Word: switzerland
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Worse, it left the Colombian peace process looking as tangled as the jungle where waiting Venezuelan helicopters were supposed to retrieve the hostages. Nearby in Villavicencio, Colombia, south of Bogota, observers from France, Switzerland and six Latin American countries, as well as celebrity onlookers like American film director Oliver Stone, packed their bags and left shaking their heads. As he departed, Stone, who has a penchant for things guerrilla, said, "Shame on Colombia," referring to what was widely seen as meddling by President Uribe that may have helped sink the release operation...
...lawmakers replaced Blocher with a moderate member of his own party, who might try to blunt the sharper edges of her predecessor's hard-line policies rather than toe the official stance, the SVP has threatened to leave the government and form an opposition party. The move would undermine Switzerland's 50-year-old "magic formula" under which four main political parties share seven Cabinet seats, balancing different cultural and linguistic regions that make up Switzerland...
When he was elected to the Swiss Cabinet in December 2003, Christoph Blocher celebrated his triumph with a glass of white wine. Not only did the billionaire industrialist get a seat on the seven-member Federal Council - Switzerland's executive government - but his right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), won a landslide victory in the polls with 29% of the vote this year...
...Aside from shaking up Switzerland's placid political scene, Blocher's downfall "will not have any radical impact in terms of policy or stability," Lutz says, because under the Swiss system of direct, grass-roots democracy voters can challenge any legislative decision by launching a referendum...
...terms of Switzerland's image abroad, where Blocher's antics have been generating headlines, no major changes are expected either. "We are not known around the world for the SVP or Blocher," Lutz says. "We are known for Roger Federer and chocolate...