11 January, 2011: Statistics on earthquakes and prisoner numbers, and another blow for FIFA
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 15:39 Three small earthquakes shook the west of Switzerland at the weekend but there were no reports of damage. The quakes, which registered between 2.8 and 3.3 on the Richter scale, were recorded in Canton Valais.
The epicentre of the first quake was the tourist village of Mollens, not far from Sierre. Switzerland is considered at a low to moderate risk of earthquakes – only half a dozen quakes of magnitude 6 have hit central Europe in the last 1,000 years, with experts predicting a magnitude 7 event only once every millennium. The most significant earthquake in European recorded history centred on Basel, completely destroying the city in 1356.
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The number of prisoners in Swiss jails continued to go up last year, with almost 6200 people behind bars on September 1, an annual rise of about 2%. This is the highest figure since 2005, with prisons in the west of the country now at saturation point. The Federal Statistics Office said the occupancy rate in the country overall was more than 90% while in the west it is over 100% and rising. However, the population in Switzerland has gone up even faster so the number of prisoners as a proportion has dropped slightly. A rather shocking statistic is that some 4,500 prisoners - more than 70% of the total - are foreign. There were about 350 women in prison last year and 39 minors - the lowest figure since 2000 when 100 were registered.
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Allegations of corruption in football’s Zurich-based world governing body, FIFA, are not being dealt with effectively, a top German lawyer says. A swissinfo report says that Guenter Hirsch, former president of Germany's highest appeals court, has stepped down from FIFA’s ethics commission. He said in his resignation letter that FIFA showed "no real interest" in trying to clean itself up. In November, FIFA suspended and fined two executive committee members who were filmed by British undercover journalists offering to sell their votes in the World Cup bidding process. British Prime Minister David Cameron claimed on the BBC that he had been “misled” by FIFA officials ahead of the vote and described the world of football governance as "murky".