The suspected case of infection by the West Nile virus of a patient in Faro has been confirmed by the General Directorate for Health.

The victim is a Portuguese citizen who will have contracted the virus from a mosquito bite.

Air traffic controllers in Spain have called two 12-hour strikes for 26 September and 3 October.

The action, should it go ahead, is likely to hit any flights from Portugal which have to fly over Spain.

Pope Francis said that he intends to visit Portugal in 2017 on the centenary of the apparitions at Fátima.

In an interview on Rádio Renascença today he stated that the country is "privileged to have the Shrine of Fatima."

The failure by the bank of Portugal to sell Novo Banco to either of the two Chinese suitors has left the business in limbo, and the need for more capital investment imminent.

China's Anbang could not agree a price so the Portuguese negotiating team switched to talks with Fosun which last weekend were declared unsuccessful.

Industrial output for the eurozone rose robustly in July by 0.6%, although growth in Portugal was just 0.1%.

Portuguese industry did rise for three months in a row (March to May), fell in June but rallied in July. Annually output in July was 1.2% higher than in July last year.

The US Lone Star Fund last week announced its need to attract €1 billion in investment from foreign companies willing to develop the 18 new new sites in the Vilamoura area, and former international footballer Luís Figo has offer to lend them a hand.  

"We have a vision for the 'new Vilamoura', a plan and an ambition that we want to be at the forefront of tourism in Portugal," said Paul Taylor, the executive chairman of Lone Star’s ‘World Vilamoura.’

Portugal's Socialist leader António Costa has decided that far too many young people have left Portugal and that the government programme to lure them back with grants, is a trick.

Costa was addressing a rally in Ponte da Barca last night and covered the topic of the estimated 350,000 people who have left Portugal during the crisis to find work abroad.

Barcelona, a city of 1.6 million, saw more than 58,000 tourists arrive on cruise ships over the last weekend.

The arrival numbers created a new record for the most cruise passengers to visit. Barcelona was already known as the Mediterranean cruise capital and there is no indication the trend is abating.