Many of Portugal’s banks already have received taxpayers’ cash to recapitalise, or they have been flooded with cash prior to being sold off at a loss by the State, but when the tables are turned, bankers have been behaving true to form.

Last year 132,000 families in Portugal were unable to pay their full monthly mortgage so, encouraged by the government’s assurance that the banks are being more customer-focused over arrears problems, many asked for some financial and contractual leeway in order to keep the roof over their family’s heads.

Lagos council is hosting a clean environment, 'no oil please' conference with the launch of Sea Week, kicking off with a session on coastal zone management this coming Friday.

The council has announced a key seminar on the management of coastal zones, seas and oceans and the importance of the maritime economy to the Algarve with the council's mayor standing shoulder to shoulder with his colleagues at mayors group AMAL against regional oil and gas exploration.

The clearly unfair practice use by the State of freezing the bank account balances of those owning money to Social Security is to be changed.

Currently, the State freezes an account, however much it contains, leaving many people unable to use what should be their free balances after the Social Security debt is cleared.

António Duarte, the man who last year held hostage three people in the Children and Young Persons Protection Commission in Lagos and shot at a policeman, has been sentenced in Portimão to a sixteen years and six months in prison.

According to the state prosecutor’s statement, Duarte was "convicted of attempted first degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and the possession of a prohibited weapon. He also has been convicted for crimes of domestic violence and rape committed over several years against his partner."

The Public Finance Board (CFP) has spared no criticism of the government’s economic forecasts and has warned of the risk of "significant deviation" in the Socialist Party’s deficit reduction plans.

In its Programme of Stability 2016-2020 analysis published on Tuesday, the Board notes that "the lack of details for a specific part of the measures for budget reduction gives rise to risks for the projections presented,” i.e. the plan lacks detail and the hoped projected results are just guesses.

It could be called the (second) 'longest suicide note in history'* as Carlos Costa, the Governor of the Bank of Portugal, addressed an audience of bankers and regulators at ‘The Present and the Future of Banking’ conference in Lisbon hosted by the Portuguese Banking Association and TVi24.

Costa blamed the banking sector’s woes on their own poor behaviour but failed to appreciate that by doing so he was displaying the Bank of Portugal’s role as financial regulator in the poorest of lights.

Italy is considering doubling the ‘baby bonus’ it provides to low and medium income families to encourage more births and halt the “catastrophic” decline in the birth rate.

Two years ago Prime Minister Matteo Renzi introduced a payment of €80 a month to help with the costs of raising children.

French police said they arrested five gang members on a rented yacht which was being used to transport seven Ukrainian migrants hoping to enter the UK. The Ukrainians had entered France on tourist visas.

Two skippers and three suspected smugglers were detained on Friday in Brittany.