Portugal’s Ministry of Health, in a last ditch effort to fill the increasing vacancy list for family Doctors to work in Portugal, took advertising space in publications covering Andalusia, Extremadura and Castile & Leon in Spain, extolling the benefits for Spanish Doctors moving over the border to work in Portugal's national haelth system.

Spanish doctors understandably have rejected the opportunity to halve their salaries, leaving Minister Paulo Macedo’s astoundingly foolish and wasteful idea as a tribute to his strategic skills. 

April 16th sees the start of a new regime for Portugal’s filling stations as the January law, specifying that cheap fuel must be supplied, comes into play.

Low cost diesel and petrol must be offered at all but the smallest filling stations, the low cost being attained by supplying fuel without additives.

As the build up to the swimming season starts with beaches being prepared and concession soon to open, a reminder that 'we are not alone' when bathing was evident in the waters near Tavira.

A shark at least two metres long was spotted by fishermen on the jetty close to the beaches at the entrance of the river Gilão.

The highest Chinese bid for the acquisition of Novo Banco is 'just over €4 billion' but this still is way short of the €4.9 billion desperately needed by the Treasury to save it the embarrassment of losing taxpayers’ money on the deal, which it and the Prime Minister have stated is not an option.

Spain’s Santander went in low at €2.5 billion and Portugal’s Banco Português de Investimento offered just over €2 billion which was rejected earlier this week.

TAP made a trading loss of €85.1 million last year, an increase of €79.2 million on the year before, but the airline president’s salary followed suit and dropped from €420,000 to a mere €376,000.

Fernando Pinto arrived in Portugal in 2000 from his native Brazil with the mission to prepare the state owned airline for privatisation.

The historic Camino de Santiago route was travelled often on foot by 238,000 people last year from all parts of Europe and beyond.

They were making their way to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela in the north-west region of Galicia.

EasyJet operated some five special flights on Friday to fetch hundreds of passengers, especially children, who were left stranded as a result of the French air traffic controllers’ strike.

The 48-hour industrial action which ended on Thursday caused chaos for passengers in Europe.

Deutsche Bank is bracing itself against a massive fine in excess of $1.5bn (£1bn) for its part in rigging the Libor rate.

If this proves to be the amount agreed, it will be a record fine and more than the $1.5bn UBS had to pay to the UK, US and Swiss authorities for the same illegal chicanery.