Geneva  - A Swiss private bank said Thursday that it would buy back from eligible clients their exposure to the fraudulent scheme run in the United States by Bernard Madoff at 50 per cent of the original cost.

Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) said the "goodwill gesture" towards it clients would see the bank pay for the purchase of the investments over the course of five years.

UBP also announced moves within the bank to improve risk management and research.

Zurich - The Swiss central bank announced Thursday it would cut interest rates by 25 basis points to a target of 0.25 per cent in an attempt to shore up the economy and prevent deflation.

The use of the monetary policy by the Swiss National Bank would also involve buying up bonds and foreign currency to prevent further appreciation of the franc against the Euro.

Geneva  - The Swiss watch group Swatch reported Thursday net income of 838 million Swiss francs (723.6 million dollars) for 2008, a drop from the previous year's earning.

The company reported 5.96 billion francs in gross sales, a record, but its income was down from 2007's net income of over 1 billion.

"A noticeable drop in demand in the last months of 2008 mainly at wholesale level reduced the momentum in most brands and markets," the company said in its report, noting that even luxury items did not escape the downturn.

Basel, Switzerland  - Roche, the Swiss drug manufacturer, has struck a deal to buy out Genentech, a United States based biotech group, the two companies announced Thursday.

The move would cost Roche approximately 46.8 billion dollars for the 44-per-cent stake it does not already have in the biotech firm.

Under the agreement, the Swiss group would pay 95 dollars a share. It was only reached after months of negotiations, which at one point led Roche to go directly to shareholders with an offer that Genentech urged them not accept. Analysts felt the San Francisco company was holding out for a better price, as it was insisting on 112 dollars a share, far above market value.

Basel, Switzerland - The overwhelming majority of Swiss citizens want to protect their country's banking secrecy laws, a poll released Wednesday showed, in spite of international pressure for change.

The survey, conducted for the Swiss Bankers Association by M. I. S Trend, based in Lausanne, indicated a drop from the previous year, when 81 per cent of those interviewed supported bank-client confidentiality.

Geneva - The former prosecutor of criminal tribunals in Rwanda and Yugoslavia has backed a recent international arrest warrant against the president of Sudan, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The support from Louise Arbour comes despite the fact that aid groups have subsequently been kicked out of the country in retaliation for the warrant.

Arbour, who has also served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said international justice has made "irreversible" progress in recent years.