It appears to be increasingly hard to dupe the Criminal Investigation team of the Silves GNR, especially if you are a prisoner on the run.
On Wednesday, September 13th, a GNR patrol on drug prevention duty which stopped and searched a public bus in São Bartolomeu de Messines, questioned a 45-year-old man and asked for some identification.
The much used phrase ‘the best year ever’ soon may correctly be used for tourism in the Algarve as the statistics institute has confirmed that the region has provided 10.7 million overnight stays to the end of July, a big increase and one that may see the hotel sector turnover a billion euros of more for the full year.
Desidério Silva, president of the Algarve Tourism Region, believe that this year may well be record breaking, a projected increase in overnight stays to the year-end of between 7% and 8%.
The long-running Tecnoforma case has been archived, to the relief of Padro Passos Coelho and his friend Miguel Relvas, both of whom were suspected of fraud corruption.
Relvas reacted to the news of the closure of the Tecnoforma case with a characteristic lack of modesty, "There could be no other conclusion."
EDP has been ordered to pay €72.9 million to electricity customers who have been overcharged since 2012 for payments relating to power plant subsidies.
The credits will appear in 2018 after the Directorate General of Energy and Geology notified EDP’s board to return the money after excessive profits had been made by charging customers the compensation costs for energy supply contracts that had became null when the market was liberalised.
Organisers of the BPM Festival that starts on Thursday, 14th September and runs until Sunday in Praia da Rocha and Parchal, expect to a sell-out with 10,000 tickets available for the underground, house and techno dance party that has relocated after a ten year run in South America, to the Algarve.
Portimão council says that it "intends and demands" that the BPM Festival is safe, so 115 personnel have been drafted in from Portimão Firefighters, the National Institute of Medical Emergency, the Portuguese Red Cross, the Maritime Police, the Public Security Police and the GNR.
As the Algarve’s residents and fortunate holidaymakers enjoy temperatures in the 30 degrees Centigrade range across all but the west coast, it seems incredible that by Friday, the long trousers may be out and jumpers shaken off after a long season in the bottom drawer.
There is about to be a significant change in the weather, starting tomorrow as temperatures start to drop, day by day, until the weekend, a few degrees at a time until the winds drive us all inside.
The People-Animals-Nature political party, famous for having but one MP, is determined that the circus sector in Portugal should not be allowed to continue to use live animals.
The ‘Circos Sem Animais’ campaign started in Olhão on September 11th, and aims to "alert the municipal executive of each of the sixteen regional councils of the need to stamp out the use of animals in the circus."
Cost conscious, independently minded senior travellers from within Portugal, using Airbnb to book accommodation, have been taking breaks in Tavira, making it the number one destination - worldwide.
Beating competitors such as Paris, London and Rome, the over-60s age group has ensured that Tavira leads as the ‘most visited destination’ by seniors using the bookings website.
