Geneva - What is described as the biggest and most expensive experiment in scientific history got under way Wednesday as scientists started up a 10 billion-dollar underground facility aimed at exploring the origin of matter.

A beam of particles was being accelerated around a massive tunnel or "ring" 27-kilometres in circumference - the so-called Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - located near Geneva on the French-Swiss border.

Physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research - known by its French acronym CERN - applauded as the initial beam was successfully turned on at the start of a series of experiments which will go on for years.

Geneva - The new United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Navaneth

Washington, September 4 : The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which goes into operation on September 10, might lead to the discovery of new dimensions.

Located on the border of France and Switzerland, the LHC is the world’s largest particle accelerator complex.

According to Professor Etzion, an experimental physicist in high-energy research, ”It is hard to grasp the dimensions of the practical benefits from this project, but we’re expecting to explore the basic forces that hold the world together.”

Berne  - After a weeks-long scandal over allegations of stalking, Swiss Army chief of st

Zurich  - Shares in Swiss banking giant UBS AG fell Tuesday after the embattled financial house announced plans for a shakeout in its top management in the wake of another quarterly loss.

Zurich-based UBS, which has emerged as one of the prominent victims of the US mortgage meltdown, said it chalked up a loss of 358 million Swiss francs (330 million dollars) in the three months to the end of June.

The second-quarter loss was the group's fourth consecutive quarterly loss and compared to a 11.5-billion-franc loss in the first quarter this year. UBS reported a
5.5-billion-franc profit in the second quarter last year.

Manila  - Switzerland's President Pascal Couchepin on Monday expressed hope that the Philippine Congress would soon pass a law compensating nearly 10,000 victims of human rights abuses under the dictatorship of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Couchepin, who was in Manila for a two-day state visit, conveyed to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo "the firm expectation of the Swiss government that the Philippine Congress may soon enact the Human Rights Compensation bill," a government statement said.

The statement noted that Arroyo "assured Couchepin that her administration attaches great importance to the speedy passage of the law so that human rights victims may be justly compensated."