Swiss Government

Leo Sternbach, the medicinal chemist who soothed the anxieties of a generation of Americans with the invention of Librium and Valium, died Wednesday at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 97. Sternbach had 241 drug patents, and at one point his discoveries accounted for 40% of the Roche Group's worldwide sales. His discovery of the benzodiazepine class of anti-anxiety drugs, which included the famous "Mother's Little Helper" of the Rolling Stones' hit record, was noted by U.S.

Haiti has begun an attempt to recover any funds held in Switzerland by former President Jean-Claude Duvalier, Swiss government sources said today. They said a Haitian delegation visited Bern last week to find out how to gain access to any Duvalier bank accounts in Switzerland. The Swiss government rejected a request for political asylum from Duvalier before he left Haiti in February and imposed a ban on his entering the country. The former dictator is in exile in southern France.

The United States has asked Switzerland to lift secrecy rules on two bank accounts alleged to have been used for the proceeds of controversial arms sales to Iran, but the Swiss government needs more details before it can comply, a government spokesman said Monday. Swiss government sources said both accounts are at branches of Switzerland's second-largest bank, Credit Suisse.

The Swiss government Thursday said a Czech diplomat in Bern has been spying on Czech immigrants in Switzerland for several years and ordered the Prague government to recall him. The Federal Prosecutor's Office said it has evidence that the diplomat, whose name and position were not disclosed, was spying for the Czech secret service.

Police arrested 40 Turkish Kurds during a demostration in front of the Parliament building, a police spokesman said Thursday. The Kurds were protesting death sentences imposed against Kurds in Turkey and wanted the Swiss government to join a call for a commission to investigate Turkish jails.

Jewish leaders hailed a Swiss government decision to set up a memorial fund for Holocaust victims, but Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato, a New York Republican, warned the Swiss that they have no business deciding who gets the money. After months of pressure from D'Amato and Jewish groups, the Swiss government announced that it was setting up a fund with more than $70 million in initial contributions from Swiss banks and other businesses.

An international panel of historians declared that Switzerland was guilty of acting as an accomplice in the Holocaust when it refused to accept many thousands of fleeing Jews and instead sent them back to almost certain annihilation at the hands of the Nazis.

The Swiss government promised to pay more than $800,000 to two Holocaust groups in a gesture sought by Jewish organizations after Switzerland apologized last year for turning back refugees from Nazi terror. A government spokesman said the payment was not linked to a controversy over allegations that Switzerland had been safekeeping Nazi gold since World War II.

Seventy-four historians and writers who supported the right of a historian to accuse a dead lawyer of Nazi links went on trial in Zurich accused of libel. The defendants include former Swiss government ministers and West German historian Golo Mann. They backed academic Walther Hofer after he was fined $640 for damaging the reputation of Wilhelm Frick, a Swiss lawyer who died in 1961.

The Swiss government announced Wednesday that it plans to crack down on illegal workers from abroad. Under government proposals that must be approved by Parliament, anyone helping a foreign worker come here illegally could face fines of up to $60,000 and three years in prison. Those employing illegal foreign workers could also be fined, with prison sentences for repeat offenders.