High tides and a brisk south-easterly - Maritime Authority issues warning

wavesRoughThe National Maritime Authority has warned that the Algarve coastline will be hit with a south-easterly bringing high seas over the next few days.

From now until the 28th, ‘levante’ conditions will be poor with the worst turbulence predicted for dawn on the 27th of September, when winds are expected to reach about 56 kmph with two-meter-high waves along the coast – 2.5 metres out to sea.

Minister 'on the take' applied to legalise illicit offshore funds

ManuelPinhoFormer Minister, Manuel Pinho, is suspected of using a tax forgiveness scheme to legalise offshore payments received from BES.

The Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating Manuel Pinho's alleged appeal to tax forgiveness scheme under the governments of José Sócrates and Passos Coelho which allowed undeclared money nestling in offshore accounts to be transferred to Portugal.

McCanns close online store

mccannsMadeleine McCann's parents have decided to shut down the online store that helped raise money to fund the search for their daughter, missing since May 2007.

The online business sold T-shirts and other items with Madeleine’s picture, such as car stickers with slogans stating, ‘Please don’t give up on me,’ and ‘Still missing, still missed’.

Six die in head-on collision 'on the way to work'

INEM125Six people died this morning following a head-on collision between two vans in the IC8 at Pombal.

The dead were workers at local businesses. Four of the victims worked for Pavimilhas and two worked for Ilhaugusto Construções.

Portugal's best golf course is....

vilavitaIn the Algarve, three luxury hotels and one golf course were distinguished in the 15th Publituris Portugal Travel Awards, at a ceremony on September 21st at Troia.

These ‘tourism Oscars’ were awarded to Vila Vita Parc in Lagoa (pictured) as ‘Best Resort,’ Salgados Palm Village near Galé in Albufeira (pictured below) as ‘Best Family Resort Hotel’ and Vila Joya, also in Galé, as ‘Best Beach Hotel’ in Portugal.

Parchal's BPM festival - 300% increase in drug arrests

bpmfestivalThe lively BPM festival at the Arade Congress Center in Parchal proved a fertile venue for drug busts with the authorities detaining 62 people over the three day event.

"Between September 21st and 24th, the GNR from Silves detained 62 people in the Lagoa and Portimão area, seizing 4,066 drugs at the BPM Festival.

German tourist rescued off Culatra Island

culatraA German man has been rescued from a watery death off an unsupervised beach on the Ria Formosa island of Culatra.

The 61-year-old tourist was swimming off the eastern tip of the island on Sunday in an area notorious for its strong currents.

Taxi drivers' strike - day six with no end in sight

taxifaroOver 300 taxi drivers continued their strike against the “unfair competition” posed by Uber and other personal transport services, by partially blocking the access to Faro airport with their vehicles.

This is day six of a national strike that has enable Uber and others to expand their services, especially in Porto, Lisbon and the Algarve.