Algarve Left Bloc MPs, Jorge Costa and João Vasconcelos, have put the Ministry of the Economy on the spot by asking why a west Algarve solar energy plant is to receive taxpayer-funded subsidies.

The government has been crowing about licensing a new wave of ‘subsidy free’ renewable energy projects, including the recently authorised €220 million solar farm in Alcoutim, so it is a little more than curious that the company, Hyperion, has stated that it will receive taxpayer subsidies for its new 44Kw project in Bensafrim, Lagos.

Spain’s foreign minister has said that Spain is opposed to Scotland leaving the United Kingdom.

Alfonso Dastis said that membership to the EU for an independent Scotland would not be automatic and it would have to be at the end of the queue if it wanted to join.

Social Democratic party councillors in São Brás de Alportel have accused the Socialist mayor, Vítor Guerreiro, of acting illegally from the start of his tenure and that he has left the council wide open to claims due to procedural irregularities.
 
The Social Democrats explain that since the inauguration of mayor Vítor Manuel Martins Guerreiro and other members of the executive branch elected by the Socialist Party, no decisions formally have been passed at a full meeting of the chamber.

Two former managers of the Estoril Racing Circuit are in court tomorrow, Wednesday 14th March, charged with embezzlement and abuse of power.

Domingos Piedade, the former chairman of the board of directors of Circuito Estoril, the State company that has operated the Estoril Circuit since 2002, and Isabel Brazão, a former administrator, are to be tried in Cascais.

A well-known lawyer from Lagos had his car torched, alongside two other vehicles, outside an apartment block in Cerro das Mós in Lagos.

The three vehicles were completely destroyed by the fire which started last Friday night.

A 400,000-year-old fossilised human skull was found in the Aroeira cave in Torres Novas, Santarém, by an international team of archaeologists, led by João Zilhão.

The archaeologists spotted the skull in 2014 as they surveyed the extensive cave system. After years of careful work and analysis, the team has presented its findings in this week's issue of the US National Academy of Sciences’s newsletter.

Many of Portugal’s vehicle testing centres have been obliged to install expensive new equipment to enable their technicians to test motorbikes of 250cc or more.

Approximately 150 inspection centers paid an average of €200,000 each for the equipment upgrade and have been ready since last October when the legislation led them to believe that, come Jan 1st , 2017, it would be a legal requirement for these motorbikes to be tested.

In an image upgrade directed at tourist traffic, Loulé council has awarded a road project to link the EN396 to Vale do Lobo and Quinta do Lago in Almancil.

The 2.2 kilometre section between the EM 527-2 (Almancil – Quarteira) and the VNC 522 (Vale do Lobo - Quinta do Lago) will naturally include a new roundabout with the budget of €2.2 million.