A fire broke out early on Sunday morning at a restaurant in Altura, Castro Marim.

The blaze at the Girassol restaurant started in an annex and, due to last night’s high winds, the flames spread rapidly, destroying the whole building.

In a posting on the Presidency of the Republic website, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa today warned of "a lamentable reversal of the trend of decreasing road accidents and fatalities since 2010."

The Secretary of State for Civil Protection, José Artur Neves, said that road accidents in Portugal have a negative impact of €2.3 billion, equivalent to 1.2% of the country's GDP.

The row continues over bullfighting it Portugal after the VAT rate on tickets to other cultural shows is to be reduced next year, from 13% to the lowest rate of 6%, thus aggravating pro-bullfighting MPs, even those in the ruling Socialist Party.

The new culture minister, Graca Fonseca, refused to cut VAT on tickets to events in line with other cultural shows, stating that, “It is a matter of civilisation.”

Two men died and one was injured, after a garbage truck left the road and careered down a bank off the EN122 near Vale do Pereiro, Odeleite in Castro Marim.

The accident took place on the Tenência road and an alert was received at 09:00am on Saturday morning. Vila Real de Santo António bombeiros, the INEM medical emergency team and the GNR all rushed to the site of the accident but the two men were declared dead at the scene.

The Ferragudo lifeboat team was called out to rendezvous with a cruise ship off Portimão after a passenger had been taken seriously ill and needed land-based medical care.

The British passenger was taken ashore safely after the Maritime Police had been advised that the Saga Pearl II had requested help at 11:00am on Saturday Nov 17th.

Silves Council’s water services department is starting to install water meters that transmit readings to the billing centre.

"This system works by installing a highly accurate volumetric meter, equipped with a radio transmitter module for remote reading and processing of various data, including water use volume and leak detection information, among others," says the Council.

The former president of Banco Português de Negócios, Oliveira e Costa, has been given an extra year in jail to add to the 12 handed out earlier in the week and the 14 years he received in 2017.

The group of judges of the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, chaired by Luis Ribeiro, have had a chance to go through the paperwork of the main BPN case and decided that Oliveira e Costa should really be given an extra four years for ‘breach of trust.’

Portugal’s weekend weather will be stirred up by the approach of a frontal system, bringing rain, strong winds and high seas.

Friday is OK, sunny in the Algarve with weak wind but things will deteriorate - starting on Saturday.