Migros baby slippers: recalled for safety reasons
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Migros is alerting the public to blue and white baby slippers with a moose head decoration that it is recalling for quality problems: parts on the moose head can come loose and pose a safety risk to small children. The slippers have been sold since July 2010. Article number: 8923.023, price CHF12.90. Contact your nearest Migros to return them.
Muehleberg nuclear power plant, peaceful protestors in 2011 (photo:©2011 Herbi Ditl on flickr)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – A European Union team of specialists has given the all-clear to Switzerland’s nuclear reactors for resistance, reviewing them on 37 points established in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011, but he Swiss government says it wants further reviews on 8 additional points.
The IFSN (Federal Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety) says it will not wait for the EU report to be concluded, but it including several points in a review the Swiss body wants to complete by June 2012. Key among them: knowing more precisely the core’s seismic resistance for each reactor. The IFSN in particular notes that the Wohlensee dam’s ability to withstand the kind of major earthquake that occurs every 10,000 years. It invited the Muehleberg nuclear centre in April to show proof of this by 30 November 2011, but it has not yet provided this and the IFSN is now demanding that the information be provided by 31 January 2012, as well as information on the seismic resistant of the emergency stoppage system.
The European Union’s list of safety checks focuses on earthquakes, floods, extreme meteorological conditions, electrical failure and crisis management. Switzerland is calling for further reviews to ensure the safety of rivers and streams below all the dams linked to nuclear plants
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Four miners have died and 50 are missing in a coal mine explosion in Sanmenxia in Henan province. Reports about how many miners managed to escape, but at least 14 men made it out and 7 have been pulled out, injured. It appears that a small earthquake had hit the area shortly before a rock exploded but it’s not clear if the two incidents are related.
The mine is owned by the state.
Safety in mines has been a huge issue in China in recent months and a number of illegal mines have been closed.
Links to other sites: BBC, Winnipeg Free Press (AP)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva will have more police on the streets, particularly in “hot” parts of town at night, Isabel Rochat, Geneva councilor with responsibility for the police announced late Wednesday 24 August. A restructuring will allow the city to have an extra 200 police officers who belong to mobile patrol units available for patrolling areas where security has recently been a concern, such as the area around the train station and Paquis.
The new teams, which will start in September, will be able to answer calls more quickly, says Rochat.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Bank account holders in Switzerland in 2008 saw their deposits legally protected, as a temporary measure, up to CHF100,000 as part of the political fallout of the Swiss governments bailout of UBS. A series of measures were signed urgently and temporarily into law to better protect consumers. Wednesday 24 August the Swiss Federal Council signed the measures, which have seen some improvements, into law permanently.
The new law requires banks to have assets in Switzerland that will cover their obligations to account-holders, and the revised regulations carry several changes including:
- rules have been reinforced for a bank in difficulty to reimburse consumers immediately
- the ceiling for a bank’s obligation to reimburse is fixed at CHF6 billion
- additional privileges have been granted to pension funds’ investments and accounts, for their reimbursement.
A number of steps to improve the banks’ health are also part of the new law.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 17-year-old was mugged in Geneva in mid-July, reportedly sustaining fractures and bruises. In most major cities, the news would have barely made the inside pages of the local paper. But the victim was the child of a US diplomat to the United Nations, and Geneva is a small city, widely considered to be relatively safe, so the news has struck a nerve and caught the attention of media far beyond Switzerland, particularly in the US.
The United Nations in Geneva sent out a warning to staff about going out alone at night, later tamed down. The Swiss president, Micheline Calmy-Rey, a Genevan who has put time and energy into promoting the city’s international centre reputation, had firm words for Geneva authorities about her concerns over “the deterioration of the security situation” in the city, and with 2011 a federal election year in Switzerland, the story has made headlines.
The Associated Press has run a feature that is being picked up by several US news media. The US news agency says “reports of the attack have spooked Geneva’s large foreign and diplomatic community, prompting water cooler tales of muggings, break-ins and assaults.” It cites a 2009 survey: “Last year, Geneva authorities published a survey showing more than two-thirds of foreigners felt security in the city had worsened. The survey, which questioned 1,082 people working for international organizations, diplomatic missions and multinational companies, found one in ten had been victims of burglary or street crime in the past three years.”
