Authorities in the Netherlands are closing down a number of prisons as there are not enough criminals to fill them.
About one-third of the 13,500 prison cells are unoccupied, leading officials to begin to close five prisons in the country.
Children in the UK spend more time inside the house than their peers in other countries, according to new research.
Some 12,000, parents across the UK, the US, Portugal, Brazil, China, South Africa, Turkey, India, Indonesia and Vietnam were questioned about their children’s play habits to see how screen-based activities compare to outdoor activities and games.
The Algarve’s Hospitality and Industry Workers union has issued a formal strike notice for Friday involving staff at all the region's hotels that are owned by JJW Hotels & Resorts.
Workers are demanding wage increases, the replacement of overtime, the payment of language allowance where appropriate, 25 days holiday a year and a 35-hour working week.
A group of local drivers, the self-styled "Users of the EN124" have decided that enough is enough and are to stage a slow drive-by this Saturday.
Their complaint is a common one across the Algarve region and beyond, that their local road is now in such a poor state of repair that it is dangerous, even life-threatening.
Portugal’s Minister for the Economy Manuel Caldeira Cabral (pictured) has sailed through a potentially tricky interview on the Bloomberg news channel, saying that Portugal has turned the page in growth and believes that the country will exit the excessive deficit procedure.
Cabral talked about the Brussels attacks, the growth of the Portuguese economy, the euro and the Portuguese financial system, specifically Novo Banco and the €1.8 billion ‘bail in’ that left creditors with a fraction of their investments.
Ignoring the row over reported numbers of successful Golden Visa applicants, Portugal’s real estate association has applauded the Government for the recent rise.
Luís Lima, president of the Association of Real Estate Agents (APEMIP), in a well-timed press release noted that the process of granting Golden Visas "finally is normalised" and salutes "the effort made" by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (pictured), who "fulfilled the order to resume the pace of processing applicants."
The ever-helpful roads company Infrasetrutura de Portugal has warned tourists that they must get to know Portugal’s various electronic toll payment systems such as Via-T, Easytol and TOllCard.
To these electronic systems can be added a bewildering variety of toll payment schemes that many tourists find easier to ignore.
Millions of people in Russia have been forced below the poverty line as a result of the country’s economic predicament.
Nearly 20 million Russians are trying to survive on less than 9,452 roubles (€125) a month, the minimum subsistence level set by the Russian government.
