Berne - Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht will need several months of intensive rehabilitation and specialized treatment as he recovers from injuries in a serious downhill training crash.

"The next weeks and months will be about Daniel Albrecht recovering well enough to be able to lead a normal life," the skier's manager, Guisep Fry, said in a statement Friday.

Berne University's hospital said Albrecht, 25, would need complete peace and quiet and can only be visited by close friends and family.

Zurich - The largest Swiss Bank, UBS, would comply with the terms of a deal reached with the US Justice Department, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, in order to avoid prosecution and settle claims of conspiring to help thousands of wealthy US citizens evade taxes.

The bank would pay 780 million dollars in fines and would transfer information on accounts of clients who most likely committed fraud, said spokesman Serge Steiner.

"UBS will fully comply" with the agreement, he added.

Zurich  - Swiss Re announced Thursday net losses in 2008 of 864 million francs, mostly on investments, as the insurance giant's credit rating was downgraded, increasing its funding requirements.

In 2007 Swiss Re had turned a 4.2 billion francs net profit.

Stefan Lippe, who was appointed CEO earlier this month, said in a statement that the result was "clearly disappointing," but that January had proved to be a better month for the company.

He said the core insurance business was solid and that Swiss Re was working "to de-risk the investment portfolio." The group was also cutting costs.

The company posted a fourth quarter loss of 1.75 billion francs.

Vevey, Switzerland  - Nestle boosted its net profit by 69.4 per cent in 2008, the company said Thursday, giving it gains of 18 billion Swiss francs (15.3 billion dollars).

The group's core business, its food and beverages section, produced sales of 102.4 billion francs and was the main contributor to growth.

Sales for the company rose 2.2 per cent to 109.9 billion francs, while its organic growth was 8.3 per cent.

Geneva/Washington  - The largest Swiss bank, UBS AG, will pay 780 million dollars in fines to avoid prosecution and settle claims of conspiring to help thousands of wealthy US citizens use Swiss bank accounts to evade taxes, the US Justice Department said Wednesday.

Geneva  - The largest Swiss bank, UBS, will hand over the names of 250 of its clients to the United States Justice Department, a Geneva-based newspaper reported, in a move that goes against the Alpine country's longstanding bank secrecy principles.

Without naming its source, Le Temps said the bank would divulge the information as part of an ongoing investigation against UBS in the US alleging that it helped clients there evade paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes since the beginning of the decade.