The deputy prime minister is in Russia this week and has taken the opportunity to tell the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the gathered press what a good idea the Portuguese ‘golden visa’ scheme is for those Russians with €500,000 to spend on a house in Portugal which goves them free European access within the Schengen area.

Russia is currently second only toChina in the uptake of these valuable visas.

The ratings agency Fitch stated today that Portugal will get access to financial markets next year, but the option of arranging a ‘precautionary’ line of credit with its lenders would make the country look more stable.

In this way Portugal should be able to avoid a second bailout and should also escape a full scale debt restructuring if by taking early precautions investor jitters are calmed.

Statistics released today by the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) show 79,291 new unemployment registrations during the month of October, 4.7% more than in October last year.

Although this is a decline compared to September this year when 80,176 newly unemployed were registered, the figures are rather too close to the 80,462 new signees in September 2011 which broke an unenviable 13 year record.

A new strain of viral haemorrhagic disease is ravaging Portugal’s population of wild rabbits and has put at risk the 2014 release of Iberian lynx.

According to the Secretary of State for Nature Conservation, Miguel de Castro Neto, the first releases were due to go ahead in the first half of 2014 but if this now was to happen there is a serious risk that the lynx will not survive.

"In the Alentejo, for example, populations of wild rabbits have reduced by 80% this year due to the illness” according to wildlife expert Pedro Esteves from the University of Oporto who is leading the team that has identified the new DHV -V2 variant.

Portugal’s Musicians Association is to take over Faro’s old beer factory in April 2014 and use it as their base. The Recreational and Cultural Association of Musicians (ARCM) decided at its annual general meeting that it would take over and relocate to the old factory and shortly will sign a lease to enable it to start preparatory work .

"The decision to leave the current association base was agreed by the members at the AGM in order to ensure the continuity of the association’s objectives" announced the ARCM in a statement.

However, the association stated that the conditions of this new space "are not adequate" for its activities so that in March “efforts will be directed to cleaning, renovating and constructing rehearsal rooms and the technical infrastructure needed.”

More than 10,600 people died in Portugal last year due to smoking tobacco, which corresponds to about 10% of all deaths in the over 30s, according to data from the Directorate General of Health (DGS).

In the European Union tobacco kills about 700,000 people every year and according to DGS, the overwhelming majority of Portuguese start smoking before the age of 25 with eight out of 10 smokers starting the habit due to peer pressure. In the Alentejo region where smoking is on the increase about 70% of secondary school students have tried smoking.

The European Commission has claimed that there is no problem with Spain’s version of border control with Gibraltar and that it has no evidence that the Spanish authorities have violated European standards in controlling its border with Gibraltar, a British overseas territory.

In a statement the EC records that  it had "found no evidence" that Spain has breached EU laws during a time of diplomatic tension between Madrid and London. Britain and Gibraltarians claimed the excessive vehicle and document checks have led to hours of deliberate delays for tourists and commuters.

The Commission found "no evidence to conclude that the control of persons and goods by the Spanish authorities at the border post (between Spain and Gibraltar) had violated the provisions of EU law that are in place."

The national charity Caritas Portuguesa has recorded a 20% increase in requests for help from Portuguese families affected by the economic crisis in the last year.

The middle classes now are joining the queue at the soup kitchen door, as are  members of the upper middle class for the first time.

"We knew in Portugal that any problem of this type always reaches the lower classes first because they are the most vulnerable, but for the crisis to hit the upper middle class was once unthinkable," said the president of Caritas Portuguesa.