Zurich - Swiss banking giant UBS said Thursday it managed to produce a "small profit" in the just-ended third quarter of 2008 and that its financial position is steadier with no further asset writedowns foreseen.

The brief statement came ahead of an extraordinary general meeting at which shareholders will vote on new appointments to the board of directors.

UBS chairman Peter Kurer in his remarks said 2009 would be a profitable year. He said the bank's risk positions in US mortgages had been "significantly reduced" chiefly after selling mortgage- related securities.

Zurich  - Zurich's main train station was transformed into an opera hall for a special production of the opera La Traviata.

Tuesday night's three-hour production, sponsored by Swiss television, was viewed by train station patrons, but was also broadcast on Swiss television and Arte, a French-German cultural television station.

Performers and producers said they were pleased with the performance. No technical problems were reported and the audience of several thousand applauded enthusiastically.

Dover , Sept 26 (ANI): A Swiss adventurer, Yves Rossy, successfully made a 22-mile trip across the English Channel with a homemade jet on Friday.

Rossy was schedule to attempt this stunt on Thursday but due to bad weather, visibility deteriorated and he postponed it till today.

He made the trip at more than 8,800 feet from Calais in France to Dover in England in about 12 minutes.

Rossy told CBS News today that this experience was like flying an airplane without the airplane.

London - Swiss adventurer Yves Rossi, also known as Fusionman, Thursday postponed a record-breaking attempt to become the first person to fly solo across the English Channel between Britain and France using a single jet-propelled wing.

Rossy, 49, was due to jump from a plane more than 2,500 metres above ground, then fire up jets on his home-made wing and soar across the Channel from Calais in France to Dover in southern Britain.

But clouds over Dover Thursday forced the second cancellation this week of the flight. A further attempt will be made Friday.

London, Sept18 : A Swiss gourmet chef has caused a stir with his plan to use human milk in a variety of dishes.

Owner of the Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort, Hans Locher said that he will improve his menu with local specialities such as meat stew and various soups and sauces containing at least 75 per cent of mother''s milk.

"We have all been raised on it. Why should we not include it into our diet?" Telegraph quoted Locher, as saying.

Locher attracted the attention of the leading media of the German-speaking world this week after he posted ads looking for women donors, who will receive just over three pounds for 14 ounces of their milk.

Bern  - His voice is creaking and gargling, his fingers strumming the guitar strings hard. The kick-drum leads a steady beat and a cymbal clangs from time to time.

When Reverend Beat-Man from the Swiss capital Bern performs as a one-man-orchestra, it sounds one minute like enchanted swampland, another like the open range, and maybe occasionally like voodoo rituals and the curses of the possessed.