountain were continuing the work that may some day prevent such disasters. They are members of Switzerland's Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, the world's first and foremost scientific establishment dedicated to the study and forecasting of avalanches. Before the institute was established 26 years ago, high above the resort town of Davos in the eternal snows of the 8,000-ft. Weissfluhjoch, knowledge of avalanches consisted mostly of folklore. Now, thanks...
...even more destructive phenomenon is the giant slab avalanche, or Schneebrett (snow board), in which a huge mass of snow may come sliding down, as at Reckingen in Switzerland last week. Highly unpredictable, slab avalanches occur when one cohesive layer of snow breaks free of the ground or of other snow layers. They can be caused by rising temperatures that send lubricating water between layers of snow, letting the white blanket slip like a quilt from the bed of a tossing sleeper. Exerting forces as great as 100 tons per square yard, such avalanches have been known to upend steel...