All of Portugal's opposition parties have criticised the final report into the expensive 'swaps' fiasco, accusing the author, the social democrat Clara Marques Mendes, or producing a whitewash to protect the current finance minister Maria Luís Albuquerque, (pictured)
 
Eight months, 42 hearings, thousands of documents analysed and three secretaries of state later the government approved the report of the investigation into the swaps scandal which concluded that yes, there was imprudent management of public money, but it blames only the José Sócrates government, the banks that sold the deals and the directors of the public companies that signed the contracts.

Fifteen of Portugal's ports are closed to shipping due to strong seas, according to information on the Portuguese Navy’s website whichreports that in the Algarve - Lagos, Alvor and Portimão are now closed to all navigation.

Decreasing bad weather has led the Portuguese Institute of Ocean and Atmosphere to post an orange warning along the west coats and also the Faro region as the strong waves will gradually decrease from this afternoon. "The situation should normalise on Wednesday," according to meteorologist Maria João Frada from the Institute.

A parliamentary group from the Portuguese Communist Party has questioned the government about "the impact of successive budget cuts" on the Algarve’s public hospitals.

A delegation visited Portimão Hospital, one of the hospitals which along with Faro and Lagos units make up the Centro Hospitalar do Algarve (CHA) and has produced a series of questions in a damning report.

Spain stepped up its use of wind farms and hydroelectric plants in 2013, leading to a remarkable drop of 23% in greenhouse gas emissions from the country’s power sector.

For the first time ever, wind power was a leading source of electricity for the country last year.

Despite gloomy forecasts and the seasonal closure of record numbers of the Algarve’s hotels, those that remained open did good business in December, takings were up on last year anyway with revenues in the Algarve resorts increasing by 2.2 % in the month.  This may not sound much but it is better than the alternative and shows a measurable positive trend.

The increased take in December, according to the ever-cheerful Association of Hotels and Resorts in the Algarve, was due to an increase in average occupancy rate for the quarter of 26.1%, this was a welcome 4% above the figure for the same period in 2012.

The French economy is in danger of reverting back into recession.

It was the only one of the eurozone’s four major economies in which the private sector shrank in December. In contrast, Germany, Italy and Spain notched up some growth in construction, services and manufacturing during the month.

The expat campaigner, Harry Shindler, has had his efforts recognised by receiving an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.

Mr Shindler, 92, has been an ardent proponent of voting rights for British expats abroad for more than 15 years and also for parliamentary representation in the UK for them.

Traffic on the A22 declined further in the second quarter last year, but far less so than in the same period of 2012, according to the quarterly report from the Algarve’s transport and regional development body, the CCDRA.

On the A22, the decrease of average daily traffic by a further 5.6%, against a 52.2% drop in 2012 leads the reporters to imagine that this is some sort of miraculous recovery which Q.3 2012 will reveal in all its glory.