Basel, Switzerland  - A collection of 70 landscape paintings by Vincent Van Gogh will open in Basel next week, the Kunstmuseum in the Swiss city announced Thursday.

The art museum is billing the exhibition, set to run until September, as "the world's first complete survey of landscape paintings" by the Dutch legend.

Alongside the main exhibit, the museum will also put on display landscapes from Van Gogh's contemporaries in France, where he spent the last years of his short life, including Camille Corot and Henri Matisse.

Geneva - Logitech announced Thursday losses in its fourth quarter results and said sales stood at 408 million dollars, down 32 percent from the same period last year.

The Swiss company, the largest maker of computer mice in the world, posted an operating loss of 43 million dollars for the quarter, compared to an operating profit of 66 million dollars for the last months of the previous fiscal year.

Geneva - The United Nations has ousted three non-governmental organizations from the Durban Review Conference on racism, an official said Thursday, citing disruptive actions and the propagation of racist material.

Rupert Colville, the spokesman for Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the "unacceptable behaviour" by the two Jewish groups and one Iranian organization, had prompted the rare move by the UN.

Geneva - The Swiss drug maker Novartis said Thursday its first quarter profits were down 14 percent, to 2 billion dollars, but still better than expectations that the fall would be worse.

The Basel-based company said its net sales stood at 9.7 billion dollars, down 2 per cent, but if valued in local currencies, this was an 8 per cent increase.

Basic earnings per share were at 87 cents in the first quarter compared to 1.02 dollars in the same period in 2008.

Geneva - Banking giant Credit Suisse Group reported Thursday a net profit of 2 billion Swiss francs (1.71 billion dollars) in the first quarter of 2009, in part owing to a recovery of its trading unit.

Last year's first quarter saw the bank lose 2.15 billion francs.

The investment banking segment reported income before taxes of 2.41 billion in the first quarter of 2009, compared with a 3.42 billion loss last year.

Geneva - Two European Jewish student groups have been "particularly" disruptive during the Durban Review Conference on racism in Geneva, a United Nations official said Wednesday.

Rupert Colville from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that so far 46 people have had their accreditation revoked since the start of the conference on Monday, mostly from non-governmental organizations and one from the media.