Swiss Peace

In an incident reflective of the age-old Swiss stance of neutrality towards all nations and the resulting lack of any intensity in the small nation's armed(?) forces(!), what began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighbouring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality earlier this week before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

"We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Einstein is supposed to have remarked, "If only the whole world behaved as sensibly as Switzerland, it could be as beautiful."