Trapped Boy
Efforts to rescue a toddler trapped in a deep borehole entered their eighth day today after digging continued throughout the night.
Rescuers are using a drill to make a vertical shaft running parallel to the hole that the two-year-old reportedly fell into, but work has slowed after machine hit very hard rock yesterday.
When the drill reaches 60 meters, the tunnel will be cladded for safety. After that, a team of specialized miners flown in from northern Spain will go down and dig the last four meters manually to the spot where Julen Roselló is believed to be.
The lead engineer overseeing the rescue, Ángel García Vidal, estimated that rescuers will not reach the spot before tomorrow.
The town of Totalán has been holding vigils in support of Julen’s parents, who lost another child, aged three, to a sudden cardiac arrest in 2017.
Voting Rights
Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell announced that Madrid and London have agreed to guarantee electoral rights in local elections for British residents in Spain and Spanish residents in the UK post- Brexit.
The bi-lateral pact which ensures the status quo when it comes to suffrage was signed this morning.
It will mean British residents in Spain can continue to vote in municipal elections and stand as candidates for their local council even after Brexit.
The agreement will roll into effect some time after Britain exits the EU in March and before local elections in May regardless of whether there is a deal or not.
Migrants.
About 170 people are feared to have died in two separate Mediterranean shipwrecks.
The Italian navy reports a ship sank off the coast of Libya with 117 people on board, while Moroccan and Spanish authorities have tried to find a lost boat in the western Med.
The first boat reportedly disappeared with 53 people on board in the Alborán Sea.
One survivor is being treated in Morocco after spending 24 hours stranded at sea.
A search for the vessel over several days has so far been unsuccessful.
The second ship, a dinghy, left Libya on Saturday.
Mean While
The government says it will improve conditions at its eight migrant detention centers and build another one.
The Interior Minister announced on Friday that the government intends to “ensure greater respect for people’s dignity and their rights.”
The centers are supposed to house migrants who are illegally in Spain for up to 60 days, but that limit is often exceeded and conditions reportedly are cramped.
Denia Hospital
DENIA hospital recently reached saturation point as unusually cold temperatures triggered flu cases.
there is insufficient space at present and not enough medical staff to cope with the present demand.
Patients admitted to A and E have been waiting in beds in the passages before they could be taken up to the wards, with 18 people delayed in this way at one stage.
There was saturation in A and E because the wards were full.
Patients who should have been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, which was fully occupied, had to be put on the wards while others assigned to the Internal Medicine section were given beds in the Maternity Unit.