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.

easyJet plc announces that Carolyn McCall has advised the Board of her intention to leave easyJet in order to become CEO of ITV plc.  She is expected to leave easyJet around the end of the year.  In the meantime, Carolyn will continue with her existing responsibilities.

The search for her successor has already commenced and the Company expects to select from a strong range of candidates.

Portugal has been involved in a pan-Europe horse meat scandal which Europol has just smashed.

Spain’s Guardia Civil, working with Europol, has dismantled an organised crime ring that was trading horse meat across Europe - meat that was unfit for human consumption and contained drugs.

A Portuguese former footballer, living in Sweden, has conned Portuguese councils and social security institutions out of €240,000 while posing as the president of a Swedish foundation.

The ruse was convincing enough to persuade 35 such institutions to advance Carlos Quaresma shipping expenses before "installing medical equipment free of charge."

Café Calcinha, near the market in Loulé, reopened on Friday, June 14th having undergone extensive renovation work.

Calcinha opened in 1929 and soon became a Loulé favourite, made famous by the poet António Aleixo where he composed and recited much of his work.

The fire that broke out on June 17th in Pedrógão Grande killed 64 people and wounded more than 200. A month later, the cause of the fire remains unknown, despite reports and analyses.

The Pedrógão Grande fire took a week to extinguish, spread to neighbouring counties including Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos and Góis, and burned a total of 53,000 hectares.

Several people have been injured in a car accident on the newly completed EN125 near Ferreiras, Albufeira.

The accident happened on Sunday morning at 10.40, July 16th and caused the closure of the road in both directions.