July 2016 has gone into the record books as the hottest month in the world’s recorded history.

It has taken its place alongside a host of months which have also set records, according to data from Nasa.

Portugal’s government has spent €14 billion of public money on ensuring the banking sector is 'robust' - but much of this money will never be seen again.

The €14 billion is an estimate of the bill from the start of the financial crisis in 2008 but this is about to increase when in September the Bank of Portugal announces the winning bid for Novo Banco. The sum offered for the bank inevitably will be nowhere near the €4.9 billion required for the State at least to break even.

House prices in England and Wales have suffered a downturn so far in August.

The average price of a home went down by £3,600, making the average asking price £304,222, according to the property website Rightmove.

Attacks on aid workers fell in number in 2015 for a second consecutive year.

Afghanistan remained the most dangerous place for humanitarian workers, followed by South Sudan, according to data from the latest report by the Humanitarian Outcomes group as reported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Gripped by Olympic fever, Lagos council has pledged €500,000 to local sports clubs in the 2106/2017 season.

At the council meeting on August 3rd, the executive decided that the money will be spent on direct aid to its sports clubs to provide sports facilities for training and competitions, transport and logistical support.

The carcass of a beached whale has been carefully dragged from Armona to Olhão docks for disposal.

The dead whale was spotted on a beach on Armona, one of the Ria Formosa barrier islands, on August 11th and needed to be taken away as soon as possible for public hygiene reasons.

A man wanted for questioning over 16 fires started in the countryside between Benagil and Marinha is still at large.

The main fire destroyed everything combustible in a valley which leads to Benagil beach (pictured).

Someone at the Algarve’s Regional Development Commission sat on the case of ‘the fake ruin of Estoi’ for four years - only now has the commission passed the file to the public prosecutor.

A neighbouring landowner watched with increasing incredulity as a ruin was constructed on ecological land which later was fiddled through the paperwork system to show that it has been there before 1951 and hence was suddenly worth around €200,000, far in excess of its value as scrubland.