Secretary of State for Culture, Miguel Honrado, said the second year of the '365 Algarve' cultural programme will leave an even greater mark on the region. This is safe bet as last year’s poorly publicised programme came and went with few noticing.

In 2011, Portugal received a ten-year grant from the EU of €175 million for a project 'to attract tourists to Portugal during the winter months so as to mitigate the effects of seasonality.’

Arrests have been made in the murder inquiry launched after a barman, who was savagely beaten and kicked in an Albufeira street on September 3rd, was allowed to die five days afterwards.

Doctors declared Paulo di Santo ‘brain dead’ and gave him less than 1% change of recovery. His life support systems were switched off on September 8th and an assault inquiry turned into a hunt for his murderers.

Former Prime Minister of Portugal, and current Social Democratic Party leader, Pedro Passos Coelho has decided not to seek re-election, due to last Sunday’s collapse in support for his party at the local election ballot box.

On Sunday night, when PSD defeat was clear, Passos Coelho said he needed a few days to consider his position. This he has done and decided that 'enough is enough.'

Portugal’s Minister of the Sea, Ana Paula Vitorino, will used EU’s ‘Our Ocean 2017’ conference to announce new commitments in the sustainable management of the oceans and to "significantly increase funding for deep-sea scientific research, including studies on the environmental impacts of seabed mining."
 
The conference in Malta on 5 and 6 October, brings together representatives from 61 countries who have been set the noble challenge of devising a system of global governance of the oceans, but Portugal wants license income from deep-sea mining, despite the minister's talk of a clean, blue and environmentally friendly ocean economy.

After a six-year absence, deVere Group is to “shake-up” its western European operations by returning to Portugal.

The financial services company has opened a new office in Tavira, six years since the company’s Algarve and Lisbon offices were closed and clients were passed to advisers across the border in Spain.

Approvals from the European Commission and the European Central Bank is needed before the ownership of Novo Banco can be transferred to Nani Holdings,* a company set up by US vulture fund Lone Star fund.

The sale is almost complete, but for these two approvals which will depend on EU rules on state aid and a restructuring plan that Lone Star has presented to ensure Novo Banco’s long-term viability.

The bankruptcy of Monarch Airlines has caused the cancellation of many group bookings at Algarve hotels during the winter season.

With the country’s tourism chiefs and government expecting a record 20 million overnight stays this year, the Monarch collapse and the Ryanair cancellations will affect the numbers, whatever the optimists are saying.

Four hundred kilos of high quality cocaine, which the police estimates as having a street value of around €20 million, were found aboard a yacht from the Caribbean and seized in the early hours of Saturday, September 30th.

The two crew members, an Italian and a Montenegran national, were detained and the yacht and illegal cargo were brought to Portimão docks.