Olhão’s 'Berlin Wall,' the name given to the on:off series of impediments that have been erected to stop pedestrians crossing the railway line, as locals have been doing since March 28th 1904, is to be reopened on February 1st, after a month of being closed - and two years of being open.

In the cat and mouse game with railway company Infraestruturas de Portugal, the town hall has received an extension to a two-year special licence that allowed locals to cross the railway line, but only until 31st December 2017.

The Government is considering using Civil Protection helicopters and drones clock speeding drivers, installing more radars and blocking mobile phone signals for those driving.

The Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Jose Artur Neves, spoke to journalists after a presentation on a study on drivers at the Automobile Club of Portugal and outlined new measures to counteract the "worrying" increase in the number of road deaths last year.

Beja court is not renowned for moments of dark humour. That all changed this week when the director of psychiatry at Beja Hospital was asked to carry out a psychiatric evaluation of a dead body.

According to Ana Matos Pires, she received the official court letter in which a "psychiatric expert evaluation of a dead person" was requested, something that is physically impossible to achieve, as she explained in response.

Portugal’s councils have rejected the new law that obliges them to clear-up forest areas if landowners do not carry out this vital fire prevention work.

The National Association of Portuguese Municipalities has requested an urgent meeting with the Government to hammer out a compromise.

A failed attempt to refloat the capsized dredger near the Ria Formosa island of Armona has not deterred the team in charge.

The use of different, more robust equipment, including flotation bags sent down from Lisbon, should see the vessel righted during an attempt on Tuesday evening.

In a covert operation supported by the Algarve’s environmental agency, headed by ‘Demolition Man’ Sebastião Teixeira, the foundations for a beach restaurant have been sunk metres deep in an area close to the sea at Praia do Peneco, Albufeira.

This site is not earmarked for a restaurant in the existing Burgau-Vilamoura coastal development plan. It is mentioned in the proposed Odeceixe-Vilamoura plan but this is still being discussed and has yet to be approved.

Recent archaeological field work at Roman city of Balsa, near Luz de Tavira, has revealed both artefacts and vital information, with experts agreeing where the centre of the city lay and planning further stages of work to define the ancient city’s limits.

One of the main impediments is the inconvenient fact that the land is privately owned but local mayor, Jorge Botelho has determined that the area should be purchased by the State, so precious are the buried ruins and such is the opportunity for Tavira to host a visitors’ centre at this internationally important site.

US travellers heading to Europe are advised by Washington that Portugal is Level 1, one of the safest countries in the world, whereas Spain is one grade higher due to a risk of terrorist attacks.

"Terrorist groups continue to organise possible attacks in Spain. They can attack with little or no warning, and their targets are sights, markets, shopping centres, government buildings, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, parks, sports venues, schools, airports and other public places,” according to the US government.