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.

The government is to extend the discounted diesel scheme for commercial carriers across the whole country in 2017.

From the second half of this year, qualifying Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) can be filled up with cheaper diesel in four border areas to encourage drivers to use Portuguese filling stations rather than Spanish ones where fuel is significantly cheaper.

The chemical glyphosate was given a green light on Monday when a United Nations report found that it was “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet”.

Glyphosate is the key ingredient in the Roundup brand weed killer produced by Monsanto.