While stories about his high-profile client’s alleged involvement in a web of ‘old-boy net’ corruption continue to splash across the tabloid press, outspoken lawyer João Araújo is back in the public eye for alleged debts of over €94,000 to the nation’s pension fund for lawyers.

According to reports, the money has been calculated on the basis that Araújo has missed two decades of mandatory payments to the Caixa de Previdência dos Advogados e Solicitadores.

An investigation is underway in Loulé after a 54-year-old Ukrainian man was found dead in a makeshift carpark .

The man, who was apparently homeless and living in a car, was found early this morning with various injuries, particularly to his face.

He was allegedly discovered by two friends who maintain he was alive at the time, and told them he had been in a fight.

Of all the excuses judges may have heard, this one takes some beating. An Anadia couple have told Aveiro court that they planted more than a thousand cannabis plants in a greenhouse, “initially thinking they were saffron”.

What a surprise it was when during a storm the greenhouse blew over, and the ‘grower’ who had asked them plant the plants “became very agitated”.

It was only at this point, the couple explained, that they realised what they were dealing with.

Adding to the furore over government plans to “sell” Novo Banco to US “vulture fund” Lone Star, ratings agency Moody’s has slashed the bank’s already abysmal ratings to the eighth level of “rubbish”.

Negocios online explains Moody’s was prompted by the ‘€500 million voluntary bond swap’ aspect of the deal, which it says will provoke losses for senior bond investors concerned.

Spring is not simply in the air, it’s in people’s steps. National statistics institute INE has just reported that “consumer confidence” is at a 17-year high following the Bank of Portugal’s upward review of the national economic recovery. Growth is increasing (finance minister Mário Centeno has told Bloomberg it could reach 2% this year), unemployment is markedly down (forecasts are for levels to drop below 10%) – and investors are stacking up on the horizon.

Confidence began to bubble last September, reports TVI24 – stressing this is the first upward sign since the height of the austerity years in 2013, and the “highest upward trajectory since March 2000”.

In a ruling that could have direct implications on any trial resulting from the Operation Marquês corruption probe, Porto judges have effectively said that crimes committed by politicians are “especially censurable” and should see them sent to jail.

The actual words were more diplomatic: “Penalties should not be suspended”.

As we went to press on Wednesday, the clamour over the “ruinous” sale of Novo Banco to American equity firm Lone Star Funds had finally honed in on the nitty gritty: the sale may never get off the ground.

The problems stacking up on the horizon include the need to ‘get authorisation’ from the European Central Bank, from Europe’s competitions authority and from investors who, yet again stand to lose a fortune.

If any of these provisos fall, the deal will be scuppered.

Rescue workers are conceding there is “no hope” for the two people still missing from the horrific explosions at a Lamego fireworks factory yesterday that have resulted in six confirmed deaths - the majority of them from the same family.

The horror has shattered the rural community of Avões which literally felt the earth rumble at 5.30 pm when the first explosion let rip.

Witnesses described “a boom that felt like an earthquake”.