On the 21st and 22nd of April, 2016 the western Algarve population was alerted to a worrying development at the Perdigão area of Aljezur, at the site where alleged “water drilling” activity has been taking place for months.

Dozens of photos published today by anti-oil and gas campaining organisation ASMAA show the impact of a chemical foam used in the drilling process - but water was found at this site three months ago, so why does drilling continue? The suspicion is that the instigator is using a water drilling license to cover up a search for oil and gas.

The European Commission has plans to penalise both Spain and Portugal for missing their respective budget deficit reduction targets. As it is hardly helpful to start issuing fines, the idea is to give each government more time to get to grips with their budgets.

The all-powerful Commissioners plan to impose sanctions and immediately suspend them, just to make a point.

The number of North Africans reaching Germany has plummeted since January, according to government figures.

New arrivals from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria were but 480 in March, compared to 3,356 in January.

The heroically named Captains of the Carnation Revolution this year returned to Portugal's parliament building for the April 25th remembrance event.

For four years in a row the surviving military personnel who were instrumental in the peaceful uprising against Salazarism have boycotted the April 25th events in protest against the policies of the previous Passos Coelho coalition government and its rigid adherence to a raft of austerity policies.

Property sales soared ahead in Britain as investors rushed to beat the rise in stamp duty.

Transactions surged in March before the extra 3% stamp duty on additional property was imposed on 1 April.

A couple who arrived at Faro airport from East Midland airport in the United Kingdom were promptly arrested after a tip-off from UK police proved accurate.

The couple, a 32-year old man and 29-year-old woman were travelling in a family group which included a pensioner and an infant, to avert suspicion but Portuguese SEF officers found the Brits were transporting cocaine in ten adapted shampoo bottles.

Spanish spies have taken to the skies in an effort to identify tax charlatans in the Balearic Islands.

The Spanish treasury announced that it has deployed light aircraft to fly over the islands to take aerial photographs of property.

One of the UK’s iconic retailers finally has called in the receivers with 11,000 workers at BHS now facing a bleak future.

The chain, formerly part of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, was sold to Retail Acquisitions for £1 last year in a move that has enabled Green to avoid a BHS pension deficit of €571 million.