SWISS airline stops flying through Iranian airspace

Due to growing tensions and insecurity in the region, Switzerland’s national airline will not cross the airspace over Iran, suspending the flights to Tehran until at least April 18th.

This detour means that certain flights will now be longer. For instance, flights to and from Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, New Delhi, and Mumbai, will be extended by 90 minutes.

Service to Beirut also remains suspended, while flight to and from Tel Aviv will resume today.

“The safety of passengers and crews is always our top priority,” the company said.

We have decided to suspend our Beirut services and continue to avoid Iranian airspace until and including next Thursday 18 April. Our flight operations to and from Tel Aviv will remain suspended until and including Monday 15 April. Our employees in Tel Aviv are safe and well.

— LX_Newsroom (@LX_Newsroom) April 14, 2024

Swiss police arrests three teens suspected of terrorism

The three, aged 15, 16 and 18 were arrested in the cantons of Schaffhausen and Thurgau, public prosecutor’s office announced on Saturday

They have allegedly been involved in ISIS (Islamic State), a terrorist group that is banned in Switzerland, as well as in “preparatory acts to commit  homicide.”

Authorities did not reveal any further details, but this is a second case in just over two months involving radicalised teenagers.

At the beginning of March, a 15-year-old was arrested for stabling an Orthodox Jewish man in Zurich. 

Switzerland must oust all foreign spies, deputies say
 
The Foreign Policy Committee of the Council of States approved a National Council motion to this effect. 

“It is a question of expelling all foreign persons who, through prohibited intelligence activities, endanger the internal or external security of Switzerland,” MPs said.

The majority also support the idea that “expulsion mechanisms” for people who can’t be criminally prosecuted — for instance, those with diplomatic immunity — must be made more effective. 

At the end of 2023 Swiss intelligence authorities suspected that 80 Russian agents operated under the guise of diplomats, particularly in capital Bern, as well as Geneva, where most international organisations are located.

READ ALSO: Switzerland’s security ‘threatened by Russian spies’ 

World’s best cheese is, well yes, Swiss

The Swiss consider themselves to be champion cheesemakers and, as this recent win proves, rightly so.

Jurors at the World Championship Cheese Contest chose Michael Spycher, a cheesemaker from the Emmental region in Bern, and his award winning semi-hard cheese called Hornbacher, as winners

This title is not exactly new for Spycher — he had been crowned world’s champion three times before, though for different cheeses.

When it comes to making best cheeses on earth, “there is no secret. It’s simply the soil, the grass that grows, the cows that eat that grass, and their milk the produce,* said Spycher, whose cheesemaking facility, Mountain Dairy Fritzenhaus, is located at an altitude of 800 metres in the Bernese Alps.

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