The survey (French, pdf) also notes, however, that “the expatriates were almost unanimous in saying they felt the level of safety in Geneva was well above that in their home country or their last country of residence.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The sun is struggling to come out across Switzerland after two weeks of cold and soggy weather, but the forecast promises it will be here for Monday 1 August. The weekend weather forecast is mixed, sun alternating with rain in most regions.
Early weekend traffic is not expected to be a major problem in most areas, with the holiday falling on a Monday.
Fireworks in some areas are held Sunday evening 31 July but in most towns the pyrotechnics and bonfires are scheduled for Monday. Check local municipal web sites for details (note: townname.ch will take you to most of these sites)
Geneva is giving advance warning of traffic changes starting Thursday 4 August for the huge Geneva Festival, with traffic on the Mont Blanc bridge reduced to two lanes, and closed entirely during the two weekends of the festival, which last year attracted 100,000 people.
- Switzerland’s national holiday explained (GenevaLunch 2010)
- Safety precautions for 1 August celebrations from the Swiss Safety Council
- Celebrate by biting into a very Swiss apple!
- up to the minute traffic details on the federal truck traffic site and TSR’s mobile services page (Fr)
Swiss mountain passes are popular with bikers in summer
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The police in Vaud handed their Valais police colleagues a nice story Wednesday morning, of a local man in his 40s stopped for going 130kph on his motorcyle in a 50 zone. The man was going through the village of Crassier, near the Vaud/French border and the French town of Divonne.
The news comes just as police in Valais announced, Wednesday morning, the details of a safety and accident prevention day for motorcyclists Saturday 25 June in Bourg-St-Pierre, in Valais.
Motorcyclists are 20 times more at risk of serious injury or death than occupants of a car, statistics show.
One-third of biker accidents due to inappropriate speed
One-third of motorcycle accidents are linked to the rider losing control of his or her bike due to excessive or inappropriate speeds. Valais police note that two motorcyclists have lost their lives in just the one canton to date this year.
Number of deaths down, but serious injuries up: 1,435 in 2009 in Switzerland
The prevention day is part of a safety campaign that is tied to the heavy use of Swiss mountain passes by motorcyclists in summer, but also a drive by the Swiss to reduce the number of road deaths and serious injuries.
The bfu's campaign helped to increase the number of helmet-wearers on Swiss slopes (photo ©2011 Tara S. Kerpelman)
The Swiss snow sports safety campaign, “1,000 accidents a day – protect yourself with a helmet,” has received good marks: an evaluation by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) says the 2007-2010 marketing campaign was an overall success.
The percentage of people wearing helmets while skiing or snowboarding went up from 52 to 76 percent between 2007 and 2010, over the course of the campaign.
The bfu partnered with the Swiss Insurance Association (SVV) and Rega (Swiss air rescue) for the campaign. It argued that the main reasons skiers and snowboarders did not wear helmets were they were not conscious of the dangers involved, they thought they were not vulnerable to the dangers, or they found that helmets were too uncomfortable to wear.
The report says the campaign reduced the number of people who fit into these categories.
The increase was smaller in French-speaking Switzerland, where it went up more than 16 percentage points, than in German-speaking areas, where the increase was greater than 26 percent, the report says.
Change in the percentage of people wearing helmets (source: bfu.ch)
There was more familiarity with the bfu’s campaign over time: only 47 percent of those surveyed in 2008 had heard of the campaign but this rose to 69 percent by 2010, with a slightly more significant increase in the 18 to 25 age group, 69 percent in 2010, up from 46 percent in 2008.
The campaign was probably not the only or even main reason for the increase in helmet-wearers, the report says, but it notes that the bfu’s efforts supported and reinforced the other reasons.
These probably include more celebrities and sports stars seen with helmets and, over time a generation, following the example of those who are older who have begun to wear helmets.
Bikes will be out in force in western Vaud Saturday
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Watch out for bicycles Saturday 9 April if you’re driving a car, with races being run on open roads for western Vaud’s cycling day. Police are warning drivers that the two-wheelers will be out in force between 13:00 and 16:30.
The racers will do at least four loops on the following circuit: Reverolle, Apples, Clarmont, Cottens, Grancy, St-Denis, La Chaux, Cossonay, Senarclens, Vullierens, Colombier, St-Saphorin-sur-Morges, Echichens, Monnaz and Vaux-sur-Morges.
