As the Ria Formosa islanders await the arrival of bulldozers to remove properties formally sized by the State in March, the entity responsible for the long-running battle has released some good investment news that will improve facilities and the island environment.

Of the 31 properties on Culatra island due to be flattened, four have been saved by court injunctions, no lived in homes will be destroyed and a new Ria Formosa plan is being worked on that should ensure the islanders have their rights protected in the future.

No witnesses have come forward to help Maritime Police unravel the reasons for the assault and stabbing of a 42-year-old man from Côte d'Ivoire on a wooden walkway at Praia da Rocha beach in Portimão.

The victim was stabbed several times by a group of people and was left with serious injuries.

The Swiss justice system has proved deaf to the reasons offered by Álvaro Sobrinho as to the source of his fortune.

Sobrinho, the former head of Banco Espírito Santo in Angola, has been under investigation by the Portuguese Public Prosecution Service since 2011 but so far has remained ahead in the various court procedures seeking to prove him a crook of the highest order.

One of Portugal’s leading renewable energy companies is expanding fast and aims to launch innovative wave power generators from the port of Aveiro as it expands in this emerging 'alternative energy' market.

Investment by ASM Energia in its Sever do Vouga plant will allow the company to increase production of wind turbine towers by 40% but already the manufacturer needs more space to cope with international demand for efficient wind based energy systems.

Portugal is the country with the highest per capita consumption of wine, with an average of 54 litres consumer per person per year.

In the remaining top places are France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Argentina, Germany - and Australia with a rather poor 27 litres per head, according to the annual report of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine.

GNR personnel spent a busy Easter patrolling the nation’s highways and keeping sober drivers safe from the idiocy of others who still think it sensible to drive while talking on a mobile phone or when drunk, or both.

Between April 13th and 16th, GNR road patrols and wayside inspections on the country’s busiest highways has shown the motoring public to be as best, forgetful and at worst, deliberately risking their own lives and the lives of others.

Having taking off from Cascais aerodrome, a Swiss registered twin-engine aeroplane exploded and crashed into the carpark of a branch of Lid shortly after 11:00 on Easter Monday.

The four people onboard, three French and one Swiss, were killed as was the driver of an Algarve-based lorry which was hit in the supermarket loading area.

This slide below shows the ranking of the Algarve’s main tourism markets last year. The UK is still far in the lead with solid growth of 8.6% and Germany still in second place. The biggest growth of all the main markets is from France.

It may seem like an overstatement but the numbers don’t lie. Tourism is at an all-time high in the Algarve. Hotel bookings and revenue continue to break records year after year, there are more flights at Faro Airport than ever before and the sector is in an “excellent position” to keep growing in 2017. With another extremely busy Easter around the corner, the Resident met with the Algarve’s tourism boss Desidério Silva to discuss his plans to keep this trend going.