Retail sales in the eurozone overall rose at their greatest rate in nearly eight years in December.

Sales of goods went up on average by 0.3% in the 19-nation bloc, according to Eurostat data. The rise in December was the third month in a row.

Two out of three Algarve residents use a car or other private transport for necessary trips, although most of these journeys are local ones.

According to the Challenges and Opportunities for the Disabled in the Algarve report, 68% of the Algarve population make mandatory trips (between home and work, or between home and school) in their own vehicles, 22% walk and only 10% use public transport, mostly bus (60%) or school transport (30%).

The Algarve has become a one industry region reliant on tourism and allied services and despite the insistence of local councils on setting up business parks, most of these areas lie empty or only partially occupied.

Dreams of hi-tec companies invigorating the local scene, employing well educated graduates and exporting gadgetry far and wide have not come true.

The price of food in the UK fell sharply in January. The rate of decline was the deepest in at least eight years.

Meat, milk, vegetables and eggs were less expensive in January this year than they had been at the same time in 2014, according to the British Retail Consortium.

Ryanair has lost a libel case it brought when the Supreme Court in Spain deemed that a consumer association was within its rights to call the airline “the lowest of the low” which “swindled and mocked its passengers”.

A panel of judges ruled that the group had made reasonable use of its right to freedom of expressing in defending consumers. The panel went further by saying that such “offensive comments” were justified because Ryanair’s “commercial practices have generated a notorious degree of dissent” among consumers.

Hunger, according to the president of Portugal’s Misericordia charities, is only for those who choose to be hungry.

The head of Misericordia disagrees with the idea that hunger has increased in Portugal, who said today that the only people that are hungry are those than chose to be hungry.

A law passed in 2013 that required owners of dangerous breeds of dog to get the animal coached by a certified trainer, is unworkable and unenforcable.
 
The law states that owners of these animals must have the dog trained in socialisation and obedience, and the animals must not under any circumstances be trained to fight or to attack people, other animals or property.

Gabriela Knaul, UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers has ended her visit to Portugal, where she found the justice system "slow, expensive and difficult to comprehend."

In June, Knaul will present her report on the Portuguese justice system to the Human Rights Council in Geneva but her initial findings relayed to journalists today will make depressing reading for the Justice Minister and those who seek justice in Portugal's court system.