Zurich - Switzerland's second biggest bank Credit Suisse is stepping up its restructuring programme saying Thursday it was axing another 5300 jobs after reporting a
3 billion Swiss francs (2.5 billion dollars) net loss during in the first two months of the current quarter.

"Investment banking had a significant pretax loss, reflecting the adverse financial market conditions in the quarter and cost association with risk reduction," the Zurich-based bank said in a review of its fourth-quarter performance.

Lausanne, Switzerland - A hearing over a medal distribution dispute at the Olympic 200 metres final has been postponed until January 15, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Wednesday.

The appeal from Dutch Antilles runner Churandy Martina to reinstate him as silver medallist was originally to be heard on Friday.

Churandy had originally finished second in the Beijing race in August won by Usain Bolt of Jamaica, with American Wallace Spearmon placing third.

Recent research has shown that children born through caesarean section have 80 % more risk of developing childhood asthma as compared to children delivered naturally. Swiss researchers believe that that a natural birth could help to prime a child's immune system, making them more able to fight off illness whereas caesarean section possibly renders youngsters less able to combat common inflections, which scientists believe could act as a trigger for asthma.

Geneva - Security conditions in Iraq in the first half of 2008 improved greatly the United Nations said Tuesday, but "grave human rights violations" remained a serious issue.

In addition to large casualties in heavy fighting between militias and government forces, allegations that civilians were targeted by "all parties to the conflict" were still under investigation, the UN's mission to Iraq (UNAMI) said in its biannual report.

Geneva - More Swiss companies have been going broke in recent months, with over 20 per cent more businesses announcing bankruptcies since September than in the same period last year, Swiss media reported Tuesday.

Over 1,200 companies became insolvent in the past three months, while the number of new companies created dropped steeply, according to data from the firm Dun and Bradstreet.

The year as a whole would likely see the number of bankruptcies exceed the rate of 2007.

Geneva  - There are over 200 million international migrants in the world, a report released Tuesday said, with nearly as many people moving within developing countries as there are migrants from poorer nations moving to rich ones.

The 2008 annual report by the International Organization for Migration, said 61 million migrants had moved from developing countries to other developing countries and 62 million moved on the South-North axis.