Retail sales in Portugal faltered in June compared with May.

The fall of -1.4% was the largest decline of any eurozone country, followed by Malta (-1.1%) and Spain (-0.8%).

Illegal migrants have massed in squalid makeshift camps in France, waiting for a chance to stow away to Britain.

Significant numbers have entered the EU in Italy and have made their way to Calais where they hope to secret themselves in lorries or ferries.

The growing popularity of Italy´s bubbly, Prosecco, could be behind the flash floods in the country which killed four people.

Woodland in the Prosecco region was cleared in order to plant new vineyards in response to increasing demand for the drink.

In what is expected to be the largest evasion of responsibility recorded in the history of Portuguese banking, the governor of the Bank of Portugal is to face the music on Thursday as he answers questions posed by MPs as to what went wrong at the Bank of Portugal which failed to monitor the now collapsed Espírito Santo financial and property group.

Carlos Costa’s keenly awaited list of flimsy excuses will follow a statement from Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque whose proven skill in avoiding the blame in the 'swaps' enquiry should stand her in good stead as she explains, straight-faced, the Government’s viewpoint on the BES scandal and the hastily constructed rescue deal using the Special Resolution fund from Europe.

The newly appointed president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, admitted today in Athens that the situation in Portugal "remains fragile," alluding to the case of Banco Espírito Santo.

Responding to a question on the situation in Portugal, posed during a press conference in the Greek capital, the new president of the European Commission said the situation "remains fragile and that we must be vigilant."

The regional coordinator of the Portuguese Nurses Union in the Algarve, Nuno Manjua, said today that a strike is being planned at Faro, Portimão and Lagos hospitals to highlight the lack of staff and medical materials.

The Fiscal Unit of the GNR has been busy checking foreign registered vehicles being driven in Portugal and so far has raked in €1.3 million in fines.

Foreigners and Portuguese returnees who have a vehicle in the country for more than six months in a year, consecutively or otherwise, and officialy have not imported it, are being stopped and fined an average of €250 a time.

With housing prices reaching unprecedented levels in the UK, more middle aged people are becoming lodgers because they have been priced out of the market.

The number of home owners who are taking in a paying lodger has nearly doubled over the last five years, according to research from insurer Liverpool Victoria (LV=).