Swiss chocolate makers were left with a bittersweet taste in their mouths last year as a strong Swiss franc melted away the appetite for their products, the top industry body said Friday.

Switzerland's 18 chocolate manufacturers, including such brands as Lindt, Frey and Faverger, sold 4,000 fewer tonnes last year than in 2011 as an "overvalued Swiss franc ... made Swiss chocolate products more expensive abroad and made imported chocolate cheaper," Chocosuisse said in a statement.

Swiss private bank Julius Baer on Monday posted a 15-percent hike in its 2012 net profit, beating analyst expectations amid healthy cash inflows as global financial markets began bouncing back.

Net profit at the bank, which specializes in wealth management, jumped to 298 million Swiss francs ($328 million, 240 million euros) last year, while its assets under management swelled 11 percent to 189 billion Swiss francs, it said in a statement.

Switzerland will on Monday file a petition signed by 52 countries calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open a case on war crimes in Syria, its foreign minister said.

"Serious war crimes are being committed in Syria. We must make sure they not go unpunished," Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter told Swiss national television TSR on Friday.

A gunman has opened fire in a village in southern Switzerland, killing three people and wounding two others, police said on Thursday.

The man, who had reportedly been drinking heavily before the shooting and was armed with an assault rifle, launched the attack in the village of Daillon late Wednesday.

Swiss banking giant UBS has agreed to pay around $1.5 billion to British, U.S. and Swiss regulators to settle allegations it manipulated Libor interest rates, it said in a statement Wednesday.

"UBS agrees to pay approximately CHF 1.4 billion in fines and disgorgement to U.S., UK and Swiss authorities to resolve LIBOR-related investigations," the statement said.

Swiss banking giant UBS was hit twice over on Monday for allowing a rogue trader to commit massive fraud, with British regulators imposing a nearly $50-million fine and Switzerland banning its investment bank from staging takeovers.

In yet another black mark for Swiss banking, regulators in Britain and Switzerland moved fast to punish UBS for failing to stop rogue trader Kweky Adoboli, who was sentenced last week to seven years behind bars in Britain for gambling away $2.3 billion (1.8 billion euros).

Switzerland has decided to support a Palestinian bid for observer status at the United Nations when it is presented next week, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported Thursday.

Bern reached its decision after president Mahmoud Abbas' visit to Switzerland last week, RTS reported, quoting unnamed sources.

Crisis-hit savers in Spain are transferring their money to Switzerland for safety, the head of Geneva's 80-strong banking association said on Wednesday.

"The (Spanish) clients have deliberately chosen to place their money in Switzerland because they no longer have confidence in Spanish banks," Bernard Droux, president of Geneva Financial Center, told reporters.

A Swiss court on Wednesday temporarily banned Credit Suisse, the country's second biggest bank, from handing confidential information about a bank employee to U.S. tax authorities.

The emergency injunction by a Geneva court was a twist to the acrimonious issue of tax evasion involving Swiss banks. Eleven banks are being probed by U.S. authorities as part of an investigation into tax dodging.

Two-thirds of Swiss voters rejected a referendum Sunday to tighten a smoking ban, to the relief of hotels and restaurants, while two cantons split in a vote over keeping tax breaks for rich foreigners.

On the smoking ban, only Geneva voted slightly in favour of tougher controls, while results from the country's other 25 cantons showed that 66 percent rejected it, the ATS news agency reported.