Swiss 6pm flight from Zurich to decide later if landing in Tokyo or Osaka
Home sweet home at Zurich airport, but not all Swiss in Japan are keen to rush home
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government Sunday 20 March temporarily moved its embassy in Japan from Tokyo to Osaka, after reserving all available seats on Swiss airline flights 18, 19 and 20 March, for Swiss citizens.
The moves were part of a series of precautionary measures, with shifting winds adding to uncertainty about radiation in northeastern Japan.
Swiss Monday afternoon says its 18:00 flight from Zurich to Tokyo will leave as scheduled, but a decision about whether to land in Tokyo or Osaka will be made later. The flight stops in Hong Kong. The airline operates an afternoon and evening flight to Tokyo daily and one evening flight to Zurich from Tokyo. Planes returning are being checked for radiation and up to now the tests remain negative, says the airline.
“According to Swiss experts, developments surrounding the nuclear reactor infrastructure in Fukushima remain uncertain,” the government said in a statement issued Sunday.
The nuclear power plant re-established electricity over the weekend but staff were evacuated following unexplained smoke Monday. The smoke has since cleared, reports Reuters.
Last year’s crash rate lowest in aviation history
Airline industry expects 800 million more passengers a year by 2014
Geneva airport in February 2011, getting busier: world airports will need to accommodate strong airline growth in next three years
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The rate of planes belonging to airlines that crashed in 2010 fell to its lowest level in aviation history but the number of victims rose, Iata (International Air and Transport Association) says.
The 2010 rate was 0.61, equal to one accident for every 1.6 million flights, “a significant improvement over the 0.71 rate recorded in 2009 (one accident for 1.4 million flights)”, Iata says in a press release issued 23 February as part of its annual press day.
The accident rate has been cut 42% since 2001, Iata notes.
A hull loss “is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and is not subsequently repaired. measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft.”
The organization notes that 2.4 billion people “flew safely” in 2009. There were 23 fatal accidents compared to 18 in 2009, but 786 fatalities compared to 685 in 2009. Africa holds the worst safety record, with a rate 12 times higher than the world average.
Strong growth forecast for Asia
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss voters are turning in their ballots to decide on tightening regulations covering firearms. Many of them are doing so Friday using local commune’s special ballot boxes before they head for the mountains, rather than turning up in person to vote Sunday 13 February.
The popular referendum is supported by Socialists and Greens but no other major parties, nor does the federal government back it. The “initiative” as referendums are called, calls for a national gun registry to replace the current cantonal registries, and for military guns to be kept centrally, rather than in homes.
International media are turning the spotlight on the vote as Sunday draws nearer, often (incorrectly) drawing a parallel with US arms discussions: the Swiss debate is not over the right to bear arms, but the responsibility that goes with bearing them. The Swiss militia obligation for citizens to have firearms is accompanied by the legal obligation to practice shooting regularly.
The vote would not change this obligation, both to bear arms and to use them responsibly, but it would shift how information about gun-owners is kept and where the firearms reside.
Heberden arthritis, with swollen joints
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some of the world’s most popular painkillers have been linked to a higher incidence of heart attacks in particular, but also strokes and death from cardiovascular disease, in one of the largest studies done to date. Swiss researchers at the University of Bern have concluded that among a group of seven non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs “little evidence exists to suggest that any of the investigated drugs are safe in cardiovascular terms,” although the absolute risks of myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke are relatively low.
The drugs included in the study, in addition to a placebo, were: naproxen, ibuprofen, diclofenac, Pfizer’s Celebrex (celecoxib), Merck’s Arcoxia (etoricoxib) and Vioxx (rofecoxib), and Novartis’s Prexige (lumiracoxib). Naproxen, they note, seems “least harmful” and the safest painkiller for osteoarthritis patients, but possible side effects include stomach problems. Rofecoxib and lumiracoxib have the highest association with increased risk of heart attacks while ibuprofen has the highest link to strokes.
The authors, Sven Trelle et al, in a report published 12 January in the medical journal BMJ, conclude that “cardiovascular risk needs to be taken into account when prescribing any non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.”
The study covered 31 trials in 116,429 patients with more than 115,000 patient years of follow-up.
