The government in France has rescinded a new savings tax after a protest in Brittany turned violent.

The retroactive levy of 15.5% on savings plans, likely to hit the middle classes, was due to start in January 2014.

A retired Australian couple were duped into smuggling drugs worth £4 million back into the country.

The pensioners had ‘won’ a dream holiday to Canada.  AUSCAN Tours, the travel company which awarded the prize, seemed genuine.

Eating almonds as a snack has been shown to be effective in reducing hunger while imparting Vitamin E and ‘good’ fat intake.

Recent research also discovered that those who ate around 30 almonds (1.5 oz, 43g) a day did not gain weight.

Finanças demanded €2,000 in car tax from a car leasing company that no longer owned the vehicles in question. When it came to court the judge found in favour of the company in what may be a landmark ruling.

Finanças was told to return more than €2,000 relating to IUC (car tax) to a leasing company for cars that already had been sold. This decision is sweet revenge for thousands of taxpayers from whom the tax authority has demanded payment of taxes from 2008 despite the cars in question having legally been sold on.

The D. Maria II bridge over the river to the east of Lagos has been closed for 18 months but the plan for a parallel bridge for traffic, leaving the old bridge for pedestrians, has received the approval of the CDU coalition.

The CDU wants to press ahead with the construction of a new bridge over the Bensafrim river and in an open letter the coalition explained that the ideal solution to the dangerous state of the old bridge is a new construction.

The Algarve region registered 200,000 more overnight stays than last year by the end of June, according to the ubiquitous president of Algarve Tourism, Desiderio Silva, who estimates that by the year end there will have been 800,000 more overnight stays in the region than in 2012.

This impressive second half boost will have to come largely from the much vaunted winter tourism market.

The Secretary of State for the Environment has announced that the Algarve is to benefit from a spend of €5.4 million. This is for the construction of new access to three beaches and the addition of tonnes of sand.

Most of this investment, €5 million, will be spent on adding sand to the beaches of Carvoeiro, Benagil, Cova Redonda and Praia Nova (Lagoa), D. Ana (Lagos) and the Castelo and Coelha beaches in Albufeira.

Investors from the Middle East are in the sights of Portugal’s real estate promoters and developers. After the interest shown by Chinese buyers in the Golden Visa scheme, property entrepreneurs are now looking to roll out the promotion in other wealthy countries.

A roadshow is set to roll out across the Middle East in January next year. PSO Strategic Consulting is preparing a package of about 50 properties, "mostly houses and apartments but also hotels and farms in Lisbon, the Alentejo and the Algarve."