Relatives of trapped Chilean miner Ariel Ticona have expressed their "disgust and disbelief" that he did not attend the birth of his daughter yesterday.
Before the main access tunnel to the San Jose copper and gold mine collapsed on 5 August, Mr Ticona, 29, had solemnly promised to be in the delivery room for the birth, "but," said his wife, the non-similarly-named Elizabeth Segovia, last night, "he's let us down badly this time".
Mr Ticona contacted his wife by an emergency telephone line that had been set up so that the 33 trapped workers can speak to their loved ones above ground. He asked her to call the child 'Esperanza', which, in Spanish, means 'hope'.
The Ticonas already have two sons, for whose births Mr Ticona was also absent. He told us today:
"I may even have been absent at their conception!"
