The year started with a banger. A minor panic ensued when the import of Brazilian cows' intestines was banned. These encase the cervelat, the nation's favourite sausage.
(Keystone/Martin Ruetschi)
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A starry starry night over Arosa in eastern Switzerland.
(Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella)
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Heist of the Year took place at the private Bührle collection in Zurich, from where four masterpieces worth SFr180 million were stolen in February. Two were found.
(Keystone/Eddy Risch)
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A Kosovo Albanian in Geneva celebrates the breakaway Serbian province's declaration of independence in February.
(Keystone/Martial Trezzini)
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Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey ruffled feathers in March when she donned a headscarf at a meeting with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right).
(Keystone/Martial Trezzini)
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Swiss railway staff let off balloons in March during a strike against job cuts.
(Keystone/Karl Mathis)
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Former UBS chairman and CEO Marcel Ospel (left) gives Peter Kurer a massive key - and even bigger challenge - at UBS's general assembly in April.
(Keystone/Steffen Schmidt)
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Labour Day Zurich-style.
(Keystone/Alessandro della Bella)
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UBS became Europe's biggest casualty of the US subprime mortgage crisis and wrote down a total of $44 billion in 2008.
(Keystone/Eddy Risch)
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Zurich Ballet director Heinz Spoerli won the 2008 German Dance Prize.
(Keystone/Eddy Risch)
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In June five soldiers died in a boating accident on the River Kander in the Bernese Oberland.
(Keystone/ Michael Buholzer)
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A giant inflatable ball on the Jet d'Eau in Geneva heralds the kick-off of Euro 2008, co-hosted in June by Switzerland and Austria.
(Keystone/Magali Girardin)
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It was hard to escape the European football championships: here a shepherd in Obersaxen follows a match on his laptop.
(Keystone/Arno Balzarini)
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Tens of thousands of Dutch fans descended upon Bern, and then Basel, during Euro 2008.
(Keystone/Ennio Leanza)
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Silence is golden: relaxing during the federal yodelling fest in Lucerne.
(Keystone/Urs Flüeler)
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One of 6,970 recruits called up for military service this summer.
(Keystone/Martin Ruetschi)
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Soaking up the atmosphere on Swiss National Day, August 1.
(Keystone/Sigi Tischler)
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Chinese workers clean up around the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron for the Olympic Games.
(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
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Golden boys: Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka and Fabian Cancellara receive a warm welcome in Basel after their Olympic successes.
(Keystone/Georgios Kefalas)
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Köbi Kuhn retired as coach of the Swiss national football team on a low note, after a disappointing performance at Euro 2008.
(Keystone/Alessandro Della Bella)
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In October the Westside shopping centre, designed by American archiect Daniel Libeskind, opened just outside Bern.
(Keystone/ Lukas Lehmann)
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Controversial ex-cabinet minister Christoph Blocher, here with his wife, is kept at a safe distance from the Swiss public in Bern.
(Swiss Press Photo 2008/Charles Ellena)
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Born in 1848, Sister Maria Bernarda Bütler (left) in October became the first Swiss in recent times to be canonised by the Vatican.
(Keystone/Urs Flüeler)
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After decades of waiting, scientists from Cern research centre near Geneva in September fired a beam of proton particles around the 27km-long underground tunnel. The machine broke down nine days later.
(Keystone/Fabrice Coffrini)
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Migrating birds fly in Hitchcockian style over the Lavaux vineyards by Lake Geneva.
(Keystone/Laurent Gillieron)
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Boxed in: Defence Minister Samuel Schmid bowed to the pressure in November and announced he would stand down at the end of the year.
(Béatrice Devènes / Pixsil)
Visitors to the Museum of Modern Art in New York entered the world of Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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Ueli Maurer, who on January 1 replaces Samuel Schmid as defence minister, preparing for a television interview.
(Keystone/Salvatore Di Nolfi)
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A thick blanket of snow covered Switzerland in December, with record levels measured in and around Bern.
(Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)
Reuters
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