With the sound of a stable door closing behind him, Portugal’s Finance Minister, Mário Centeno, said today that Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) must serve the Portuguese economy and that the bank must remain in State ownership.

"It is a public bank, which will remain public, and the government wants it to continue to be public. But it is a bank that has to be put at the service of the Portuguese economy. This is the Government plan," said Centeno, responding to questions about the €4 billion estimated cost to the taxpayer of recapitalising CGD.

A GNR patrol has arrested a gang of seven young men suspected of committing night-time robberies outside Albufeira’s bars and clubs.

The GNR said that the men, aged between 17 and 26, were arrested on Monday after yet another robbery which was linked to several others as it displayed the same tactics.

The European Commission has said that Turkey has failed to meet the conditions required for the country to obtain visa-free travel in Europe for Turkish citizens.

Turkey missed the EU’s deadline for meeting all 72 detailed conditions set by the EU on border security, counter-terrorism legislation and fundamental human rights.

The socialist-led government is to unpick the water industry reforms initiated by the previous administration “by the end of the year.”

The Environment Minister announced to a parliamentary committee that the consolidation and rationalisation of the water industry’s diverse operating structures is against the will of the local councils and assured members that the water industry in Portugal will not be privatised.

The late Sir Clement Freud, the soft-spoken, bearded broadcaster and politician, has been accused of being a paedophile. In a TV programme broadcast in the UK on Tuesday night, Freud was accused of abusing two girls, raping one of them when she was 18.

The allegations relate to events in the late 1940s and the 1970s.

Freud, who died in 2009, has a holiday home in Praia da Luz, the Algarve town where the three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007.

Temperatures during the month of May this year broke global records.

The finding comes from NASA statistics which also revealed that the three warmest May months have all been in the last three years.

The Tax Authority is after goods and passenger vehicles in a large scale operation throughout June to check transport documents, delivery notes and the use of illicit diesel.

The Ministry of Finance said today that this is "one of many actions" that have been developed and are ongoing to meet its strategic objective of combating fraud, tax and customs evasion and the black economy.

TAP’s new Lisbon-Boston daily service started last Saturday but already there are problems with TAP chairman Fernando Pinto having to spend an unexpected extra night in Boston after a technical problem grounded a new Airbus A330.

Pinto was not alone as the delay in the return to Lisbon obliged all 256 passengers to spend another night in the US, one of them was the US ambassador in Portugal, Robert Sherman.