Today sees the official inauguration of the tunnel that linking the central Catalan towns of Vic and Olot, and cutting in half the journey time between the two. It has taken six years of construction work (and 15 years since the original presentation of the project was made) to build the Túnel de Bracons and was the cause of a falling-about between the different member parties of the Catalan government soon after they took over the Generalitat in 2003: ERC and the Greens ICV were against the project, which had been put in place while CiU was in power, because of environmental damage both the tunnel and new road would cause, while the Catalan Socialists (PSC) were strongly in favour. Although the environmentalists lost out, action groups such as Salvem les Valls (We'll save the Valls) are continuing their protest by seeking to ensure that the area does not fall foul of speculation by constructors - to that end, a demonstration is planned to coincide with the official opening this afternoon.

The city council has admitted that it received complaints about the engineer Joaquim Quilez (article in Catalan), but did not associate him with the council worker Manuel Martínez, both of whom are currently facing charges of corruption regarding licences for brothels, nightclubs and other venues. Martínez, who is now in provisional jail, was moved from the council of Ciutat Vella to Eixample in an attempt to separate him from certain projects that he was dealing with. Quilez is charged with obtaining licences in collaboration with Martínez and also of taking money from clients but then not providing them with the services agreed.

In exactly one year, analogue television will be switched off in Spain and only digital television will remain. Televisió digital terrestre (Catalan) provides additional services to viewers, including the ability to watch programmes in their original version language, but to be able to see it, it is necessary to install a digital antenna (either exterior or interior) and have a decoder box. For more information about TDT, see our Q&A (link below)