Body Found
Rescuers in Spain found the body of the two-year-old boy who fell into a borehole near Málaga.
The boy, named Julen, disappeared into a narrow well more than 100m deep during a family outing on 13 January.
Specialist teams worked day and night in a tunnel that had been dug parallel to the narrow borehole.
The body was found in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The borehole – only 25cm in diameter – had apparently been left uncovered, although the businessman who had originally had it dug a month earlier insisted that he had sealed it.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter on Saturday: “All of Spain feels the infinite sadness of Julen’s family.”
Now a court in Málaga will attempt to determine the circumstances that saw Julen buried by rubble in a borehole that, according to local authorities, lacked the necessary permit – as do many thousands of others like it around the country.
Venezuela
Venezuela’s foreign minister has blasted a European ultimatum to hold elections within eight days as ‘childlike’.
Jorge Arreaza insisted that Nicolas Maduro remained the legitimate president despite pressure from Britain, France, Spain, Germany and the US.
Nobody is going to give us deadlines or tell us if there are elections or not,’ the foreign minister added.
Hours earlier, Britain, France, Germany told Maduro that he had eight days to organize elections or they would recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president.
Pedro Sanchez said Spain too would recognize Guaido as the legitimate president of the South American country.
The other 27 members of the European Union should back Spain’s position, the Prime Minister said.
The United States and a number of Latin American nations have already recognized Guaido amid a mounting political and economic crisis that has led more than two million Venezuelans to flee the country.
Food Crackdown
NATIONAL health authorities have announced a radical crackdown on sugar, salt and saturated fat in supermarket goods, and have managed to get nearly 398 companies on board in its efforts.
Around 4,000 packaged products, including ready meals, will be affected by the new scheme, designed mainly to fight obesity.
By the year 2020, food producers who have signed up have pledged to slash levels of refined sugar, saturated fats and salt by 10%, although the ministry of health says its drive to improve nutritional quality on the high street ‘is here to stay’ and will ‘extend far beyond 2020’.
Already, the food industry, including manufacturers, the catering trade, distributors and vending machine franchises have been working on improving nutritional quality for several years, and have been calling for Spain’s government to complement their efforts with more campaigns encouraging physical activity.
Figures show that in Spain, 54% of the adult population and 40% of children are clinically overweight, whilst actual obesity affects 17% of adults and 18% of children.
Ski Death
A Spanish skier died on Saturday after being caught in an avalanche in the Pyrenees mountains, police are investigating whether the man had been off piste.
The 31-year-old from Barcelona was skiing in the Baqueira Beret ski resort when the avalanche hit.