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The decision was taken Wednesday by both Parliamentary chambers – the National Council and the Council of States.
Ueli Maurer, 62, a member of the rightwing Swiss People’s Party, won 202-40, with 35 MPs abstaining.
Mr. Maurer will keep his position of the country’s defense, civil defense and sports minister.
Foreirn Minister Didier Burkhalter will be appointed vice president.
Voice of Russia, TASS
Two militants were killed and one was detained in a Federal Security Service operation which prevented a terror attack in Moscow, Dmitry Pavlov from Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee told the Voice of Russia. NAC states these men were trained in the Afghan-Pakistani region, which could potentially connect the militants with Al Qaeda.
As the inquest into the 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko continues, Phillip Knightley, a journalist, critic, and the author of “Philby, KGB Master Spy”, tells the Voice of Russia what he thinks of one of the most controversial court cases of the decade and the coroner’s most recent decision to exclude certain evidence from the case.
On Monday, North Korea test-fired two more short-range missiles in addition to four launched over the weekend as part of three-day missile exercises slammed by South Korea as a provocation. Seoul retaliated for these latest launches by deploying satellite-guided Spike missiles on islands bordering the North. Seoul’s reaction was widely predictable. On Sunday, a spokesman for the South’s Unification Ministry, Kim Hyung-sok, called the North’s behavior “deplorable” and urged Pyongyang to think about its responsibility before the international community.
French President Francois Hollande has signed the controversial same-sex marriage bill into a law. The constitutional council said the law was constitutional, thus rejecting the protest of conservative politicians. France has become the 9th country in Europe and 14th globally to legalize gay marriage. Herve Mariton, member of the Union for a Popular Movement, the main French right political party told the Voice of Russia that when time comes, the law can be repealed.
Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin says that his country is ready to restart a direct dialogue with the Palestinian Autonomy.
Mary Dejevsky, the reporter who has been following the Alexander Litvinenko case for the Independent newspaper, talks to the Voice of Russia about the legal intricacies of the court proceedings and why the whole thing is taking so long.
Bombings at two Shiite mosques south of Baghdad killed six people on Monday, police and a doctor said, the latest in a string of attacks targeting both Sunni and Shiite places of worship in Iraq.
Libya's oil terminals at Tobruk and Zueitina re-opened over the weekend after protests forced both ports to shut, Libya's deputy oil minister Omar Shakmak said.
The UK’s Foreign Minister William Hague says that his office has evidence that chemical weapons are being used in Syria.
US should stop monitoring the European part of Russia using elements of anti-missile defense, analyst Valery Khomyakov, the head of the National Strategy Council think tank told the VoR.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin received relevant reports through the Federal Security Service during the preparations for an operation aimed at the detention of terrorists in the Moscow Region as well as on the results of this operation. The Press Secretary of the Russian Head of State Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
On the results of the SMS voting in Azerbaijan, a Russian participant of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, Dina Garipova, ranks second, the Public Television of Azerbaijan said with a reference to mobile operators.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is certain that Russia will avoid an economic crisis like the one in 2008, he told the Moscow-based daily Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
At a time of slowing economic growth, labour market issues are becoming more apparent. Currently, experts in Russia talk of a lack of qualified specialists, a deteriorating demographic situation and complicated legislative framework as being among the key concerns to be addressed by politicians and the business community.
On Monday morning with index gains helped by a 4.4% climb for China Coal Energy, Hong Kong shares were set to start at their highest point in over a week.
A white-tailed deer crashed through the windshield of a public bus in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It was filmed by a surveillance camera. (VIDEO)
In a harsh rebuttal to George Soros, the President of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research Hans-Werner Sinn accused the speculator of “playing with fire” and stated that “Germany will not accept Eurobonds” in spite of the pressure from the investing community.
In an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia, Wolf Richter talks about the ECB's desperation, the money printing bonanza of the world's central banks and about a French finance minister who is barking at the wrong tree. Wolf Richter is the editor of , entrepreneur, private equity specialist and the author of "Big Like: Cascade Into An Odyssey".
The Cannes International Film Festival is gaining momentum. By now more than one third of the contest program has been screened. While the jury chaired by Steven Spielberg is keeping silence as intended the leading Russian film critics are gladly sharing their impressions about the films they saw.
Female cruelty and violence among teenage girls are assuming dangerous proportions in modern society with experts sounding alarm over the increasing number of crimes committed by the fair sex.
As New Yorkers witness yet another brutal homophobic hate-crime over the weekend, it becomes increasingly clear that with the spate of same-sex marriage legislation Americans have hardly become more tolerant of gay lifestyles.
Bombings kill six at Iraq Shiite mosques
