The Namibian police confirmed this morning that an Air Mozambique aircraft flying from Maputo to Luanda, missing since Friday afternoon, had indeed crashed. There are no survivors among the 34 occupants of the aircraft, five of the passengers were Portuguese nationals.

The wreckage was found in Bwabwata National Park near the border of Angola and Botswana.

"The plane burned completely and there are no survivors," said the security forces responsible for the area.

The Netherlands has suffered the loss of its AAA credit rating after a downgrade from Standard & Poor’s.

The Dutch finance minister said it was “disappointing” but not surprising.

According to S&P, growth prospects for the Netherlands have declined and that it is not performing as well as its peers.

"The Board of Directors of Banco de Portugal agreed on November 27th to authorise the establishment of a Post Office Bank," reads an addendum to the privatisation prospectus released today to the stock exchange authorities.

The new bank is aimed at using the wide geographic coverage of CTT outlets and the existing skilled workforce to create the new Post Office Bank.  The project will affect the economic and financial forecasts for CTT which itself is being sold this year.

The Co-operative bank in Guernsey is getting rid of its offshore customers.

People with fixed-rate savings bonds with Co-operative Bank's Guernsey branch are now having their accounts closed and their money returned.

In August, the bank said it was to close its branch in Guernsey as part of a programme to “simplify the business”.

Thirty seven nations have agreed to provide the UK Treasury with the details of offshore bank accounts held by British citizens.

The initiative, led in large part by the UK, is to clamp down on tax evasion and recoup unpaid UK tax on money held abroad.

In one of the more bizarre police actions of 2013 a shipment of young eels has been stopped from entering Spain where the slippery cargo would have been worth upwards of €28,000.

In Spain the tasty tapas are a highly appreciated delicacy and the interception of the illicit cargo at the Guadiana bridge will bring tears to many an Andalucian gourmand.

The new Mayor of Silves has visited the struggling population of São Marcos da Serra which she says is virtually closed off from the outside world. The last train stopped there two years ago and there is no sign of any sensible public transport provision.
 
"People in São Marcos da Serra feel completely forgotten," said Rosa Palma, stressing that this parish had been the hardest hit over the withdrawal of basic state services.

"Portugal exports more because wages have fallen and the economy shrank," according to Mark Blyth, Professor of Political Economy at Brown University in the United States, who was in Lisbon today to launch his book ‘Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea’ and to attend an austerity conference.

The current business model for Portugal, based on exports, may ultimately not be a good solution for the country, said the Scottish author who believes that the banks, not the increase in public spending, were the true cause of the European crisis.