Portugal’s Finance Minister, Maria Luís Albuquerque, says Greece must stick to its bailout conditions. Her comments were made during an interview published in the German newspaper Handelsblatt.

"There is a framework within which we are prepared to talk to the Greek government. That framework is the current aid programme, which is up for extension," Albuquerque told the business daily, having assumed the role of the 'grande dame' of international finance.

New Zealand’s pension fund chief Adrian Orr and Finance Minister Bill English have some tricky questions to answer as the country’s Superannuation Fund has lost the equivalent of €130 million in the Banco Espírito Santo collapse.

The ‘risk-free’ investment through Oak Finance and organised by Goldman Sachs was rendered worthless just weeks after the public money was deposited.

Government managers who fail to meet deadlines for selecting viable projects and for distributing EC money to fund them, will be penalised and may even be removed, said the Deputy Minister for Regional Development.

Speaking to reporters after his speech presenting the new Community Support Framework, Portugal 2020, held in Faro, Miguel Poiares Maduro said the government had "a very great concern" about the speed that applications for community funds are dealt with and that the previous lack of checking that funds have been well spent can not continue.

The leaders of the Social Democrats in Olhão have joined the local uproar by saying it is "surprised" that President Cavaco Silva has awarded the Order of Merit to the former Mayor of Olhão, Francisco Leal.

The PSD-Olhão points to the overall negative assessment of the 20 year reign of Leal who was at the helm in Olhão for 20 consecutive years marked by corruption, scandal and court cases.

Consumer champion DECO is taking the Bank of Portugal and the stock market regulator CMVM to court  on behalf of over 2,000 small shareholders in Banco Espírito Santo.

DECO is to claim compensation for the financial damage caused to Banco Espírito Santo customers who were not warned of the true state of affairs at BES and associated group companies.

The game of chess is to be made a mandatory subject in schools in Spain.

The resolution had so much support from all sides that it passed unanimously in the country’s parliament.

The former family home of the suspected murder victim Brenda Davidson has been broken into and burgled just days after her funeral on February 5th.

The detached property in Alcalar, Portimão has lain empty since Davidson’s partner, Nigel Jackson, was arrested for her murder.

Efforts by the government to reduce expenditure on public employees last year has seen a decrease in staff of 2.7% year-on-year as the Civil Service tried to slim down, according to the Directorate General of Administration and Public Employment.

The statistics to December 31, 2014, show employment in the public service stood at 655,620 jobs.