The European Commission has started legal action against Portugal for its failure to take on board key European Union legislation on the exchange of information concering tax deals granted to multinationals operating in Europe.

After the LuxLeaks* scandal in 2014, the Commissions set in motion laws that needed to be adopted by each European member country by the end of 2016. Portugal, Cyprus and Bulgaria failed to hit the deadline.

Monchique's mayor is determined to purchase the town's iconic convent and convert it into a hotel or hostel.

Convento de Nossa Senhora do Desterro is one of Monchique’s ‘must see’ buildings and still attracts tourists, despite its parlous state of repair.

Faro Airport’s new terminal building was inaugurated today by the Prime Minster, António Costa, as the €33 million refit is close to completion.

As expected, the ceremony also was attended by the Minister for Infrastructure, Pedro Marques, who said he expected "a 50% increase in passenger number in the next in five to six years" which he guessed would equate to €600,000 in additional export earnings.

Peter Boone, the economist accused of profiting from a sharp rise in bond interest rates after writing a corrusticating 2010 blog in the New York Times, is to sue the Portuguese State for "trying to silence its critics."

"Dr. Boone is now preparing to sue the Portuguese State for a grossly incompetent and negligent investigation conducted by the Securities Market Commission (CMVM) and the Public Prosecutor's Office," reads part of a statement from Boone’s legal team.

For the October 1st municipal elections, there are 9,396,680 registered Portuguese voters, fewer than in the September 2013 elections when over 9.5 million could vote.

The lower overall figure is due mainly to the hundreds of thousands of Portuguese citizens having left the country during the years of recession, most of whom have not come back.

The government’s poorly thought-out draft law to give neighbours the power to block Alojamento Local applications has died a premature death, even before going to parliament for discussion.

The prime minister has intervened to stop this controversial proposal from his own party that gave neighbours the power to authorise or to prohibit the rental of properties to tourists.(click here)

Emergency services tackling a serious fire in Alijó, in Vila Real district, this weekend were shocked to find that yet again, the SIRESP emergency service communications system was suffering from intermittent failures.

The chaos caused by the failure of the SIRESP communication system in the June fire at Pedrógão Grande, Leiria, already is being blamed for poor emergency services coordination and may be proved to have played a part in the deaths of many of the 64 victims who were burned alive in their vehicles as they tried to flee the flames.

A shoot-out near Olhão’s train station ended up with one man being hit in the head. The gunman was Luís Costa who now faces eight years and six months in prison.

Another of the defendants in the Olhão ‘drug wars’ prosecutions was convicted of having sex with a minor, aged 13, while holed up on the nearby island of Culatra.