The president of TAP, Fernando Pinto, warned today that the airline's survival is at risk "if the current instability is prolonged," and asked employees "to reflect on how best to contribute to the safeguarding of TAP’s future."

“At this juncture, I feel it my duty to say clearly that the survival of TAP is at risk if the current instability is extended and if the relationship of trust with our market is not normalised. If not, it doesn’t really matter whether TAP is public or private," Fernando Pinto wrote in a letter sent today to the company's workforce.

The Albufeira council socialists today accused the mayor of 'having a tantrum' when rejecting a proposal from a socialist councilor to pay off the government Support Programme for the Local Economy loan of €16 million.

The proposal was rejected by the mayor at a meeting on Wednesday. Carlos Silva e Sousa said that the intention of the socialist councilor Fernando Anastácio simply was was antagonise him on a matter that was being dealt with.

The Italian oil company ENI has bought from Petrogal a 70% stake in three offshore exploration permits for blocs off the Alentejo coast. Petrogal is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Portuguese company Galp Energia

The paperwork for the deal was signed today by the Minister for the Environment and Energy in Lisbon. The exploration permits were awarded to Petrogal in 2007 by the Portuguese State and ran out in October this year.

The annual rate of inflation in Portugal in November was 0.1%.

October’s rate was the same, 0.1%, following zero inflation in September.

The slump in Portugal’s construction sector is deeper now than it was last year.

Data compiled by Eurostat show that construction was down every month over the last year save for a brief respite in the spring when it rallied by just 1.1%.

The headquarters of Spain’s conservative party was targeted in a car attack today, Friday.

Behind the attack was a bankrupt businessman who rammed a car packed with two gas cylinders into the head office of the governing People’s Party (PP) in central Madrid.

The Socialist Party cannot be said to be helping much over the TAP strike action planned for between Christmas and New Year, today accusing the government of deliberately antagonising the unions by introducing a ‘civil requisition’ into the heady mix of claim and counterclaim.

This devilish parliamentary instrument means that 70% of TAP’s workers are considered the bare minimum to run the troubled carrier and now have no right to take strike action and must report for work.

The imposition of a controversial toll on Germany’s Autobahn network has been given the go-ahead by the German government.

The charges will effectively be for foreign users of the Autobahn as German residents will be able to offset the costs against their tax.