Later in January, staff from the British Vice Consulate in Portimão will be holding surgeries in Silves and Monchique to provide information and guidance on registering as a resident with local Portuguese authorities.

If you live in Portugal for more than 6 months of the year, you should obtain a residency certificate from your local Town Hall. After living here for 5 years, you should apply to SEF, the Immigration and Borders Service, for permanent residency.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, may have a smiley face and loveable character but many businessmen would not like to be in the position of EDP’s boss, António Meixa, as he faces a presidential inquiry into electricity pricing.

Rebelo de Sousa said on Saturday that EDP's recent increase in electricity prices is a matter that he is studying and about which he will be making an announcement.

Nurses working in the Accident and Emergency department of Faro Hospital say they have been, and remain, unable to cope with the incoming workload and that the rights of patients are being compromised - there simply are not enough nurses.

In a letter sent on Saturday to the chairman of the hospital board, the nursing team warns that in the face of such chaos, as was seen over the long holiday break, it can not be held liable for "possible or future events that result in harmful consequences" for patients or family members.

EDP's directors have decided not to pay the extraordinary energy tax that was imposed as an austerity measure by the Passos Coelho coalition government in 2014.

At stake is the €69 million due for 2017 from the electricity company. EDP joins Galp and REN, which also have refused to pay up, preferring to go to court to challenge the legality of the tax.

The five law changes and additions to the Alojamento Local housing rental laws have been discussed in parliament but no vote was taken and no decisions made.

The different objectives from Portugal’s political parties seemed too much to handle in just one parliamentary session so voting has been postponed.

The Left Bloc's national executive wants to safeguard natural wetland in Lagoa and to see an end to plans for yet another supermarket.

A Bloquista statement to the press is insistent that the natural area, from which the city derived its name, "is in imminent danger of being totally destroyed."

A pensioner has been found dead by Tavira Bombeiros who had to break into his house after neighbours became concerned and called emergency services

The man, aged "between 65 and 70," has died "several days ago" and was in "an advanced state of decomposition," according to Miguel Silva, the local Bombeiros chief.

Portugal’s French owned airports operator, ANA, has announced that it has a new chairman.

José Luís Arnaut takes the top job at Aeroportos de Portugal, replacing Jorge Ponce de Leão who already has a comfy new job as president of Portugal's air traffic control service, Navegação Aérea de Portugal.