Around 82,000 litres of a so-called “date rape drug” have been seized by the Judiciary Police (PJ), which has dismantled a scheme producing the illicit substance. The drug gang operated in the quiet municipality of Ourique, in the Alentejo region, manufacturing industrial quantities of gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) for the purpose of global exportation.
Portugal remained on high alert today, Wednesday 28th January, as the impact of Storm Kristin battered the country, leaving around 500,000 people still without electricity by mid-afternoon, according to the Secretary of State for Civil Protection Rui Rocha. At the peak of the disruption, close to one million residents, almost a tenth of Portugal’s population,were without power.
A woman who had been reported missing in the Silves area has been found by rescuers inside a car that had fallen into a stream in the parish of Algoz, in what is the second fatality in the municipality this week due to bad weather.
Searches are still underway after a woman fell into the River Arade in Silves this morning, and was then swept away by the strong current due to ongoing heavy rain.
The Algarve’s reservoirs are currently at 89% of their total capacity, and the Bravura dam may soon become the sixth and final reservoir in the region to carry out preventive water releases as leading to possible floods downstream, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) revealed today.
Portugal will only join the Peace Council created by the US president if the organisation’s remit is strictly limited to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said today Tuesday, 27th January.
The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, visited the site of what is expected to become the Algarve Central Hospital today, Monday 26th January, celebrating the occasion with the release of an order approving the public–private partnership model for its construction - now we await the public tender.
Forecasts of severe maritime conditions along the entire western coast of Portugal, particularly the Algarve’s Vicentina and the Alentejo coasts, have prompted the issuance of a red warning for these coastal areas from midnight tonight, Friday 23rd, and throughout Saturday, the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) has announced.
