Twelve Blue Flag beaches are in danger of having their awards withdrawn unless the tortuous tendering process for repairs can be speeded up in time for the summer season.
 
The president of the Blue Flag programme says that there could be an 'exceptional extension' of the flag raising date for affected beaches, but the worry is that work will not start at all on some of the country's finest beaches.

CO2 emissions in the EU are believed to have been cut back by 2.5% in 2013 compared to 2012.

And 2012 had already seen a fall of 1.6%.

A British farmer managed to unearth a Korean technique, some 4,000 years old, for curing garlic.

Mark Botwright was seeking ideas for preserving some of the 900,000 bulbs of garlic he grows for year-round consumption. His internet searches eventually threw up a recipe written in Korean for “black garlic”.

Police in Spain have seized some 2.5 tons of cocaine which arrived in the country in a shipment of pineapples from Costa Rica.

"This is one of the biggest seizures carried out in European Union ports," the police statement said.

Portugal’s Hotels Association has meekly accepted the overnight withdrawal of the now illegal billing software used by many of its members but asks for a ‘reasonable period’ for it to be replaced.

The Association of Hotels, Restaurants for Portugal (AHRESP) is aware that many of its members are unable immediately to change the now illegal software programme marketed by Time Return but is carrying the government line in issuing a compliant statement.  

Portugal’s insurance companies are to adapt premiums according to the degree of flood risk in each of the country’s zones ‘because of climate change’ according to the president of the Portuguese Association of Insurers (APS).

Based on work by boffins at the University of Lisbon, "we will reorganise our models and classify risk in a different way," said Pedro Seixas Vale from the association.

The value of gold reserves held by the Bank of Portugal on behalf of the Portuguese people has crashed 31% in a year.

The central bank did not sell off any gold in the past year, but the drop in the international price of gold caused a significant drop in its value which has to be reported in the Bank's year end summary.

Across the eurozone, retail sales rose slightly in March, but sales in Portugal tumbled further.

The euro region overall had a 0.3% growth compared to the previous month of February.