The letter, written in Seville and dated 29 April 1498, was addressed to the explorer’s son Diego.

It has been valued at €21 million and is one of several letters penned by Columbus in the possession of Spain’s House of Alba foundation.

A report out today that reviews justice systems in the EU has concluded that Portugal has come top in the time wasting stakes as its justice system beats all other members for the average period taken to wrap up court cases.

The time taken to resolve the civil cases analysed between 2010 and 2012 was so great that the classification for Portugal was almost off the scale with members of the public having to undergo waits of between 900 and 1,100 days before cases were concluded.

Portugal’s Minister for Plastic Bags is delighted at the public response to his Green Tax of 10 cents a bag, saying today that he is "very positive" about the first month’s results.

The Environment Minister, Jorge Moreira da Silva, said that shoppers had changed their  behaviour and have come up with other ways of transporting shopping other than in the plastic bags that used to given away by many supermarkets.

Italy, in the frontline for illegal migrants, has proposed establishing a system of reception centres in North Africa to screen those trying to reach Europe.

It believes there should be three facilities, run internationally, in countries such as Niger, Tunisia and Sudan to vet refugees and economic migrants.

A police officer murdered his mother-in-law and managed to evade road blocks set up around Faro.

The GNR and PSP set up the road blocks on Tuesday evening after shotgun blasts killed the 68-year-old woman and injured the policeman’s wife at a property the women shared in the regional capital.  

France’s far-right Front National party is facing a corruption investigation into financial irregularities in the European Parliament.

Allegations have been made that it fraudulently paid as much as €7.5 million to 20 assistants.

Portugal’s Prime Minster has gone as far as ‘deeply regretting’ his failure to pay his social security debt on time but cannot bring himself to apologise.

The PM "deeply regrets" his errors when faced with evidence that he failed to pay social security during years of self-employment, but said that the slate now was clean and he has no debt to the tax office or the social security department.

A tracking device is reported to have been found in the car of a British woman who is suing the police in the UK.

According to the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung, the device was wrapped in tape and found near a wheel of her car while she was in Spain.