Of the 90,000 businesssed who joined the Special Program for Reducing State Debt (PERES), 10,000 had debts considered to be uncollectible, as they had no assets or income that enabled the tax authority to recover debts.

This number was reported to parliament on Tuesday by the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs at a hearing on the impact to the State of tax forgiveness programmes and the extraordinary revaluation of assets by companies.

The carcass of a female minke whale has been washed up at Gigi beach in Loulé, Algarve. The marks on her body indicated she died after being tangled up in fishing nets.

Alerted by members of the public at 08:00 last Friday, Quinta do Lago security guards alerted the Ria Formosa Natural Park, which sent a biologist from the Portuguese Wildlife Society (SPVS) who contacted the Maritime Police.

An Irishman in his 30s has been hospitalised after he repeatedly was stabbed in Praia da Rocha early on Sunday morning.

The victim was set upon by two men in the main bar area and was left in a pool of blood.

Not a good idea when on holiday but it did not stop a 28-year-old British man beating up a GNR officer who had been called to an Albufeira hotel early on Monday morning after reports of a disturbance.

A British couple was arguing with such volume and aggression that the GNR was called out and, while the woman hid in the bathroom, a drunken British tourist laid into the gallant GNR patrol officer who had come to the woman's rescue.

The Minister of Culture is to have the final word on classifying the ancient Roman site of Balsa as an area of public interest, thus protecting it from further damage by invasive agricultural practices.

The process has started with an entry in Diário da República on May 9, suggesting that a 233 hectare area near Luz da Tavira in the eastern Algarve should be protected, rather than the current 53 hectares.

The British woman attacked with acid in the street in Alvor has been named as Eleanor Chessell, a travel rep working for TUI and based at the Hotel Alvor Baia.

Chessell, in her late 20s, suffered second and third degree burns over 60% of her body after two litres of acid were thrown over her in an unprovoked attack which took place on a public road between Intermarché and the Hospital Particular in the holiday resort of Alvor, Portimão.

"The worst is over for the Portuguese," according to the President of the European Parliament in an interview on Portugal’s TSF Radio News

Antonio Tajani praised the efforts that the Portuguese have made in recent years, as if the EU-imposed austerity programme had the support of Portugal’s exasperated taxpayers.

An accident at a Silves railway crossing has injured a couple in their early 80s after their pickup truck was hit by a train.

The regular service was approaching Poço Barreto station en route from Faro when it hit the vehicle at 13:33 today.