Shocked Portugal Telecom shareholders have clubbed together are to mount a class action to recover the money they have lost as the telecoms provider's share price halved.

The action specifically is against the board of directors from 2001 to date who all decided that running a telecoms company was not sufficiently exciting, so diversified into behaving like a bank, lending eye-watering sums to its largest shareholder, the Banco Espírito Santo Group.

The market regulator has confirmed that these massive loans have been part of PT’s treasury operations since 2001, in one year the exposure was over €1 billion with the amounts enetrred into the accounts as shareholdings, not loans.

Luís Durão Barroso, son of the old Maoist himself, has landed a top job at the struggling Bank of Portugal.

The 31-year old formally was taken on without having to suffer the stress of an interview as no other candidates were sought by Portugal's struggling central bank.

The GNR today announced that officers had arrested 21 people variously for for drug possession and drug dealing during its targeted operation at the "Meo Southwest 2014" music festival in Zambujeira do Mar, Beja.

The Territorial Command of the GNR in Beja issued a statement which said that the operation was mounted between 01 and 11 August at the access roads to the music festival, held at Herdade da Casa Branca, with 100 officers on duty each day.

The senior long-term unsecured debt of Novo Banco, BES's new owner, has ensured Moody's rated the new bank at 'B3,' the sixth level in the Junk category

In a statement issued today, Moody's also said that the rating of Novo Banco deposits is at 'B2', the fifth level of 'junk.'

French authorities have discovered the Portuguese truck and its driver missing since the beginning of August.

The man's body was found inside the cab which was parked at a service area 15 kilometres from the French-Spanish border.

The British paper car tax disc will soon be a thing of the past when it will be replaced with an electronic system on October 1.

Motorists will have to register their vehicle online to pay road tax, the Vehicle Excise Duty, on the DVLA website or in a Post Office branch.

Where do all the tourists flock? The most popular country to visit is still France.

It was the world’s only nation to have more than 80 million visitors last year as a total of 84.7 million people from abroad went to France in 2013.

People wanting to hire cars online are being charged according to their countries of residence, according to the European Commission.

The charges can vary for some even when using the same hire company, the same location and the same vehicle.