Renting property is a long established tradition in Germany, but that trend is changing.

Rocketing house prices, propelled by investors, could help turn the property market into one with greater private ownership.

Since 2006 the number of workers in Portugal receiving the minimum wage has tripled.

That number has increased every year for 8 years so that currently 400,000 people that are in work are earning just 485 euros a month before taxes.

There were fewer bullfights in Portugal last year with the number of fights declining to the level of 14 years ago.  

The General Inspectorate of Cultural Activities, the body responsible for overseeing and licensing the activity, stated in its latest annual report that the decrease in the number of bullfights and the number of spectators at each had nothing to do with the crisis -  "despite the economic climate there has not been a significant decrease in the number of shows," but admitted that fewer bullfights had taken place.

Portugal’s Secretary of State for Tourism, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, and his counterpart for Spanish Tourism, Maria Isabel Borrego Cortes, yesterday signed an agreement aiming to unite the efforts of the two countries for the promotion of tourism to emerging international markets such as the United States, Canada, China, Japan and South Korea.
 
Promotional plans for 2014 are already pretty much set so the agreement looks at next year when an 'action plan' will be launched, "The plan this year will focus exclusively on press visits and familiarisation of the tourism trade sector," said Nunes.

The president of the Business Association of the Alentejo Litoral, Filipe Pombeiro commented that Beja is a medium to long term project and that on balance, the first three years have been positive within the existing constraints.

"Despite all the constraints, Beja airport has made its way and has been asserting itself," said Pombeiro, adding that "the movement of aircraft more than doubled from 2012 to 2013.”

transavia.com joins easyJet and Ryanair in offering direct flights from Faro to Paris. Starting tomorrow  Saturday 12th April there will be two more flights to choose from as transavia launches a Mondays and Friday option.

"The opening of a Faro - Paris route is one more indication that consumers show an increasing appetite for our proposals," said the deputy director general of the transavia.com.

State-owned company Parvalorem has been looking closely at various options for the Miró collection of paintings - but only as a plan B to swing into action if the June auction by Christie’s in London is unsuccessful.

If the 85 pieces are not sold, Parvalorem may then offer the remaining lots to interested parties. It already has been offered €50 million by a Portuguese businessman, well over the auction estimate of €32 million but still well below the BPN asset valuation of over €80 million.

Spanish nuns are working with police in London to rescue women trafficked into prostitution.

The new approach was adopted by police after they realised that nuns can win the confidence of the frightened women and can also help persuade them to bring charges against the gangs which smuggled them into the UK.