Brought to you earlier than expected! Lifts opening, safety, weather, cars, new radio
La Loge, Jura, November 2010 (photo, Pauline, JC Cusin)
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Our first real winter sports bulletin at GenevaLunch was scheduled for Friday 3 December, but the skies opened, the snow fell, the lift operators cheered, and we’ve decided to offer this to you earlier than planned. Visit us regularly on Fridays from now until April for our weekly weather and news linked to the Alpine world and winter sports.
Ski resorts open
A good starting place for information about Swiss ski resorts, if you’re unfamiliar with them, is the Swiss Tourism Office web site, which has a wealth of information. Note that historically their information about snow conditions is not up to date for all resorts, but maybe 2010-11 will see a change.
Jura
A number of ski resorts have already opened but be sure to check before you head there. The Jura, which has had snow steadily for over a week, already has a good base.
La Loge, Jura, November 2010 (photo, Pauline, JC Cusin)
The Monts Jura area issued this notice before Tuesday night’s fresh 20-plus cm of fresh snow: “Because of the recent snowfalls, the Monts Jura website is announcing the early opening of some of its installations. This weekend, there will be installations operating with reduced personnel at the Col de la Faucille and Crozet/Lélex and pistes open at La Vattay. Depending on snow conditions, these are the ones that will be running:
La Faucille: Télécombi and the Myrtilles skilift
Lélex: Catheline télécabine, the Loges six-place high-speed chairlift (if there is adequate snow at the summit), the Monthoisey skilift, Crozet Fierney télécabine, Télécorde, the Bergers chairlift
Vattay: Verte de la Vattay, Bleue de la Puthod, Petite Grand and Grande Grand, Noire de Divonne and Verte du Plateau.
Valais, Vaud
Turn on your lights and fill the windscreen cleaner: winter is here!
One in four Swiss road deaths occurs at pedestrian crossings: make sure your lights are set correctly and windscreen cleaner is full with dark, wet days here (photo: TCS)
Lugano and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One in four road deaths in Switzerland occurs at a pedestrian crosswalk, a problem the country shares with the rest of Europe. TCS (Touring Club Suissse) in 2008 embarked on a programme with other automobile clubs in Europe to test pedestrian crossings, and the worst one this year turned up in Lugano. The intersection at the Via San Gottardo and the Via Genzana was given a mark of “very inadequate”, reports news agency ats. Its low marks were due to no traffic lights, very poor light during the day and at night and the difficulty seeing pedestrians that drivers have when they turn right have.
TCS, as part of a national Day of Light 25 November, published a set of reminders for drivers that include these points:
- 90 percent of the information we receive as drivers is visual
- fatigue sharply reduces your ability to process visual information quickly
- night driving cuts visibility by 5-10 percent and rain reduces it even further
- visual acuity is reduced as we get older.
Winter weather brings a reminder to refill your car’s windscreen cleaner liquid, making sure it’s the anti-freeze kind for winter.
Ed. note: the Day of Light organizers have a safety quiz contest with only four easy questions, which require only basic French, and the prizes are handy items like a mountain bike, bicycle helmets, Swiss thermos and safety vests. It runs until 11 February 2010.
Safer fun fairs make it clear how ISO standards have changed
Amusement park rides, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world now has standards covering more than 18,500 areas of people’s lives. But amusement parks, which often thrill with their scary rides and spooky displays, have been outside the standards loop until now. Their addition 24 November underscores how much the standards world has changed since ISO (International Standards Organization) in Geneva was created in 1947, a membership organization of national standards bodies.
ISO says it will begin work in four new areas: safety of amusement park attractions, biogas, treated wastewater for use in irrigation, and pigments and extenders.
Traffic then security are also issues, with security a growing concern
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Housing is the main worry for expatriates and diplomats in Geneva, a poll run jointly by Geneva police and the Swiss Mission to the United Nations.
More than half of the 1,098 persons questioned said housing was their biggest concern, while traffic problems were listed by 16.3 percent and lack of security by 13.6 percent.
The poll included 318 members of the diplomatic corps, 581 international organization employees and 235 members of staff at multinational companies, with 66 percent of them having lived in Geneva for at least two years. Three-quarters were from Europe
A negative point in the survey was the perception on the part of the foreigners that security is getting worse in the city, with 80 percent of those questioned saying it is.
