Maria Luís Albuquerque asked Parvalorem, the public company that manages the toxic assets of the bust Banco Português de Negócios (BNP), to conceal a loss of €150 million so as not to increase the 2012 deficit.

Parvalorem was told to hide part of the massive losses on non-performing loans at the request of Maria Luís Albuquerque, when she was Secretary of State at the Treasury.

A concerned note pervades a report from Reuters today which looks at Portugal’s ‘brain drain’ that has resulted from the exodus of hundreds of thousands of its most able and mobile workers.

With just days to go before the country goes to the polls, emigration has become a campaign issue in the neck-and-neck race for power over a dwindling number of taxpayers.

The first prize in the latest Euromillions lottery draw was €15 million and the lucky winner bought the golden ticket in a humble street kiosk in Olhão .

There were five second prizes of €198,000 all of which were bought outside the country but of the third prizes of €36,000, two were from Portuguese terminals.

Switzerland has retained the title of the “most competitive” country in the world.

It is the seventh consecutive year topped the Work Economic Forum’s global competitiveness chart.

Portugal’s water regulator says that the country's tap water is "close to perfection" but 12,000 households still have no access to a mains supply and over half of the water sources have significant levels of pollution.

Tap water quality remains high, with levels "close to perfection" in 98.4% of tests according to an official at the regulatory authority, ERSAR.

It’s shaping up to be the closest contest in Portugal’s post-revolution democracy, but such is the level of apathy, angst and anger over politics that a record number of eligible voters may not bother to cast their ballot on Sunday.

Those who do vote may end up concocting a parliamentary configuration that will make governing this country much more complicated than it has been for years.

... but only for Novo Banco senior management, following the example set by Chief Executive Stock da Cunha who from now will struggle along on €320,000 a year.

Due to the indefinite postponement of the sale of the bank, the senior managers and board are ‘making some adjustments’ to their pay starting with a reduction in their salaries.

People in Britain are finding the pace of their lives so hectic that they are abandoning family meals.

The tradition of three meals a day is faltering under the pressures of modern life, according to a study by BBC Good Food.