All decisions are that a head of state would make are decided by a meeting of the Federal Council. For example, treaties are signed on behalf of the Federal Council, and all members of the federal council sign the "letters of credence" to introduce ambassadors sent by Switzerland to a foreign country. All ambassadors sent by a foreign country to Switzerland meet all of the members of the Federal Council, not just the President.
The President of the Confederation is sometimes called the "primus inter pares" (first equal) in the Federal Council.
Only three other countries in the world do not have one person as a head of state, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andorra and San Marino.
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Van Diemen Gulf
Van Diemen Gulf () is a gulf between Arnhem Land, the Cobourg Peninsula and Melville Island in northern Australia. It joins the Timor Sea in the west by the Clarence Strait near the city of Darwin. It joins the Arafura Sea in the north by Dundas Strait between Melville Island and Cobourg Peninsula. It covers an area of about 14,000 km².
Rivers flowing into the Gulf include the South Alligator River, the East Alligator River and the Adelaide River.
Abel Tasman mapped the northern entrance to the Gulf, Dundas Strait, in 1644. The Gulf is named after the Dutch Governor of Batavia, Anthony Van Diemen.
The waters in the Gulf near the Cobourg Peninsula are protected by the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park.
HTC-Highroad
HTC-Highroad ("UCI team code:"THR) is a professional cycling team competing in international road bicycle races. Their current title sponsor is HTC Corporation, a Taiwanese maker of Smartphones. High Road Sports is the management company of team manager Bob Stapleton. Past title sponsors include Columbia Sportswear and Deutsche Telekom.
The team was set up in 1991 as Team Telekom, sponsored by Deutsche Telekom. In 2004 their name changed to the T-Mobile-Team. It has 29 riders, 9 physiotherapists or nurses, 9 mechanics and service persons, and has 22 partners. The team is managed by Bob Stapleton and Rolf Aldag. Former leaders include Olaf Ludwig, Walter Godefroot and Eddy Vandenhecke (managers), Luuc Eisenga (spokesperson) and Brian Holm, Valerio Piva (sports directors).
At the end of 1988, former World Champion Hennie Kuiper set up a German cycling team that was sponsored by the city of Stuttgart and rode on Eddy Merckx cycles. The team was called "Stuttgart-Merckx-Gonsor" for the 1989 season and had nine riders (which included Udo Bölts). At that time when there were no German cycling teams and the country's main cycling event, the Rund um den Henninger Turm had not been won by a German since Rudi Altig in 1970. During its first year of existence team rider Dariusc Kajzer brought the team its first success in the National Road Race Championships in Germany. The team became "Stuttgart-Mercedes-Merckx-Puma" in 1990 and Bölts continued the success of the team by becoming road race champion of Germany.
Deutsche Telekom came in as the main sponsor in 1991 and the team was known as "Telekom-Mercedes-Merckx-Puma". According to an interview with Godefroot, it was Bölts’ 17th place at the 1991 Vuelta a España that prompted him to accept the Telekom management’s offer to take over the running of the team. Godefroot signed several riders including Classics specialist and 1991 Paris–Roubaix winner Marc Madiot. Bölts who was involved with the team since its beginnings in 1989 stayed with the team until 2003, continued building on the successes of the team by winning stage 19, the Queen stage of the 1992 Giro d'Italia. Jens Heppner continued this with his tenth place overall at the 1992 Tour de France.
The Telekom team signed all the promising cyclists that were coming from Germany at that time and who were becoming successful. These included Jens Heppner and Christian Henn in 1992, Erik Zabel, Rolf Aldag and Steffen Wesemann in 1993 and Jan Ullrich in 1994. Many of these riders would ride for more than ten years with the team. Olaf Ludwig also signed in 1993 and finished his career with the team. In 1994, Zabel won the first UCI Road World Cup victory in the history of the team, the Paris–Tours.
In 1993 the team again achieved success in the national championship road race in Germany. This was the start of the team’s 11 year domination and possession of the German champion’s jersey. Many of the successful team riders that spent many years of their career with Telekom would become German national champions – Bernd Gröne in 1993, Jens Heppner in 1994, Bölts in 1990, 1995 and 1999, Christian Henn in 1996, Jan Ullrich in 1997 and 2001, Erik Zabel in 1998 and 2003, Rolf Aldag in 2000, Danilo Hondo in 2002 and finally Andreas Klöden in 2004.
The team soon became an important presence on the international cycling stage. However the team was not invited to the 1995 Tour de France. Eventually the organisers of the Tour agreed that six Telekom members, namely Rolf Aldag, Udo Bölts, Jens Heppner, Vladimir Pulnikov, Erik Zabel and Olaf Ludwig, would be joined with three members of the ZG Mobili to form a composite team. Zabel went on to win two stages in the race.
The next two years saw the international breakthrough of the team. Godefroot brought in Danish rider Bjarne Riis, the third place finisher of the 1995 Tour and he went on to win the 1996 Tour de France, with the then 22-year old German support rider Jan Ullrich finishing in second place. In addition, Zabel won the first of six green jerseys for winning the points competition. Bolts won the Clásica de San Sebastián and Wesemann won his second and the first of four wins with the Telekom team of the famous stage race the Peace Race.
The 1997 Tour de France saw the emergence of Ullrich as he won the race with support from Riis, who in turn had won the World Cup race Amstel Gold Race earlier in 1997. Team Telekom also won the team classification, as the overall strongest team of the 1997 Tour. In addition, Bolts won the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Zabel won Milan – San Remo for the first of four times with the team. Ullrich also won the Championships of Hamburg semi-classic. The following year this race was elevated to the status of World Cup. In addition the Deutschland Tour returned in 1999 – evidence of the continuing popularity of cycling in Germany at the time. While Ullrich had a crash in the race and was forced to retire, Team Telekom did win the first edition of the race with Heppner and would win the race again with Alexander Vinokourov in 2001.
Ullrich finished second in the 1998 Tour de France but went on to win the 1999 Vuelta a España, although he missed the 1999 Tour de France due to a knee injury. After winning the Vuelta, Ullrich became World time trial champion which enabled him to wear the rainbow jersey during time trials. He would win this again in 2001. The next year, Zabel won the overall World Cup victory, having won the Milan – San Remo and Amstel Gold Race, while Ullrich placed second again in the 2000 Tour de France to Lance Armstrong. Ullrich won the gold medal in the Olympic road race and the silver medal in the Olympic time trial. In 2001, Zabel won Milan – San Remo for the fourth time. Ullrich came in second in the 2001 Tour de France, while Zabel won six stages combined in the 2001 Tour and Vuelta. Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov won the Paris–Nice stage race in 2002, a feat he would duplicate in 2003, also winning the Amstel Gold Race and Tour de Suisse that year. As Ullrich left the team to form Team Bianchi in 2003, Vinokourov became team leader for the 2003 Tour de France. He finished in third place, just below the second placed Ullrich. Zabel won the 2003 Paris–Tours, while Italian rider Daniele Nardello took the Züri-Metzgete.