The report on the poll was presented at an annual meeting on human rights hosted by Geneva for NGOs (non-governmental organizations). This year’s theme was security: how to provide it while respecting human rights.
The report also showed that Geneva nevertheless is viewed well by foreigners living there, with 92 percent saying they would recommend it to their friends and 77.3 percent saying the quality of life is good.
The police are generally viewed positively (60 percent), but around the Cornavin train station in Geneva and the Paquis district 61 percent believe the police are too passive.
Geneva, the authors note, is given a relatively good score when compared to the countries where they previously resided, with seven of them doing better than Geneva on a scale of 10:
- Singapore, 9.1 /10, given the top rating
- Geneva, 7.6
- USA, 6.5
- Great Britain, 5.9
- Brazil, 5.7
- South Africa, 2.6.
Four of the 33 miners trapped since 5 August reached the surface by early Wednesday 13 October their time, pulled up in a capsule to a cheering crowd. The other 30 will now be rescued in small teams. Live streaming coverage is provided in English by the BBC and CNN. Their recovery period may be long, but the state of health of the first miners out appears to be relatively very good: they are walking, and talking and look fit. The miner were trapped when a section of the San Jose mines in the Atacama desert collapsed. All but one are Chilean, and the other is Bolivian.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The closing of Vernier’s Moa Club 6 October and another club, Weetamix, 8 October by canton Geneva for safety reasons has not gone down well with dance fans. Several hundred people gathered in the centre of Geneva Saturday 9 October from 17:00 to 22:00. An impromptu outdoor disco session in the Rive district to show support for the popular clubs pulled in some 5,000 people, according to an estimate by 20 Minutes (GenevaLunch could not confirm the figures with city police). The owners of the Moa Club say they have gathered more than 4,000 signatures to re-open the club, which has taken its petition online. The club’s Facebook pages have served as a forum for unhappy clubbing fans.
The safety concerns are linked in part to flammable materials stored nearby as well as to the overall safety level of the building, The Tribune de Geneve reported last week that the club was unlikely to re-open, given the scale and cost of the renovations needed to bring the 20,000 m2 space in line with safety standards. The owner of the building and the club owner have held talks over the necessary work since the canton’s demand in 2007 for the club’s safety to be improved.
New safety slogan: be careful, it’s Monday
Watch out: it's Monday morning
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ever had that feeling that it might be better to stay in bed Monday morning, not get out into those traffic jams or fight those battles at work? Now you have the proof: Monday mornings are just not safe! And they are expensive, costing Swiss work insurance company Suva CHF10 million a year.
The company registers some 700 accidents at work on a normal work day, but Mondays, between 06:00 and 10:00 Suva sees an additional 45 accidents, with 07:00-08:00 the worst time, when accidents increase by 40 percent.
The main causes are people falling or tripping, at home, en route to work or at work, accidents which increase by 80 to 90 percent between 06:00 and 08:00 Monday.
Men and women are affected equally, as are all age groups. Switzerland has 300,000 such accidents a year, for an insurance cost of CHF1 million.
Average number of work-related accidents by day of the week and hour of the day (source: Suva)
The figures cover 1999-2008 and are culled from a survey of Suva’s customers, who account for half of Switzerland’s working population.
Suva notes that there could be several explanations. Perhaps people tend to do more dangerous work early Monda. But other evidence appears to rule this out.
A more plausible explanation, according to the insurance company, is offered by professor Juergen Zulley t the Medical Centre for Sleep in Regensburg, Germany.
He suggests that our internal clocks are off on Monday mornings, most likely from sleeping in late over the weekend.
The solution? Get up at your usual work time on Saturday and Sunday, so you’re not sluggish and off-schedule early Monday.
Suva admits that convincing us to maintain our work week rhythm on weekends is a tough task. The alternative, it says, is to be extra-careful on Monday mornings.
A1 Autoroute
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The federal highway office and canton Vaud Tuesday issued a reminder to motorists using the A1 autoroute between Morges and Lausanne: the 80 kph speed limit must be observed, and drivers should keep at least 50 metres between cars.
The warning comes as roadworks get underway to repair the road surface, for workers’ safety. The re-surfacing will take about a month and the road is reduced to one lane on each side at times.
