The delay in bringing Operation Marquês to a close and the listing of charges and a trial date for the former Prime Minister, José Sócrates, has been extended by the Attorney General, Joana Marques Vidal.

The reason now given is that the prosecution team, led by prosecutor Rosário Teixeira, has yet to receive replies to certain key letters rogatory that are needed to complete the financial picture of illicit funds, cash payments and illegal offshore transfers.

A man died in the early hours of Tuesday while illegally fishing underwater in the Ria Formosa near Fuseta, Olhão.

Alone, unmarked, at 01.40 a.m in a zone where swimming underwater to catch fish is strictly banned, the man was hit by a passing pleasure boat close to the pier.

Spain and Portugal have reached an agreement to centralised the purchases of drugs to improve their healthcare delivery systems.

Spain's Health Minister, Dolors Montserrat, and his Portuguese counterpart, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, have agreed to reinforce the collaboration of both countries in the health field, which "will benefit 60 million people."

The sale of the real estate side of Herdade de Comporta is reported to have been arranged with Ardma Imobiliária, a company controlled by oil magnate, Pedro Almeida and a group of Portuguese partners.

The luxury west coast estate, long referred to as 'the jewel in the crown' of the Espírito Santo clan, is being sold off in highly mysterious circumstances and ‘at a symbolic price’ despite being worth hundreds of millions on the open market.

In exchange for a loan to pay off their debts, many Portuguese families have ended up losing their homes.

Homeowners have been signing documents that they think are mortgages but in fact these are contracts of purchase and sale.

The former head of legal services at Banco Espírito Santo, Rui Silveira, said in court on Monday that BES depositors were covered because the bank left provisions to reimburse everyone.

The lawyer coordinated the Legal Department of BES and advised the Board of Directors between 1992 and 2000. He then advised the board of directors until the bank went bust in August 2014.

The Public Prosecutor's Office is on the case of Caixa Geral de Depósitos and suspects that senior managers of the State-owned bank have been fiddling the books for years to hide losses, despite these managers having just been cleared by MPs on a Commission of Inquiry.

The prosecutor claims that non-performing loans, a minimum of €1.4 billion has been mentioned, were classed as 'active' even though repayments had stopped with borrowers defaulting between 2007 and 2016.

The public prosecutor has charged 25 Lisbon airport baggage handlers with theft, thus ending the misery and anger suffered by hundreds of passengers fllying in and out of Portugal's capital.

The defendants, employees of a ground handling company at the airport, had access to passengers’ luggage as they loaded and unloaded cases in the baggage area.