Switzerland's president and foreign minister said Wednesday that she will bow out of politics at the end of the year, closing a long public career marked by her active foreign policy and dashes of controversy, according to AP. Micheline Calmy-Rey, a 66-year-old Social Democrat, told a news conference in the capital, Bern, that she will not stand for re-election in December to the Federal Council. Its seven members take turns each year serving as president, a largely ceremonial role that's considered as being "first among equals." Calmy-Rey is the Federal Council's longest serving member. She won election in 2002 after rising through Geneva's cantonal government to become its finance chief. She grew up in the canton Valais, studied political science in Geneva and then ran a book distribution business for 20 years.
