In the year that marks the 110th anniversary of the arrival of the first train at Vila Real de Santo António, the council has launched a programme of events to celebrate the city linking up with the rest of Portugal.

An exhibition, ‘A look at the railways in the Algarve’ is being held in the Arquivo Histórico Municipal António Rosa Mendes, until May 31st described as a journey through the past and present of the railway.

The former leader of the CDS-PP Paulo Portas is to return to the limelight as a commentator on international politics, joining a long line of former politicians who just can’t seem to live without frequent shots of publicity.

According to Diário de Notícias on Friday, Paulo Portas is in negotiations with TV channels to ensure his words of wisdom will reach a wide audience.

Iain Duncan Smith has resigned from the British Government in protest at Chancellor George Osborne's proposed cuts to benefits for the disabled. His resignation comes at a Tory low point following a chaotic 48 hours since Osborne's budget on Wednesday.

Labour are revelling in the news, one source commenting, "The Tory party has gone from chaos to meltdown."

French companies are not averse to spending large amounts of money on securing Portuguese assets.

In recent years Altice paid €7.4 billion for Portugal Telecom, Vinci Group paid €3 billion for State-owned airports operator ANA and Cofidis paid €400 million for Banif Mais.

The number of Spaniards registered as living abroad rose to 2.3 million this year.

At the start of the financial crisis in 2008, the number was around 1.4 million, according to figures released by the country’s statistics institute.

Western pharmaceutical companies tested drugs on people in East Germany before releasing their products in the west, according to research by the Institute of Medical History and Ethics in Berlin.

The investigation revealed that at least 900 such medical experiments took place in the German Democratic Republic between 1961 and 1989.

The head of the Algarve Naturist Club, Alvaro Campos, has revealed that a section of Meia Praia is officially to be classified as the Algarve’s fourth nudist beach.

In practice, a 400 metre section of Meia Praia at the Alvor end has quietly been used by nudists for over 30 years with no trouble from the authorities.

The proud city of Florence has passed new regulations to force shops in the historic city centre to sell at least 70% of local, traditional produce.

The move is an effort to reduce the number of fast-food outlets cropping up which detract from the city’s traditional fare, such as kebab shops and mini-markets selling low quality foreign products in an effort to catch the tourist euro.