The UK government quietly has shelved a long awaited and promised change in legislation to give an estimated one million overseas Britons the vote, shifting the blame onto civil servants who claim that changing and implementing the necessary legislation would be too difficult.
 
The Conservative government under former Prime Minister David Cameron promised to lift the current 15 year time limit after which overseas Britons no longer are allowed to vote in UK elections and referenda, but the mandarins in Whitehall are blocking the move.

Switzerland has been awarded top spot in a global innovation league table.

It is the sixth year in a row that it has been recognised as the world’s leading country for innovation.

Two hikers, believed to be pilgrims, from the UK have been found alive after becoming disoriented in the Pyrenees.

The married couple survived five days in the wooded foothills of the Pyrenees. With no food, their only drinking water was from troughs for livestock.

Portugal’s excessive government and corporate debt levels, low economic growth and a banking sector whose remaining businesses are showing the strain are all tell-tale signs that all is not well and has ensured debt rating agency DBRS again has Portugal in its spotlight.

The head of sovereign ratings at the credit agency, Fergus McCormick, told Reuters in an interview that pressure is building on the country's creditworthiness, kicking Portugal’s long-term bond yields sharply upwards.

The first concert in the Loulé Summer series was held last night at the Duarte Pacheco monument venue where the internationally acclaimed fado singer Mariza electrified the audience.

Against a backdrop of a lightning storm sweeping across Faro in the near distance, Mariza’s vocal range was put to the test by a series of Fado songs, traditional and modern, including a duet with Nuno Guerreiro who happened to be in the front row of the audience and was invited on stage.

The Court of Auditors says it does not yet have all the data for collapsed Banco Português de Negócios, so it can not give a precise end of the year figure for 2015, but the failure will have cost the taxpayer at least €3.2 billion.

The nationalisation and reprivatisation of Banco Português de Negócios (BPN), whch folded in 2008 under a mountain of debt, will have cost at least €3.2 billion by the end of 2015 according to the monitoring report from the budget execution department.

A deliciously wicked spoof website has been launched to highlight the cruel duplicity that property owners in ‘water wars’ areas, such as Vale do Garrão, have been subject to.

Infralobo.com includes a look at the water company's background, calling it a ‘family business’ in a reference to its president being the Loulé mayor’s brother-in-law, a look at the legal problems associated with the notorious bedroom tax and the fact the presiding judge in the first court action is a close neighbour of mayor Vitor Aleixo.

The number of foreigners taking a holiday in Sweden has gone up significantly in the first half of this year.

One notable increase was in UK residents making their way to southern Sweden, a leap of 29% in just one year.