A German tourist swimming off Fuseta-Mar beach, on the more dangerous ‘ocean side’ of Armona Island, was pulled from the water by lifeguards.

The 54-year-old’s wife realised he was in trouble and raised the alarm.

Storm damage has left the breakwater at Vila Real de Santo António in a poor state, especially the end section and contractors now have 3.5 months to carry extensive repairs before winter storms makes things worse.

The €500,000 spend will fix the existing breaks in the structure before further damage.

A team under Xavier Viegas's, from the Centre for Forest Fire Studies, has recorded cases where houses being rebuilt in the Pedrógão Grande area had not been damaged by fire, or clearly were ruins before the fire struck last June.

Viegas's team has surveyed about half of the properties that the Regional Development Commission had been told were in need of rebuilding grants.

Work to repair the Albarrã tower at Paderne Castle has been completed. The Minister of Culture paid a visit to mark the completion of the specialised reconstruction of the degraded tower made of taipa militar* that has stood up well to the ravages of the weather for eight centuries.

The work was to cost €132,000, supported by the local Council, the regional cultural directorate and the Millennium BCP Foundation, but came in under budget as a late decision was made to not repair the highest course of taipa.

"House prices continue to increase, but there is still no significant overvaluation," according to the latest IMF report, released on Thursday.

The International Monetary Fund report stresses that house price increases largely have been driven by non-residents buying property in Portugal, but agrees with the European Central Bank's assessment in May, that there were, "incipient signs of overvaluation in the residential market."

Portugal’s Socialist government knows full well that messing around with property taxes in order to penalise entrepreneurs, is a vote loser. 

The Socialist Party leader today quashed any chance that the Left Bloc’s special income tax rate will see the light of day.

In addition to Mark Holyoake’s consortium pulling out of the bidding for Herdade da Comporta, one of the remaining two bidders also has withdrawn.

The Victor de Broglie and Global Asset Capital Europe consortium has withdrawn in a huff, leaving only Paula Amorim's bid vehicle in the contest.

The consortium formed by Mark Holyoake’s Oakvest, in partnership with Portugália and Sabina Estates, has pulled out of the race to acquire the Herdade da Comporta Estate.

The estate management company was forced to scrap a previous sale process and later insisted that all the previous bidders, should they wish to remain involved, would have to waive their legal rights to challenge any future decision on a  successful sale.