Basel, Switzerland - The Swiss Bankers Association said Friday that it supported Bern's decision to offer better international cooperation on tax offences.

"The SBA now expects an end to all improper international criticism of Switzerland and its legal system and also an end to threats to put Switzerland on a so-called 'black list'," the group said in a statement.

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.

Basel, Switzerland (dpa) - Ah, Venice! La Serenissima (the Divine Republic). Queen of the Adriatic. A city between the sky and the sea. Hardly a city has fascinated writers and artists more than Venice, the favourite of painters as early as the 18th century.

The Fondation Beyeler, in the Basel suburb of Riehen, has gathered for joint display some 150 oil and watercolour paintings of Venice by Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, JM William Turner, James McNeill

Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Edouard Manet, Pierre- Auguste Renoir, Pietro Fragiacomo, Odilon Redon, Paul Signac, and Claude Monet.

Berne/Basel, Switzerland  - Police used rubber bullets to restore order after football fans clashed in Berne and Basel in Switzerland following two Super League games Friday night.

Basel, Switzerland