Spanish and Portuguese officials have been working in perfect harmony at the end of a year long investigation into counterfeit goods being made in the north of Portugal and just over the Spanish border.

The Luso-Spanish operation against counterfeit goods has seen the closure of ten factories in Portugal after investigations into 37 factories in the north of Portugal and in Spain that were suspected of producing counterfeit clothing and footwear.

The Navy, in conjunction with medical services, successfully coordinated a medivac operation of a crew member from the merchant ship Zoey which was sailing under a Maltese flag 27 miles south of Cape St. Vincent.

The 51 year old Turkish man had severed a finger and was in danger of severe infection as a result.

A Boxing Day accident involving three vehicles on the IC1 near Tunes, Silves  left one dead and five injured.

The accident happened at 17.00 and at 20.00 two victims were still trapped inside the wreckage as local rescue vehicles attended the carnage that blocked the road in both directions. INEM, firefighters from Albufeira and Silves, Red Cross, the GNR and a helicopter for medical assistance attended the scene.

The road was re-opened at 22.30.

The scenario of economic recovery described by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho in his Christmas message has been ridiculed by all three opposition parties.

The PS, PCP and the Left Bloc reacted to some of Pedro Passos Coelho’s statements, classifying them as lacking factual veracity.

"You lie," said the leader of the PS, Antonio Galamba, "youth unemployment is not diminishing, it is increasing. The data that came out on Friday indicated that there was an increase of 2.2% in youth unemployment and the unemployed under 25 year olds at present represent 13% of the unemployed in Portugal," said an incredulous Galamba.

The PCP described the Christmas message as "hypocritical" and "cynical."  

Canada is to open its doors again in its quest to encourage greater economic growth.

The country wants thousands of skilled expats to move in during the course of 2014.

Its ambitious immigration scheme aims to fill a number of gaps in the labour market.

The Christmas spirit in Denmark was not the same this year as a serious threat to the baking industry hung over the country.

The kanelsnegler, or cinnamon roll, has been eyed by the European Union for possible extinction.

EU regulations aim to limit the amount of coumarin, a toxic chemical which occurs naturally and is present in the typical kind of cinnamon, cassia.

As storms battered the UK over Christmas, at the same time sixty sunbathers in Argentina were bitten by piranhas.

The mass attack took place on Christmas Day at a popular river beach in the city of Rosario.

People there were trying to escape the heat as temperatures climbed to 100ºF. Swimmers, bleeding from bites, suddenly began to run out of the water, shouting for help.

Rain, hail, lightning, snow, plunging temperatures; these are just some of the delights in store over the next few days leading up to New Year’s Eve, according to the brutally factual forecast put out today by the Portuguese Institute of Ocean and Atmosphere.

According to the IPMA, between December 27th and January 1st 'weather conditions in continental Portugal will be affected by a disturbed westerly air flow which is expected to bring successive fronts, with alternating masses of tropical and then polar air.’