An Italian appeals court on Monday increased a sentence in absentia against Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny to 18 years in prison for causing the death of 3,000 people in a landmark asbestos case that is the biggest of its kind…Campaigners immediately hailed the verdict as an important precedent for other legal action over asbestos-related deaths. The tycoon is the former owner of an Italian plant making Eternit construction material using asbestos and was sued by former employees…The appeals court said he was responsible for "a permanent health and environment catastrophe" and had violated work safety rules at his facilities…