A banker on the run in the US was captured by police in a routine traffic check.

The fugitive is alleged to have faked his death in order to avoid charges of defrauding investors of $21 million.

Similar to concerns in the UK, politicians in Germany are nervously facing a possible influx of workers from Bulgaria and Romania.

Tensions have arisen in the country’s new governing coalition over the question of potential “benefit tourism”.

Conservatives believe that extra measures should be taken to prevent abuse of the welfare system and to curb “poverty-driven migration in the EU.

The largest donation made in the US last year was from Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social media phenomenon Facebook.

Zuckerberg, 29, and his wife Priscilla Chan donated nearly $1 billion, the biggest public donation in the US.

In all, 15 people there donated $100 million or more to charity in 2013.

A cracking December has helped lift Portugal’s moribund car sales sector from its death bed.

An overall growth for last year of 11% is a surprising and very welcome result for those dealerships still in business.

Electricity consumption edged up 0.2% in 2013 after two years of decline but if variations in temperature and the number of working days are both taken into account, the growth was close to zero.

According to data from REN, which runs Portugal’s national grid, after a fall of 1.7% in electricity consumption in the first half of 2013 there was a recovery in the second half of the year which meant that the year overall saw a rise of 0.2%.

In the first eleven months of 2013 the Portuguese spent €1.624 billion on the lottery and on scratch cards, to the cheery delight of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia.

This corresponds to an average of €147.6 million per month, €4.8m per day. The data show that the Santa Casa Euromillions is the game that attracts the most money, some €855 million to the end of November.

ABTA – The Travel Association, today released its Travel Trends Report 2014, developed in association with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The report predicts cautious optimism in the holiday market for the year ahead with consumers continuing to holiday and planning to spend more than they did in 2013. For Portugal, the reports lists "great food, historic cities, endless rugged coastline and stunning scenery, and lots of charm" and lists the country in its 'Destinations to Watch' section.

Portugal’s President’s New Year speech praises the "relevance" of the 2014 Budget and did not note any doubts he might have about the constitutionality of the 2014 State Budget, unlike last year when he referred the 2013 Budget to the Constitutional Court.

In the message sent to the Portuguese people the President referred to the 2014 State Budget as an instrument of paramount importance to achieve the central goal of ending the financial assistance programme successfully and for accessing external financing markets at reasonable rates.