Renovation on the 20 kilometer-long Simplon rail tunnel began officially yesterday.

Work on the 170 million franc project actually started in March, but yesterday was the official kick-off, on a day associated with the patron saint of miners.

Work on the vital passenger and freight tunnel will take three years, with the first full closure of the rail stretch coming in August this year.

Some of the work was pushed forward after a freight car caught fire in June last year.

The Federal Railways said rail schedules will reflect closures, and delays.
 

Geneva luxury goods firm Richemont has won a case in Russian court against fake luxury products.

Richemont filed a complaint against Moscow company Ritter Gentlemen for using the names Jaeger-le-Coultre and Vacheron Constantin on Russian goods.

Both high-end brands are part of Richemont’s business.

A spokesman called the case an “important success.”

For the Swiss watch industry as a whole it loses an estimated 800 million francs a year from forgeries.
 

Shareholders of big bank UBS had much to vote on at the firm’s annual meeting yesterday, including confirming the new chairman of the board, and his pay package.

Former German central banker Axel Weber received approval from nearly 99 percent of shareholders.

A majority agreed to bank pay-packages, and a 4 million franc signing-on fee for Weber.

But a third of shareholders rejected it, signaling lingering displeasure.

Weber defended the pay-out to public television.

“When I signed on with UBS, it was important for me that the board president was invested in the long-term performance of the company, from a governance aspect,” he said.  “That’s why the bulk of my pay package is in 200,000 shares of UBS.  I have to pay tax on that right away, which will be paid from this money, and I will use my own money to pay the rest.”

Weber said it is important for bank management to be interested in the long-term performance of the bank.

At the annual meeting, UBS management only barely got a majority of shareholders to approve executive performance from last year, in the wake of a $2 billion rogue-trading scandal.
 

A controversial toughening of Geneva’s law on public protests will head to the Federal Supreme Court.

Opponents to the voter-approved law have decided to appeal to the court, saying the law is against the “foundations of democracy.”

On March 11 Geneva voters agreed to a law which would allow fines of 100,000 francs for organizers of a rally if violence breaks out, even if the violence is not directly related to the gathering.

Organizers can also be prevented from getting a permit to assemble if violence occurs at an event.

Opponents say the law violates rights to assemble.
 

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, the parent of WRS, saw a profit in 2011, for the first time in five years.

The SBC ended the year in the black nearly 26 million francs, with revenue of 1.6 billion francs.

The turnaround comes as the SBC continues a review and restructuring of its offerings.

Recently the head of the SBC, Roger de Weck, announced his intent to close or sell World Radio Switzerland, which has a budget of 3.1 million francs a year.

De Weck said the decision over WRS was not about money, but about whether an English-language service fit into the core mission of the SBC.
 

The Finance Minister of the German state of Baden-Württemberg says his state is still against the current tax deal on the table with Switzerland. 

Nils Schmid told the Financial Times Deutschland that the state is still willing to negotiate further for a better deal.

Schmid said his view is shared by state Minister President Winfried Kretschmann, even if Kretschmann gave a different impression during a recent visit to Bern.

Kretschmann had said he could reconsider his skepticism of the tax deal depending on how much German states get in revenue.

Opposition parties in Germany complain withholding tax rates declared by the Swiss tax deal are too low.

They are threatening to spike the deal in Germany’s upper house of Parliament.
 

An injured hiker who spent three nights lost in an Appenzell forest is well considering the circumstances.

That’s what a statement from the St Gallen Cantonal Hospital said, explaining the woman had a fractured tail-bone, injured knee, cuts, and contusions.

She will need to stay in the hospital for a few more days.

The 33-year-old hiker was found yesterday near Wasserauen in the canton of Appenzell Inner Rhodes.

She fell and injured herself Sunday afternoon and called for help with a mobile phone, but she didn’t know exactly where she was.

Tracing her phone was unsuccessful, and the Alpine Rescue teams with search dogs were dispatched.
 

Coffee capsule company Nespresso says it will build its third Swiss production site in Romont, in the canton of Fribourg. 

