Around the corner, around the world

999 response times

Concerns have been raised about ambulance response times in Aberdeenshire towns with some waiting twice as long as other communities in the north east. Official figures show the average length of time taken to respond to a 999 call from Turriff was 18 minutes, and in the worst cases recorded in the figures more than 30 minutes to reach patients in the area.

Banffshire Journal Slow broadband

Almost one in five homes in the Borders don’t have ccess to superfast broadband, a report has found. Figures by communications regulator Ofcom reveal just 83% of properties in the region can obtain internet speeds of over 30 megabits a second. The Scottish average is 92%. Local MSP Colin Smith said: “This holds back local businesses.”

Border Telegraph

Foodbanks for kids

Hundreds of children throughout Hamilton are relying on the local foodbank to avoid going hungry. Shocking figures released this week show that the Hamilton District Foodbank supported 475 children during December.

The heartbreaking statistic was revealed as the foodbank confirmed it had supported 1,103 people in total throughout the month.

Hamilton Advertiser Shark encounter

An 11-year-old boy has described his encounter with a three-metre great white shark while surfing off Yallingup, Western Australia.

Luke Felton said the shark warning siren had just gone off when he spotted the fish.

He said: “The scariest thing was probably its eyes staring at me, it was a few metres from me, I could make out the details of it.”

The shark did not attack.

Sydney Morning Herald Far-right in power

Spain’s far-right party Vox on Wednesday said it will support Juan Manuel Moreno, the Popular Party candidate to replace the Socialist Party’s Susana Díaz at the helm of the Andalusian government. The new government represents the end of four decades of socialist rule in the region and is the first by a farright party since the fall of Franco in the mid 70s.

El Pais