Swiss protest giant UBS bailout

ZURICH: More than 1,000 people protested Saturday at the headquarters of Swiss banking giant UBS in Zurich to show their anger at a 60-billion-dollar state rescue plan.

The demonstrators came from all over the country following an appeal from the Swiss Trade Union, or USS, which claimed that more than 3,500 people took part in the protest.

Protestors held up placards saying "UBS: The Union of Swiss Bandits," and "No looting of social funds by banks."

Switzerland unveiled a rescue package worth almost 60 billion dollars for UBS -- the largest Swiss bank which was one of the biggest losers in the US subprime crisis -- on October 16.

A senior UBS executive has meanwhile been charged with conspiring to defraud the United States of tax revenues and concealing around 20 billion dollars of assets from the Internal Revenue Service.

UBS clients have withdrawn more than 83.6 billion Swiss francs (70.1 billion dollars, 53.3 billion euros) between July and September.