Mário Soares, a towering figures in Portuguese politics, lies in critical condition in hospital in Lisbon with a poor prognosis.
The former Prime Minister’s medical team says his unconscious state is very significant and worrying," with the 92-year-old politician failing to respond to some external stimuli, “which places strong reservations about the future prognosis.”
The Queen missed the Christmas morning church service at Sandringham for the first time in almost 30 years due to a heavy cold. She has attended the traditional service at St Mary Magdalene, near the royal estate, every year since 1988.
Buckingham Palace issued a brief statement, “The Queen continues to recover from a heavy cold and will stay indoors to assist with her recovery,” adding, “Her Majesty will participate in the royal family Christmas celebrations during the day.”
Over 50,000 residents of Augsburg, Barvaria have been evacuated and the city’s medieval centre closed while the Army defuse a 1.8-tonne bomb dropped by the Allies over 70 years ago.
The Christmas Day evacuation involves 32,000 households and 4,000 police and firefighters.
The raucous chugging sound of Status Quo has been a constant presence for almost half a century of rock’n’roll, ever since the band gave up on the idea of playing psychedelic music at the end of the 1960s in favour of a grittier approach.
The singer and rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt, who has died aged 68 from an infection, had been a pivotal member of the band even before it became known as Status Quo. He and his fellow singer/guitarist Francis Rossi constituted the group’s creative core, and between them set the band’s matey, wisecracking tone.
A study by two German researchers concludes that of the 216 billion euros of the redemptions of the last six years, only 9.7 billion went to the Greek budget. That is, less than 5% of the total served the population, while 95% went to the coffers of European banks.
The study published by the German economic newspaper Handelsblatt is written by Jan Hildebrand and Thomas Sigmund, researchers at the European School of Technology and Management in Berlin. And concludes that the priority of bailouts designed by the ECB, European Commission and IMF was to save the banks and private creditors, not the Greek people.
Dear Editor
I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 West Ninety-fifth Street, New York
The sale of Novo Banco again has descended into farce. The preferred bidder, China’s Minsheng Group, is unable to obtain the necessary capital and guarantees due to China’s currency restrictions on outgoing funds.
The chosen bidder does not have the funds, leaving the Bank of Portugal’s sale process in disarray with the bidding process due to end on January 4th, 2017.
The removal of boats from the cove at Culatra in the Ria Formosa was one more action prompted by the discredited Polis Litoral Ria Formosa Society which, under its out-of-control former boss Sebastião Teixeira, had a mission to rid the islands of islanders and the immediate sea of a long-established community of boat owners.
In May 2016, while the islanders’ fight against Polis was in full swing, the boat were moved from their Cova de Culatra moorings under the instruction of the Maritime Police, since which a hawser has been erected across the mouth of the natural shelter to ensure nobody sneaks back in.
