Estradas de Portugal will "very soon" deliver a report to the Government on yet another new tolling system for the formerly free SCUT roads. This will enable the government to “make a decision,” according to the ever-hopeful road company’s president.

António Ramalho said today that his company is working with Brisa and Ascendi to "find technical and operational solutions that will allow greater flexibility in the tolling system" on the former SCUT roads.

The Foreign Affairs Committee has launched an inquiry into the quality of consular services provided to British citizens in need abroad.

It has invited UK nationals to report on their experiences of consular services in three key areas: from those who have been in difficulty or distress abroad, those who have been involved in large-scale events and crises, and expats who have received routine consular services.

The Committee says it wants to hear personal experiences of those who have used the FCO’s consular services.

More houses were built in the UK since the start of the economic meltdown in 2007.

Figures show 133,670 homes were built in 2013, a jump of 28% over 2012.

The socialist party has urged the Government to extend the deadline for small farmers to sign up for a  new tax regime that may see many of traditional small farmers simply give up.

Socialist deputy Miguel Freitas today criticised the political machinations of Assunçao Cristas, Minister of Agriculture, in the fortnightly parliamentary debate.

The survivor of the December student drowing tragedy 'Dux' (Joao Miguel Gouveia) may not be the only witness to that night's events that have been surrounded by increasing suspicions of a prank gone wrong, a university initiation ceremony that led to disaster and many other suggested reasons why intelligent students would put themselves so obviously in harm's way on a night when the sea was producing huge waves at a beach notorious for its treacherous conditons.

'Dux' has been made an ‘arguido’ (defendant) in the case of the deaths at Meco beach, Sesimbra, according to a lawyer who claimed today that there were "at least 12 people" on the beach where the accident took place on December 15th last year.

"I'm not satisfied. Unemployment is still very high,” according to Portugal's prime minster in response to today’s Eurostat figures which showed the unemployment rate in Portugal fell to 15.4% in December 2013, the 10th consecutive fall.

Passos Coelho's curious admission of failure included a rare statement that Portugal had squandered opportunities created by European funds.

"I'm only working as a hospital director in the Algarve because I feel that in this role my experience and my knowledge can be very useful. It’s not for career reasons, it is not for the money, and it’s not that I like living away from my family which is in Lisbon while I try to run the Hospitals of the Algarve,” claimed Pedro Nunes, the President of the Board of Directors of the Hospitals of the Algarve (CHA), in a further example of his deluded management style, this time on a local radio station.

Over 100 hundred workers at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Vilamoura have yet to receive their Christmas subsidy pay for 2013, according to their trade union, the Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Industria de Hotelaria, Turismo, Restaurantes e Similares do Algarve (STIHTRSA).

The regional union coordinator, Tiago Jacinto, explained that there are more than 100 employees at the Crown Plaza Hotel that have not yet received their contracted payment and that he has requested as a matter of urgency a meeting with the hotel administration.