Patients in recent days have been forced to wait for up to 13 hours to be seen by medical staff in the Emergency Department at the national health service hospital in Lagos due to a lack of doctors.

According to the local Communist (PCP) party,  these events “reveal the growing deterioration of the conditions in the health service and this hospital  which serves the population not only of Lagos, but also the neighbouring municipalities of Vila do Bispo and Aljezur.”

The Statutory Residency Test entered into force on 6 April 2013.

Since then, British tax officials have been stepping up their challenges on non-residency.

The test is designed to determine if an expat is liable for income and capital gains tax.

Industrial output across the eurozone jumped by 1.8% in November.

The increase was welcomed by analysts as a reasonable indication that the area is finally experiencing a modest recovery, especially after a drop of 0.8% in October.

The Netherlands is dealing with a renewed outbreak of the horse meat scandal.

An official recall has been ordered for as much as 11,000 kilos of meat believed to be horse meat but sold illegally last year in the country as beef.

The meat came from equestrian centres, pharmaceutical labs and private owners in France.

Olli Rehn, the EU’s Economy Commissioner, stated yesterday that the details of Portugal’s rescue programme were decided by the Portuguese government and not by the Troika.

Rehn was responding to questioning from the MEP Elisa Ferreira about the evaluation of the work of the Troika in those countries that had to be bailed out.

Algarve MP Artur Rego has expressed his opinion on the tolls on the Algarve’s Via do Infante A22 Via do Infante motorway in a written set of questions to the Minister of the Economy.

Rego is an MP for the CDS-PP party for the Faro constituency and has questioned the Ministry of Economy on the collection of tolls, asking for the system to be scrapped, or at least reduce the tolls cost.

It was earlier reported:

On Wednesday 14th of January motorist are warned that the GNR will be out in force on the nation’s roads on an operation where the ‘surveillance of traffic’ in various parts of the country will bring in a welcome boost to its accounts from the fines issued.

The operation will cover all types of national, regional and local roads, and the GNR warns motorists that “violations for speeding are the most frequent and lead to an increased risk accidents"

Minister for the economy Pires de Lima has no doubts that 2014 will be a good year for Portugal, "2014 is the year of investment recovery. The Portuguese economy is growing and will grow in 2014,” said the businessman turned politician.

"Portugal is clearly well positioned on the radar of investors to provide high added value, which is making our country a world reference point for service excellence. The arguments in favour of Portugal are interesting, since we have human resources quality and availability too ' stressed the minister on a business visit to Accenture, a systems maintenance services company.