Sunday night violence - crowd cleared from 'the strip' in Albufeira

albufeiraCrowdSunday night out in Albufeira easily could have turned into a riot as 50 anti-riot police dealt with 600 - 1,000  revellers who had spilled out into the street after a bar room fight was tacked by officers with batons.

A low number of PSP police were injured as they intervened in the general disorder along the infamous ‘strip’ and used batons to clear people from the area.

Estremoz victims had their feet and hands lopped off before they died

axeBloodyThe young victims of unspeakable cruelty were uncovered by anthropologists at the universities of Coimbra and Évora who discovered three medieval skeletons, with their hands and feet buried nearby.

The victims of this violent punishment were aged between 18 and 35 and were found by the anthropologist, Teresa Fernandes, of the University of Évora during "excavations carried out in 2001 in the medieval necropolis of Rossio do Marquês de Pombal, in Estremoz which dates from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries."

Police stood by as 'Bull burning' took place at Portuguese festival

bullsFireA group of people who set fire to the horns of a bull last Saturday morning are now subject to a criminal investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office.

The Festa da Amizade in Benavente was anything but friendly for the unfortunate animal which was tied to a pole while a group of men set light to inflammable material on its horns.

Olhão's crumbling 70-year-old water tower is 'quite safe'

PinaJeSuisTShirtOlhão locals recently have put up with 'the Berlin Wall', 'Pina's Erection,' the scheduled removal of the waterfront parks and a constant flow of raw sewage into the fishing harbour but all focus now is on a city water tower which gives the appearance of being on the point of rupture and collapse.

Olhão council has stated that there is no risk associated with the cracked and discoloured tower that locals reckon is dangerous after years of zero investment.

$11 billion in missing Venezuelan oil money handled by Banco Espírito Santo

oilrig2Portugal’s  authorities are investigating the alleged theft of funds that belonged to Venezuela’s state-owned  oil company PDVSA.

The missing money was channelled through Banco Espírito Santo between 2009 and 2014 - the year in which the bank went bust.

TAP president calls for drone ban unless owners follow the law

5225The president of TAP, Fernando Pinto, will ask for all drones to be grounded if people don’t stop operating them in the flight path of incoming aircraft.

Pinto’s comments come after several drone near misses reported by commercial aircraft pilots, the latest being a TAP Express plane with 74 passengers on board narrowly missing a drone as it approached Lisbon airport on Sunday evening.

Isabel dos Santos buys António Domingues

ISABELDOSSANTOSBriefly president of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, António Domingues, has been thrown a financial bone by  Mário Leite Silva, president of Santoro, the personal holding company of Isabel dos Santos.

Domingues is to become a non-executive director of Banco de Fomento de Angola, an announcement that takes advantage of the current lull in the controversy over his botched 2016 attempt to alter the terms and conditions of his employment as president of Caixa Geral.

Italy forced to bail out two more banks for €5.2 billion

italy3The move to bail out two Italian banks for €5.2 billion last Friday (June 23rd) comes two days after the European Central Bank stated that Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca were “failing or likely to fail. “

Italy’s Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, said the bailout was needed to protect savers and ensure "the good health of our banking system" with the good assets be taken over by the Intesa Sanpaolo banking group whose branches and employees will be under new management on Monday morning but up to 4,000 job losses are predicted.