Only 20 years ago in Portugal, only one in five babies were born outside of marriage: these days it is one in two. The sociologist Pedro Moura Ferreira says you can blame it on the "secularisation of society."

"Sexual relations continue, but outside of marriage," said the researcher from the Institute of Social Sciences, who blames a reduction in the stigma attached to unmarried mothers for boosting the rate.

José Manuel Barroso has told politicians to stop “waiting for an accident” to happen with Greece and to work to avoid the country leaving the eurozone.

Formerly the head of the European Commission, Mr Barroso accused politicians of having taken “too long” to find a solution. Greece must find €304 million to repay the International Monetary Fund by 5 June.

Portuguese emigrants living in France are regretting deeply their allegiance to the Banco Espírito Santo brand. Yesterday 250 of them demonstrated in Paris outside a Novo Banco branch which shut for the day as a precaution.

Posters were waved complaining of theft and corruption by BES staff which they say duped them into switching their deposited savings in to ill-fated bonds in Grupo Espírito Santo companies.

With demand rising for France’s prized black truffle, theft has increased, with one incident of an armed hold-up of a truffle farmer and more recently a murder.

Last week, French farmer Laurent Rambaud, 37, was sentenced by jury to eight years in jail for shooting dead a man he believed was stealing his cache of truffles.

Sepp Blatter is to serve a further term as the head of Fifa, the football world’s governing body.

This will be Blatter's fifth term, despite calls for his resignation after the corruption scandal exploded on Wednesday, and will see him in post until the age of 83.

The Algarve councils that cover the lower Guadiana area have decided that a bit of cooperation might save them time and money.

The Alcoutim mayor, Osvaldo Gonçalves, said that the three municipalities, which have already a joint group called Odiana, are likely to benefit from shared project management.

Lagoa council appears finally to have woken up to the situation on the Algarve’s roads, referring to "the calamitous road management in the region" in a motion tabled by the Left Bloc that now will be sent to Lisbon.

Lagoa council wants to let the national political parties, including the Government and the President of the Republic, know that the road situation has been getting worse in the Algarve.

Several BES customers who were duped into investing in allegedly ‘safe’ commercial bonds from Espírito Santo Group companies visited Novo Banco in Lisbon today to identify those staff members who had sold them the deals.

The new move is the precursor to accusing staff member and managers of aggravated fraud.