A government working group looking at the private rental market has not, as one would expect, suggested changes to the current Alojamento Local legislation to corral those outside the tax net, but has come up with several proposals to limit the number of rental properties and make life financially harder for those letting their properties to tourists.

The Housing Policy Working Group (Políticas de Habitação, Crédito Imobiliário e Tributação do Património Imobiliário) wants to limit the number of properties on short-term tourist lets and insists that a percentage is released to the long-term rental market.

Passenger ferries to and from the UK now are being patrolled by armed French police officers.

France introduced the sea patrols after a series of terrorist attacks, according to a marine police spokesman.

In excess of 30 bogus universities in the UK were shut down in the last year.

Since 2011, a total of 220 fake universities operating in Britain have been identified, 80% of which are no longer active.

French government ministers have been urged to stay in France for their summer break and to limit its duration.

Officials are having to deal with security concerns in the wake of terrorist attacks, a national state of emergency, stagnation of the economy, and plummeted popularity ratings. Presidential and parliamentary elections loom.

Guilty as much of taking the proverbial as skipping bail, sunbathing ex-con James Waston's delight in taunting the British authorities was short lived.

Watson, on bail in the cold case inquiry into the horrific abuse and murder of six-year-old Rikki Neave in 1994, sneaked out of the UK and headed for Portugal, bored with his Northamptonshire bail hostel and having regularly to report to local police.

Mariza, Katia Guerreiro with Orquestra Clássica do Sul, Tony Carreira, HMB, Loulé Urban Sunset by Hugo Tabaco and Night Parade.

These are the ingredients of a delicious 'Loulé Summer' offering that will take place in several areas of the county during the second half of August.

Again, Portugal’s airborne emergency services have been tested and found to be excellent as the life of a man on a merchant ship has been saved by the expert abilities of a Portuguese navy helicopter crew.

The 46-year-old Russian man with "uncontrolled bleeding, pain and very low blood pressure" was whisked from the merchant vessel Esprit and flown to Faro airport.

For the second consecutive year, Portugal’s birth rate is growing with the first half figures for 2016 showing there were an additional 2,639 newborn screening tests carried out than in the same period last year.

In all, 42,758 tests have been made in the first six months of 2016. This compares well with the crisis years between 2011 and 2014 when a worrying downward trend quickly developed.