Switzerland likely to strike tax deal with Britain soon

Switzerland's banking association head is hopeful the country will finalize a tax deal with Britain in the coming weeks, Patrick Odier was quoted as saying on Sunday in an interview with Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.

Such a deal would come hot on the heels of a tax agreement recently reached between Switzerland and Germany that will net Berlin billions of Swiss francs and force the Swiss banking sector to clean up its act.

Odier, president of the Swiss Bankers Association, said talks with Britain were very advanced, though he added important points still have to be clarified.

"I have no doubt that we will strike a deal with Britain very soon," Odier said. "I hope that the conclusion comes in the coming weeks," he said.

In an interview with Swiss newspaper Sonntag, Claude-Alain Margelisch, chief executive of the Swiss Bankers Association, said that the flat-rate withholding tax rates in the British deal would be in line with Britain's domestic tax burden.

Odier also said the German deal had had a "signaling effect" on France and Italy, and that he hoped new negotiations with these countries would be held.

"I am sure that other countries in Europe will also say that they would like to reach a deal with Switzerland," Odier said, adding the deal with Germany would likely cost Swiss banks about $642.9 million to implement.

Swiss banks have also come into the crosshairs of U.S. authorities.

In 2009, the Swiss government cut a deal with Washington to hand over the details of 4,450 UBS accounts in return for the dropping of a damaging lawsuit against the bank, while U.S. authorities are now also investigating Credit Suisse.

"We would welcome it if Switzerland and the United States were able to start talks quickly for a global solution," Odier said when asked about the problems facing Swiss banks in the United States.

Margelisch said it could not be ruled out that Switzerland would have to hand over details of accounts to the United States again.

"The American want client details. If this is delivered, then it clearly has to be done within the legal framework," Margelisch was quoted as saying in the interview.

Judge weighs request to block Ind. voucher program

Students who have signed up for Indiana's broad new school voucher program could be jerked out of private schools midsemester or forced to scramble to re-enroll in public school unless it's allowed to proceed pending the outcome of a legal challenge, state officials argued Thursday.

Marion Superior Court Judge Michael Keele said he would rule early next week on a request from a group of teachers and religious leaders backed by the Indiana State Teachers Association to issue a preliminary injunction keeping the law from taking effect.

The program, which allows even middle-class parents to use taxpayer money to send their children to private secular and religious schools, violates the state constitution because it provides public money to schools whose main purpose is to promote religion, John West, an attorney for the group suing to stop the program, argued in Marion Superior Court.

"What we're talking about here finally is a program that provides state funds to send children to religious schools," West said.

Solicitor General Tom Fisher argued that the voucher system is legal because the state isn't directly funding parochial schools directly. Instead, it gives scholarship vouchers to parents, who can choose which school to use them at.

He likened a parent using vouchers to send children to religious schools to a state employee donating part of his paycheck to a church. Any benefit to religious institutions from vouchers was merely incidental, Fisher said.

West disagreed, saying that vouchers helped religious schools recruit new students — and potentially new members — they otherwise wouldn't have reached.

After listening to two hours of arguments, Judge Michael Keele said he will rule early next week on whether to grant an injunction halting the program until the lawsuit is resolved.

About 2,800 Indiana students have been approved for the state-funded scholarships, and Attorney General Greg Zoeller said more than 150 of them used the vouchers to enroll in private schools that started this week.

"Any injunction would be extremely disruptive to their education while this litigation is pending," Zoeller said.

Teresa Meredith, a Shelbyville teacher and teachers union vice president who is the main plaintiff, said any disruption should be minimal if the judge rules early next week before most school systems have resumed classes.

The voucher program takes a portion of the money that would have gone to a public school system and converts it into a scholarship for use at a private secular or religious school approved by the state. The plaintiffs, who are backed by the Indiana State Teachers Association, say 90 percent of the roughly 250 eligible schools are religious.

Unlike other systems that are limited to lower-income households, children with special needs or those in failing schools, Indiana's voucher program is open to a much larger pool of students, including those already in excellent schools. Families have to meet certain income limits to qualify, with families of four making up to about $60,000 a year getting some type of scholarship.

The U.S. Supreme Court has given its backing to voucher programs, ruling they don't violate the Constitution. But West pointed out that courts in several states have overturned voucher laws on the grounds that they went further toward supporting religious institutions than their state constitutions allowed.

Bert Gall, an attorney with the libertarian Institute for Justice who is representing two families who want to use the Indiana's new vouchers, argued that courts in Ohio and Wisconsin have upheld their state voucher laws, and that their laws regarding the matter are similar to Indiana's.

Gall said after the hearing that if the preliminary injunction is granted, it would mean hardship for families whose children had already used vouchers to enroll in private school.

"You're literally yanking people out of their seat at private school because of the preliminary injunction," he said.

One of the parents Gall is representing, Heather Coffy, said she joined the suit because her children attend parochial school and that without the vouchers, it would require at least half of her income to send her children to the schools she's chosen

Monica Poindexter, who also joined the suit, said her 5-year-old son is in his second year at Holy Angels Catholic School and her 12-year-old daughter is starting junior high at Cardinal Ritter High School.

While a scholarship helped her pay part of the tuition last year, her daughter is now in junior high and the cost is going up, she said.

"Without a voucher, I don't foresee how I could do this too much longer," she said.

Winger to act at Psychological Assoc. convention

Debra Winger is to lead a dramatic reading as part of a panel discussion about addiction during the American Psychological Association convention.

The star of "Urban Cowboy," "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Terms of Endearment," "Shadowlands" and "Rachel Getting Married" will join other professional actors for Saturday's dramatic reading of Act III of Eugene O'Neill's drama "Long Day's Journey into Night" at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, organizers said.

Winger will be reading the part of Mary Tyrone, who is addicted to morphine. Tyrone's husband and sons suffer from alcoholism in the play, set in 1912.

Following the performance, a panel of psychologists will lead a discussion on addiction and audience members will be allowed to give their emotional and professional reactions to the production. Heading up the discussion will be Carlo C. DiClemente, Ph.D., psychologist and addictive behaviors expert, and David Shurtleff, Ph.D. and acting deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

EU wind energy use to triple by 2020

The use of wind energy among EU members is expected to triple by the end of the decade, the European Wind Energy Association predicts.

The association said that Ireland, Denmark and Portugal will lead the European community in wind energy by 2020 with wind energy making up 52, 38 and 28 percent their energy production, respectively.

The EWEA said electricity production from wind will increase from about 5.5 percent of total European demand in 2010 to more than 15 percent of total demand by 2020.

EWEA Policy Director Justin Wilkes said in a statement that wind energy output should triple by 2020, largely driven by European efforts to reduce emissions and use more clean energy by the end of the decade.

"Wind power will not only make a very substantial contribution to meeting Europe's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," he said in a statement. "It strongly accelerates a shift away from expensive fossil fuels, creates jobs, makes Europe more competitive and provides secure and renewable power production in Europe."

The wind association adds that wind energy production by 2020 could be equivalent to all of the energy used by households in France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom combined.