SWITZERLAND – Police in Switzerland made multiple arrests after someone reportedly ended their life using a so-called suicide pod, in apparently the first case of its kind. Police in the Schaffhausen region said they arrested “several persons” on suspicion of inciting, and aiding and abetting suicide after someone died reportedly by using a pod made by the company Sarco on Monday.

While assisted dying is legally protected in some circumstances in Switzerland, the Sarco pod has encountered some opposition. Officers recovered the device and body at the scene. The company behind the controversial pod says it can be solely operated by the person seeking to end their own life, without medical supervision.

Police said it was used on Monday at a forest hut in the Merishausen area, a sparsely populated part of Switzerland on the German border. Police said they were tipped off by a law firm about a suicide involving the device. The number of people arrested and their identities were not disclosed. The deceased also was not named.

In July, a pro-assisted dying group, which promotes the Sarco device, said it anticipated that it would be used for the first time this year. Advocates say it provides an option not reliant on drugs or doctors, and that it expands access to euthanasia as the portable device can be 3D-printed and assembled at home.

However, there also has been opposition in Switzerland, despite the country having some of the world’s most protective laws surrounding assisted dying. Critics fear the device’s modern design glamorises suicide and the fact that it can be operated without medical oversight is concerning. Assisted dying is illegal in the UK and in most other European countries, but thousands have travelled to Switzerland over the years to end their own lives. (BBC)…[+]

MOSCOW –  Russia appears to have suffered a “catastrophic failure” in a test of its Sarmat missile, a key weapon in the modernization of its nuclear arsenal, according to arms experts who have analyzed satellite images of the launch site.

The images captured by Maxar on Sept. 21 show a crater about 60 metres (200 feet) wide at the launch silo at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. They reveal extensive damage that was not visible in pictures taken earlier in the month.  The RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is designed to deliver nuclear warheads to strike targets thousands of miles away in the United States or Europe, but its development has been dogged by delays and testing setbacks.

“By all indications, it was a failed test. It’s a big hole in the ground,” said Pavel Podvig, an analyst based in Geneva, who runs the Russian Nuclear Forces project. “There was a serious incident with the missile and the silo.” Timothy Wright, research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the destruction of the area immediately surrounding the missile silo was suggestive of a failure soon after ignition.

“One possible cause is that the first stage (booster) either failed to ignite properly or suffered from a catastrophic mechanical failure, causing the missile to fall back into or land closely adjacent to the silo and explode,” he told Reuters. James Acton, nuclear specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, posted on X that the before-and-after satellite images were “very persuasive that there was a big explosion” and said he was convinced that a Sarmat test had failed.

The Kremlin referred questions on Sarmat to the defense ministry. The ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment and has made no announcements about planned Sarmat tests in recent days. The US and its allies are closely watching Russia’s development of its nuclear arsenal at a time when the war in Ukraine has pushed tensions between Moscow and the West to the most dangerous point for more than 60 years. Since the start of the conflict, President Vladimir Putin has said repeatedly that Russia has the biggest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world, and warned the West not to cross a threshold that could lead to nuclear war. (CNN)…[+]

USA – Haiti’s Prime Minister Garry Conille has urged the international community to stand by the country, warning “if we fail, it will not only be Haiti that will sink, but the entire region that will bear the scars”.

Addressing the  United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti, Conille said it was important that the international community act now and keep its commitments to Haiti, where efforts are being made to restore peace and security following the July 7, 2021 assassination of then president Jovenel Moise.

Prime Minister Conille, who met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of the ECOSOC meeting, noted that it is important for international partners to fill the investment gap in the United Nations authorised Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, which aims to provide much-needed respite to the Haitian people. “We must be clear-headed. After these 100 days, a bitter truth has emerged: the Haitian crisis, in its security, humanitarian, social, economic and political components, has been largely underestimated,” Conille said.

“The gangs we are facing are not just disorganised gangs. These are real armed groups, often well-equipped and determined, with transnational ramifications. In some cases, the situation we are facing is nothing less than an urban war, forcing our law enforcement agencies to act house by house, because buildings and neighbourhoods are often transformed into death traps. “We need more sophisticated weapons, more substantial resources and increased training for our forces to respond sustainably to this threat that sometimes takes on the appearance of a civil war.”

Conille told the more than 40 representatives of countries and international partners at the ECOSOC meeting that “it is imperative that the international community stand by our side with resources that match the stakes, warning “if we fail, it will not only be Haiti that will sink, but the entire region that will bear the scars”. (Jamaicaobserver)…[+]