Geneva - A total of 7,610 aid workers have now been ordered to leave northern Sudan in response to the international arrest warrant issued against the country's president last week, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Around 1.5 million people in war-torn Darfur depend on aid workers for health services which now face disruption, whilst 1.1 million people would no longer receive vital food aid and over 1.15 million people may lose access to safe drinking water.

Geneva - Diarrheal diseases, responsible for about 20 per cent of child deaths worldwide, are on the rise, the International Federation of Red Cross Societies warned Tuesday.

The organization's statistics showed that in the last two years, national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies have requested 35 per cent more emergency aid to help treat occurrences of acute diarrheal illnesses than in 2006. These illnesses were related to outbreaks of diseases such as cholera.

Nyon, Switzerland - France and Italy will be battling to stage football's European Championships in 2016, UEFA confirmed on Tuesday.

Europe's governing body has also received proposals from Turkey and a joint bid from Sweden and Norway.

UEFA said the candidates will have to submit bid dossiers by February 2010. UEFA officials will then visit the bidding countries to evaluate their plans.

Its executive committee will make a final decision on May 27, 2010.

Zurich (dpa) - Credit Suisse and Swiss Re, both hit hard by the financial crisis, announced changes at the top of the companies Monday morning.

Peter Forstmoser, the chairman of Swiss Re, the re-insurer, announced in a statement that he would resign from the board and be replaced by Walter B. Kielholz, the current chairman of Credit Suisse, who would stay at the bank as a member of the board.

Hans-Ulrich Doerig, currently the vice-chairman of Credit Suisse was being proposed as the new chairman of Switzerland's second largest bank.

Munich  - A smooth-talking Swiss gigolo who allegedly preyed on wealthy women goes on trial on Monday charged with extorting millions of dollars.

Amongst the alleged victims is BMW car heiress Susanne Klatten, 46. The publicity-shy mother-of-three is reputedly Germany's richest woman, with a large stake in luxury carmaker as well as a pharmaceuticals company.

Helg Sgarbi, 44, is accused of trying to extort 14 million euros (17.5 million dollars) from Klatten after he threatened to publicise secret video recordings of them having sex.

It is unclear whether Klatten and three other women Sgarbi is alleged to have seduced and defrauded will testify against him.

Geneva - An art house in Lucerne, Switzerland, will auction off this summer the doctorate diploma issued to Albert Einstein from the school of mathematics and natural sciences at Zurich University, Swiss media reported Saturday.

His dissertation was entitled A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions and he received his PhD in 1906 at the age of 26. Einstein went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries in photoelectric effects, which he started while at Zurich.