Security and air safety targeted
Seeking safer skies: greater international cooperation
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The United States announced Friday 2 April that it is ending its close scrutiny of airline travelers from 14 countries, a programme that has been in place since 25 December 2009. New security measures instead “will screen all passengers based on real-time intelligence, thereby eliminating emergency measures that had focused on citizens from certain countries,” the US Department of Homeland Security says.
The change in policy is the result of Janet Napolitano, Homeland secretary, participating in recent months in several regional aviation security meetings. The US was criticized by some in the aviation industry for taking unilateral security measures that were often ineffective, at a Geneva Iata (International Air Transport Association) meeting in January 2009.
Update 13 February: this is beautiful Swiss snow on Saturday!
Video (and skier): Anton Muller, at Bec Rond, Entremont, canton Valais, Switzerland (his photos and film clips on flickr)
Carnivals, cold, the down side of off-piste, Verbier and Jura reports
Verbier's February snow! (photo: Jessica Evans)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Glorious snow, biting cold in some places some of the time: call it winter in Switzerland! This weekend promises to be one of the best, with good crowds on the slopes, carnival starting in many areas, conditions great for skiing, sledding, ice-skating and more.
Weather forecast
It will take Haiti a decade to rebuild, says engineers testing buildings in the country badly damaged by a 12 January earthquake. The UN has estimated that 20 percent of the buildings collapsed and 80 percent of those remaining are damaged. Volunteer engineers who are checking the buildings one by one say that many are too safe to be left standing, reports NPR.
S1 Ortovox avalanche finder - contact them right away
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Migros, one of the stores where customers have been buying an avalanche finder made by Ortovox, is alerting consumers that the gear, if purchased in August 2009 or later, may need a software update to function correctly.
Ortovox provides images and details, in English, on its web site. Models affected have an orange on-off button and use software version 1.2.3073 or 1.2.3074.
The company urges owners of the S1 to contact them immediately for the update, for safety reasons. It will undertake the cost of updates.
Foreigners’ injuries falling, as part of whole for Swiss winter sports, avalanches biggest killers
Click on images to view larger
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Foreign tourists are gradually becoming a smaller group among the total of those injured in winter sports in Switzerland, new statistics show.
BPA, the Swiss safety board, Monday 11 January issued its annual detailed statistics for non-work accidents: at home, doing sports, on the road.
Foreigners accounted for 40 percent of ski accident injuries, 18 percent of snowboard ones and 27 percent of injuries from other winter sports (average: 32 percent).
By comparison, the figures for 2003 were: 47, 29, 28 (average: 40 percent).
Foreigners accounted for 19 of the 39 deaths from winter sports in 2007, the most recent year noted, up from an average of 15 out of 40 deaths a year recorded for the five years from 2003 to 2007.
Knees for skiers, shoulders for snowboarders
Knees remain the most vulnerable body part for ski injuries, while shoulders and the upper arms are for snowboarders.
Sion, canton Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - An avalanche that appears to have been set off by three unknown off-piste skiers in Anzères, Valais Sunday swept down a groomed slope and sent one slightly injured skier to the hospital. The accident is prompting questions in the Swiss media about how safe groomed slopes really are, if off-piste skiers are nearby. Valais police are asking the three skiers to turn themselves in. Tel: 027 326 5656.
Two skiers on the groomed slope were carried off by the avalanche at Ayent, which measured 200 metres wide by 400 metres long.
Russia is holding a day of mourning for the 112 people, now all identified, who died when a club caught fire Friday night 4 December in the city of Perm in the Urals. The fire appears to have been started by fireworks inside the club, officials say. Some deaths were caused by inhaling deadly plastic fumes, others by the smoke and flames. Four people are under arrest but a fifth is fighting for his life, one of the 123 injured who are hospitalized. The government has banned club fireworks and is reviewing safety legislation.
Links to other sites: Moscow Times, Ria Novosti
A mine blast early Saturday 21 November in China’s northern Heilongjiang province is now known to have killed 104 miners, with another four still trapped in the coal mine where more than 500 people were working when gas levels suddenly rose. Worries over mine safety have been increasing in China, with several accidents in recent months, and authorities in Beijing have said they are improving conditions. But this latest accident, in a state-owned mine, is prompting even state media to raise the issue of safety.
