The Minister of Agriculture, Luís Capoulas Santos, said he is all for the application of sanctions for those of Portugal's Councils that do not have an updated Municipal Forest Defence Plan against fires.

In interviews, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development said it is "incomprehensible" that there remain 28 Councils in Portugal with outdated fire plans.

Last year, 56% of babies in Portugal were born to unmarried mothers.

A total of 87,020 babies were born alive in 2018, 1% more than in the previous year, according to the National Statistics Institute.

Diversification and demand for liquid assets continued to be central priorities for central banks in the first three months of 2019. And for many of them, gold was the preferred asset.

Central banks bought 145.5 tonnes of gold between January and March 2019, an increase of 68% from 86.7 tonnes in the same period last year.

Madeleine McCann disappeared exactly 12 years ago, on May 3rd, 2007 from Praia da Luz - she was three years old.

The investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance remains an open case with "active lines of inquiry," according to Portugal’s Attorney General's Office which has responded to press questions after an article in Correio da Manhã published today alleged that the Judicial Police is following up on an active line of inquiry.

The GNR’s Coastal Control Unit seized a boat on the Guadiana river and arrested a Spanish national at dawn on Friday, as an astonishing 2,800 kilos of hashish were on board.

The GNR said that a 38-year-old man was detained after the vessel, a 10-metre rig, was found to have 85 bales of hashish on board. The arrest was made near Foz de Odeleite, Castro Marim.

Algarve MP, Cristóvão Norte has been complaining at the Bank of Portugal’s inertia over the Alicoop workers who have been persecuted by the bank, BIC, which has seen fit illegally to pursue debts that are not due.

Norte was at a hearing involving the Governor of the Bank of Portugal, held in Parliament’s Finance Committee, and said that the Bank of Portugal should act to stop the court actions against individual workers.

The crash at Faro airport that killed 56 people 27-years ago is the subject of a book to be released on May 17 that collates testimony from of survivors, interviews and documentation.

Pedro Fernandes, responsible for operational safety at Faro airport, started researching the accident in 2014, having interviewed survivors and authorities, and has written, ‘A última aterragem.’ (The Last Landing.)

The Association of Parishes Councils in the Southwest Alentejo and the Costa Vicentina Natural Park have met to come up with a plan to combat wild camping and caravanning in their areas.
 
The association says it is to reinforce its commitment and willingness to collaborate with all the official bodies that are meant to be solving the current situation of widespread illegal activities.