Thieves in the UK are reported to be using metal detectors to find jewellery in houses they are robbing.

Research also revealed that houses being targeted are marked with stickers.

The number of people in Britain who live in rented property has reached 10 million, one-sixth of the population.

The figure has doubled since the year 2000.

The British coalition government has underlined its commitment to electric vehicles by launching a campaign and announcing an investment of £9 million in more charging points.

Go Ultra Low is a £2.5 million campaign promoting the benefits of electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

The Portuguese Communist Party in the Algarve said it is wholly against the transfer of the management of the Algarve’s commercial ports to Sines and is to present an alternative proposal to government for the creation of a Port Authority of the Algarve.

"This was a decision that is contrary to the interests of the people of the Algarve due the specific nature of the ports business in the region, the prospects for the development of our fisheries, our industry and our tourism," said the Communists who have rather missed the boat as the time to submit complaints was before the management of the Algarve’s ports was stripped from local hands and given, for reasons best known to Lisbon, to a port authority in Sines, 200 kilometres up the coast.

The deadline for small-scale farmers to register their activities with Finanças and social security which ended last Friday has been extended for the fourth time, this time to April 30th 2014.

"The judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, March 2012, judged the VAT licensing scheme for small farmers in Portugal contrary to the VAT Directive. Portugal then withdrew the proposed scheme, replacing it with its general VAT regime applicable to all economic agents,' according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance.

The bodies of a was discovered at the bottom of a well in the parish of Azinhal, Castro Marim.

The remains were concealed in a bag in the dry well of about 10 metres depth and have been removed by Vila Real de San António firefighters to be taken to the office of Medicina Legal de Faro for investigations.

Expat UK citizens should be given the right to vote in perpetuity. 

That is the view expressed this morning by Sir Roger Gale, MP (North Thanet) following a statement by the European Commission in support of the proposal. 

A new citizens’ movement in Defence of the Public Health Services of the Algarve is kicking off its activities with a rally in Portimão and a Sunday demonstration along the EN 125. Both actions have the aim of forcing the resignation of the Minister of Health.

The movement has stated that that its actions intend to highlight the "degradation in the region of the National Health Service and at the same time to ask for the resignation of the Health Minister, Paulo Macedo" and of course the president of the Board of Directors of the Hospitals of the Algarve, Pedro Nunes who wants to go back to Lisbon anyway.