The German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said today after a meeting in the Algarve with his Portuguese counterpart, Maria Luís Albuquerque, that Portugal took the "right decision" to forego the final tranche of the Troika loan.

This is a somewhat different statement to that from the German government in Berlin which on hearing the news of Portugal’s inability to get a budget past the Constitutional Court, and hence its inability to draw down the final tranche of the bailout loan, expressed “deep concern that the programme has ended in this way and that it shows a loss of determination on the part of the Portuguese Government to continue and conclude the bailout programme.”

Inflation in the eurozone was down to 0.5% in May 2014, dropping from 0.7% in April.

A year earlier inflation stood at 1.4%.

A reported slowdown in the UK housing market has now extended from London and into the regions.

Property prices during the month of June have cooled, helped by the increased number of people who have put their houses o the market hoping to cash in on the recent boom.

Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of recruiting fighters for the militant group ISIS which is waging war in Iraq.

The cell had helped to send recruits through to the Middle East where they would join Isis, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

“The main leader of this [recruitment] cell lived in Spain after having spent time at the [US detention centre] in Guantánamo, having been arrested in Afghanistan in 2001,” the statement read.

A fire in countryside next to the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve at Escampadinho in the parish of Mexilhoeira Grande, Portimão was finally put out at 07.00 on Monday morning after a night of concern and effort from firefighters.

The blaze  started at 17.20 on a Sunday afternoon that saw temperatures in the mid to high 30s, and was tackled by 200 firefighters backed by 52 vehicles at the fire's peak.

The decline is due to another fall in the birth rate and the increasing number of Portuguese emigrating, according to the Estimates of Resident Population in Portugal report released today by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

In 2013 the resident population in Portugal was estimated at 10,427,301 people (4,958,020 men and 5,469,281 women) - a decrease in the resident population of 59,988 inhabitants since 2012.

Regional water company Águas do Algarve today announced an investment of €2 million to link up Algoz and Tunes in the Silves council area to the more modern Wastewater Treatment System that deals with sewage from Albufeira, Lagoa and Silves.

With the completion of this work the waste treatment station in Algoz can be decommissioned. Just as well as even the water company admits the plant does not work well and that staff frequently discharge waste that has not been treated properly, resulting in environmental problems.

The ceremonial train used by heads of state from 1910 onwards is to travel between Vila Real de Santo António and Faro on July 1st to mark the 125th anniversary of the arrival of the railway line to Faro.

The initiative is part of a series of trips planned by the National Railway Museum. The Algarve event is in collaboration with Faro and Vila Real de Santo António councils which have arranged celebrations to mark the first passenger train that arrived in Faro on July 1st 1889.