Getting a huge “thumbs down” in the nation’s tabloid press for his comments this week, Portugal’s minister for foreign affairs, Rui Machete, has admitted Portugal has “no concrete data” on the number of Portuguese who have gone to fight for Islamic State in conflict zones.
His comments came as Spain has revealed 126 nationals are believed to have left the country to fight for IS.
A nine-metre minke whale was photographed around 400 metres off the coast of Albufeira, near Oura beach. The massive mammal was caught on camera by a crew member of the Ski Molhado boat trip company on Friday (July 24).
Among thousands of Portuguese emigrants returning home this August for their annual summer holidays are scores who plan to take part in the next big protest scheduled to demonstrate against the country’s continued refusal to honour over €720 million in savings by as many as 7,000 families that have effectively been lost in the good bank/ bad bank BES carve-up.
As planes have already started arriving, Rádio Renascenca reveals that “some employees at Novo Banco” - the good bank that is refusing to honour money lost - are getting worried.
Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho has gone on record saying he plans to lower the price of tolls on the Algarve’s A22 highway if his party wins the upcoming elections. The statement came during an interview with regional online newspaper Sulinformação.
The PM did not say, however, how much cheaper the tolls would be, suggesting only that the price-drop will be “significant”.
Police in UK and Australia are now at odds over the possible identity of the skeletal remains of a murdered child dumped by the roadside in the Southern Australian bush.
While Australian police have dismissed suggestions that the bones could be those of Madeleine McCann, a source from Scotland Yard has told the UK’s Daily Mirror “we cannot rule it out”.
Irish customs seize €40,000 worth of cocaine from Faro passenger’s suitcase
Half a kilo of cocaine - said to be worth at least €40,000 - was found in the lining of a suitcase belonging to a 28-year-old passenger flying in to Cork, Ireland, from Portugal’s Faro airport.
The European Commission said on Friday that it has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether state aid granted by Portugal to Banco Internacional do Funchal S.A (Banif) was compatible with EU state aid rules.
In particular, reports online newspaper The Malta Independent, the European Commission said the final restructuring plan for Banif “should ensure that the bank becomes viable long-term whilst limiting distortions of competition brought about by the state support”.
Authorities in the UK have ruled out foul play in the tragic death of Portuguese student Diogo Moreira.
The young man whose disappearance from his Brighton home sparked a major police search earlier this month was “not the victim of a crime”, reports the Portuguese media.
