The British couple, whose Armona home has been condemned for demolition, staged a demonstration outside Olhão’s town hall this morning with a crowd of around 200 people agreeing that when it comes to property, "there is a dark side to Portugal."

James Tod and Paul Roseby’s half-built island home has been targeted for demolition by Sebastião Teixeira, head of the Algarve’s Environment Agency. The property is collateral damage in a long-running battle between Teixeira and local Olhão mayor, António Pina.

The government today declared the fires that continue to rage across Portugal, a ‘public calamity’ which  provides for urgent public spending on a range of defence and firefighting operations alongside enhanced powers for Portugal Civil Defence service.

The ‘public calamity’ categorisation is provided for in the Civil Protection Act, and can be declared "in the face of, or due to the danger of a major accident or catastrophe, and includes a special regime for public contracting and the supply of goods and services."

Management at the Adriana Beach Club Resort Hote, in Albufeira, were so distressed at an English father’s state of inebriation, while he was meant to be caring for his twin boys, that they called in the GNR.

The Brit was “visibly drunk” according to staff at a the resort,  who feared for the safety of the children who had been left alone in the pool area while the father got drunk at the bar.

An earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale was felt across the Greater Lisbon area this morning.

The tremor had its epicentre at Sobral de Monte Agraço, near Torres Vedras, and started at 07:44, lasting but a few seconds but was the third one in the past week from the same location.

Portugal’s Attorney General is to investigate the old Portugal Telecom, up to the point is was sold to Altice, on suspicion that successive management teams and politicians have used the cash-rich company for their personal benefit.

The Portuguese authorities at long last are to investigating decisions made by former Portugal Telecom directors and their illegal activities which led to catastrophic losses. The rot has been evident to Portugal’s business community and media for decades, up until the point when the remaining parts of the once profitable company was sold to Partick Draghi’s telecoms giant, Altice.

TAP’s new minority owner, the Gateway Consortium, continues to alter the airlines structure, pricing and routes to get the best from its asset and now has decided that 'TAP' is not the right name for the airline.

TAP is simply an acronym for ‘Transportes Aéreos Portugueses’ but this does not mean much to potential customers in overseas markets in which the business aims to develop, specifically the US.

A tree fell onto a crowd at the start of a religious festival on the island of Madeira, killing 13 people and injuring a further 52 according to figures released from the hospital in Funchal.

The consulting surgeon Miguel Reis said dozens of victims are in serious conditions and four foreigners of French, German and Hungarian nationality are being treated. A fourth, of Dutch nationality, has been discharged.

The union representing technical and auxiliary hospital staff in the Algarve's national health service sector has warned that workers "are close to exhaustion."

The Union of Workers in Public and Social Functions said this is a situation that "could soon lead to the reduction of beds and the closure of services, as workers are faced with an additional work burden and are close to exhaustion."