The site will create 200 short-term, and 400 long-term jobs, the company said. 

Construction of the 300 million franc site should begin this year, to be completed by the middle of 2015.

Nespresso is a subsidiary of Swiss foods giant Nestlé.
 

German airline Lufthansa says it will cut 3,500 jobs worldwide, though its Swiss subsidiary will be unaffected.

Lufthansa said the cuts will mainly hit the administrative operation, part of a plan to raise earnings by 1.5 billion euros by 2015.

Swiss International Airlines will be responsible for 100 million euros of this improvement, said spokeswoman Susanne Mühlemann.

Swiss booked a loss of 4 million francs in the first quarter of this year, citing industry volatility and a difficult market.

Parent Lufthansa saw an operating loss of 381 million euros in the quarter.
 

The Parliamentary working group on the Ukraine wants Switzerland to offer to treat jailed former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoschenko.

A proposal signed by Bern MP Christa Markwalder and Zurich MP Martin Bäumle was delivered to the Federal Council today.

It’s unclear if the Federal Council will act on the report, which also spoke out against proposed boycotts of the Ukraine, calling them “ineffective.”

Tymoschenko is reportedly in deteriorating health in Ukrainian jail, claiming to have been abused in custody.

She is refusing treatment in the country. 

Tymoshenko was jailed last year for abuse of office.

Many in the West called the trial and sentence “politically motivated.”
 

The Cressier refinery owned by now bankrupt Swiss oil refiner Petroplus is about to be sold.

The company said in a statement the refinery in the canton of Neuchâtel was being sold through a subsidiary to Varo Holding, which is a joint venture between commodity trader Vitol and investors at AtlasInvest.

The sale would include the refinery, along with all Swiss marketing, pipeline, and storage operations.

Regulators and the courts must still approve the deal.

Petroplus operations are now managed by a trustee, after high debt and frozen credit lines forced the company to file bankruptcy.
 

The canton of Zug will not force-feed prisoners who may choose to go on a hunger strike.

A new rule, effective immediately, says if a prisoner does not wish to eat, jailers cannot force food upon the prisoner.

If the prisoner loses consciousness, then a doctor will make the decision of what treatment to offer.

Beat Villiger, cantonal safety director, said a prisoner will be told of all health risks of a hunger strike.

The prisoner can decide to not be fed regardless of what may happen, as Villiger says providing care will not trump the right of self-determination.

The rule was prompted after a number of hunger strikes hemp farmer Bernard Rappaz in the canton of Valais.
 

French authorities appear to have manipulated evidence in a case of stolen bank data from the Geneva HSBC bank in 2007. 

Switzerland gave information to France as part of the investigation of bank data theft, and when the information was returned, it had been altered.

That’s according to Jeannette Balmer, spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s office which confirmed a report first published in the French weekly paper Le Nouvel Observateur.

The data stems from a former IT worker at HSBC who had information on 3,000 clients and handed it to French tax authorities.

The data is inadmissible in French court, but tax authorities reportedly wanted to use it as leverage to prompt tax evaders to voluntarily come forward.

France reportedly also shared the data with other countries.
 

Pharmaceutical company Alkopharma in the canton of Valais has regained its license to operate after accusations it had sold under-dosed cancer drugs.

Regulatory agency Swissmedic said Alkopharma had taken measures to end the administrative case against it.

The Martigny-based site of the French company may still face a criminal investigation over the accusations.

Alkopharma has about 450 employees worldwide, with 20 in Switzerland.

It is owned by French company Laboratoires Genopharm.
 

Police in four countries have broken a crime ring of jewelry thieves, responsible for at least 18 burglaries.

Swiss, Austrian, German and Romanian police arrested 16 people, and identified three others, believed to have robbed jewelry stores from 2008 to 2011.

The mostly Romanian suspects were believed to have hit shops in five Swiss cantons, though only two of the arrests occurred in Switzerland.

Damage from the crimes was estimated at more than 1 million euros, as announced by police in Bregenz yesterday.