Ruffling the feathers of Robert Gates, US defence secretary, is no easy feat. The former CIA director usually maintains a poker face. But on Monday in Jakarta, he got hot under the collar when questioned about the latest Pentagon-related conspiracy theory.

This time the conspiracy did not involve Iraq, Iran or the events of September 11 2001. It concerned bird flu, and the recent claims by Siti Fadilah Supari, Indonesia’s health minister, that the Pentagon was using bird flu samples to create biological weapons. Confronted at a press conference with Juwono Sudarsono, the Indonesian defence minister, Gates rejected the assertion, but only after Sudarsono’s spokesman jumped in to point out that the defence minister did not share the health minister’s views on the new alleged WMD.

Gates was provoked again. After a speech to the Indonesian Council on Foreign Affairs, he got the same question and replied that it was the “nuttiest” thing he had ever heard.

Zurich without the sweeteners

The Club of Rome, that august body of former bigwigs still best known
for its 30-year-old study on The Limits to Growth, may soon be a club without a clubhouse.

A narrow majority of voters in Zurich decided on Sunday to reject a SFr1.8m subsidy to bring the ageing group to Switzerland from its current home in Hamburg.

The Club, which still produces regular studies on weighty world issues, decided last September to up sticks, enticed partly by Switzerland’s convenience and neutrality, as well as Zurich’s offer of a healthy financial shot in the arm.

Under the proposal, the organisation would have moved into historic offices on the banks of the river Limmat.

But while Zurich’s down-to-earth citizens retained a healthy disdain for unnecessary expenditure – particularly on an organisation whose prominent members are hardly short of cash.

Spurred by a young urban protest party and the ever-opportunistic ultra-nationalist Swiss People’s party, voters rejected the subsidy in a classic display of Swiss direct democracy.

The Club, run by Indian thinker Ashok Khosla and former corporate hotshot Eberhard von Koerber, says it is “evaluating all the possibilities” for its future in the light of the defeat.

Some are speculating that the Club may take up an offer from Basel – Zurich’s archrival.

But if that happens Zurich, the town that likes to dub itself “Europe’s big small city”, would not be any the worse for its loss.

Making news again

It is not usual for a company to put out a press release to say a secretary has decided to quit the company, let alone one including the contact number of the group’s head of communications. But then not many secretaries are like Lydia Schrempp, who Daimler said on Monday was leaving the company after 20 years.

Schrempp shot to prominence as simple Lydia Deininger when her boss – and future husband – Jürgen Schrempp, then chief executive of DaimlerChrysler, almost created a diplomatic incident in Italy.

Schrempp was hauled in for questioning by police after the pair were caught drinking wine on the Spanish Steps in Rome and lots of behind-the-scenes work was necessary to get him out.

She hardly became less controversial after becoming Mrs Schrempp. She continued to be his secretary and was employed even after he resigned as chief executive in 2005. Shareholder anger increased with each annual meeting until last year, when rumours of her high pay incensed some small investors. (The company responded to these critics by saying there was no need for her to resign simply because her husband no longer worked there.)

Her employment even caused friction in Daimler’s supervisory board where several members were upset she continued to be on the payroll long after her husband left.

Now, Daimler says, she is turning to other work when she leaves at the end of March. Whether she will get a press release when she joins another company is highly debatable.

Road to change?

Security is a top issue for all parties running in Italy’s general elections. But security has a price, as Walter Veltroni’s “Yes we can!” campaign learnt on Monday when police fined his green, eco-friendly bus €70 for a seat-belt violation.

Despite the slight hitch, the former mayor of Rome plans to cover more than 12,000km as he criss-crosses the country before the mid-April vote.

Party supporters joked that the police were just showing their independence in ticketing Veltroni’s driver.

Nonetheless, the week-old tour appears to be having an impact. Some polls show Veltroni narrowing the gap on opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi.

The modern way

There has been commotion in France about Nicolas Sarkozy’s latest outburst against a rude spectator at the Paris agricultural show on Saturday. When a man refused to shake Sarkozy’s hand – saying he did not want to dirty himself – the president said: “Shove off, you jerk! Shove off!” (Translations of the French demotic vary.)

Sarkozy’s supporters said his reaction was “modern”, but critics argue that such language is unbecoming.

There is even a certain nostalgia (whisper it not) for the way Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, dealt with such situations. When one protestor shouted “Fool!” at him, Chirac replied: “Glad to meet you. My name is Jacques Chirac.”