Portugal has granted 471 'golden visas' representing sales of €306 million, according to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Paulo Portas. The share of this figure that goes to the treasury is a proportion of the property purchase tax.

Most visas were granted as the applicants purchased residential property, €272 million worth, with the Chinese continuing to lead the list of foreigners receiving the golden tax free key to Europe, followed by Russians, Brazilians, Angolans and South Africans.

The closure rate of hotels in the Algarve during the low season is growing and the measures taken by the Government to combat seasonality have fallen short of target.

The president of the Association of Hotels and Resorts in the Algarve (AHETA), Elidérico Viegas, said that that the closure of hotels during the winter "is a trend that has been observed to be on the increase in recent years, this year too."

The use of Facebook as a social networking tool has been shown to be in such mortal decline that it has been pronounced “dead and buried”.

The prognosis comes from a study on how older teenagers use social media.

Facebook’s baton appears to have passed to older relatives, among whom it remains popular.

The hot summer enjoyed in Britain this year gave a clear boost to the nation’s wildlife.

Butterflies, moths, and grasshoppers all benefitted, according to the National Trust which proclaimed it “one of the most remarkable wildlife years in living memory”. Bees and crickets also thrived in the warm sunny spell.

An international study has placed Portugal among 18 countries in the world with a high risk of social unrest in the coming year.

The study, devised and undertaken by a group of researchers from the influential Economist magazine, concluded that Portugal will be ‘more vulnerable’ to episodes of social unrest in 2014. In 2009 Portugal was in the group that had only a ‘moderate risk’ of political and social instability.

The mountainous municipality has settled on four priority projects for next year and has agreed on a €15,526,911 spend, approved on the 20th of December by the council.

"The budget for 2014 reflects the difficult national and local economic situation that has been observed in recent years and the macroeconomic scenario for this year," commented the council in a statement.

Portugal's President, Cavaco Silva, has until January 6th to pass or to veto the 2014 budget. The President already has sent the budget to the Constitutional Court for its opinion.

The musings and conclusions of the Court's judges will have been received by the end of Christmas Day.

Cavaco Silva now has until January 6th to decide what to do in the light of the advice and opnion he has received from the Constitutional Court.

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.