Judges have sentenced Mikhail Razvan Oprea, a 36-year-old Romanian, to the maximum sentence of 25 years in jail for abduction, rape, homicide and desecration of a corpse.
Oprea also was ordered to pay €110,000 in damages to the family of Bruna Nunes, the 17-year-old schoolgirl found was found bludgeoned to death in scrubland at Palazim, Aljezur.
The director of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) was fired on Wednesday, October 4th, after a meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Constança Urbano de Sousa.
No reason for the sacking of Luísa Maia Gonçalves has been given but the likelihood is that it was due to the simmering row over changes to the immigration laws which the SEF was known to oppose.
Secretary of State for Culture, Miguel Honrado, said the second year of the '365 Algarve' cultural programme will leave an even greater mark on the region. This is safe bet as last year’s poorly publicised programme came and went with few noticing.
In 2011, Portugal received a ten-year grant from the EU of €175 million for a project 'to attract tourists to Portugal during the winter months so as to mitigate the effects of seasonality.’
Arrests have been made in the murder inquiry launched after a barman, who was savagely beaten and kicked in an Albufeira street on September 3rd, was allowed to die five days afterwards.
Doctors declared Paulo di Santo ‘brain dead’ and gave him less than 1% change of recovery. His life support systems were switched off on September 8th and an assault inquiry turned into a hunt for his murderers.
Former Prime Minister of Portugal, and current Social Democratic Party leader, Pedro Passos Coelho has decided not to seek re-election, due to last Sunday’s collapse in support for his party at the local election ballot box.
On Sunday night, when PSD defeat was clear, Passos Coelho said he needed a few days to consider his position. This he has done and decided that 'enough is enough.'
Portugal’s Minister of the Sea, Ana Paula Vitorino, will used EU’s ‘Our Ocean 2017’ conference to announce new commitments in the sustainable management of the oceans and to "significantly increase funding for deep-sea scientific research, including studies on the environmental impacts of seabed mining."
The conference in Malta on 5 and 6 October, brings together representatives from 61 countries who have been set the noble challenge of devising a system of global governance of the oceans, but Portugal wants license income from deep-sea mining, despite the minister's talk of a clean, blue and environmentally friendly ocean economy.
After a six-year absence, deVere Group is to “shake-up” its western European operations by returning to Portugal.
The financial services company has opened a new office in Tavira, six years since the company’s Algarve and Lisbon offices were closed and clients were passed to advisers across the border in Spain.
Approvals from the European Commission and the European Central Bank is needed before the ownership of Novo Banco can be transferred to Nani Holdings,* a company set up by US vulture fund Lone Star fund.
The sale is almost complete, but for these two approvals which will depend on EU rules on state aid and a restructuring plan that Lone Star has presented to ensure Novo Banco’s long-term viability.
