The parliamentary group of the Communist Party of Portugal (PCP) today has proposed that the Parliamentary Health Committee actually visits the Algarve before the next legislative session which starts on September 15th.

"The healthcare provided to the Algarve's population, both in terms of hospital care, and in terms of primary care, has deteriorated over the years as a result of the policy pursued by successive governments’ attacks on the National Health Service," according to a statement from the party.

As widely predicted by locals and Lagos business owners, the completion of the disruptive paving work taking place in the historic centre of Lagos, now will carry right on through the tourist season.

The original deadline of June came and went with a huge amount of work yet to be started and with other areas to be finished off.

Portuguese businessman Pais do Amaral says that soon he will be in a position to make a proposal to buy TAP, Portugal’s state airline.

Amaral said that he is allied to the U.S. business buccaneer Frank Lorenzo, the controversial former shareholder of Continental Airlines, and aims to partner him in a bid for TAP.

Portugal’s one and only dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, lived at an address in the Rua Bernardo Lima in Lisbon for four years, moving to the Palacete de São Bento* only after an attempt on his life meant enhanced security was needed.

Salazar moved in to the top notch Lisbon property in 1933, the same year the Estado Novo, or New State, was established.

The Bank of Portugal has instructed Portugal’s banks to make a provision of 50% on any unsecured exposure to the Espírito Santo Group.

The central bank, led by Carlos Costa, sent his edict as the Espírito Santo Financial Group last week joined Rioforte and Espírito Santo International in applying for protection from its creditors under the laws of Luxembourg.

Stolen mobile phones can cost their owners thousands of pounds, prompting Citizens Advice to urge the British government to act.

A cap on charges made after a phone is stolen was supposed to have been introduced in spring of this year.

A judge in Washington DC has ordered the city officials to permit people to carry handguns openly displayed, “ready to use” in public.

DC has instituted a complete ban on carrying handguns in public, sensible you might think, but the court found that the ban was unconstitutional.

The British government’s search for a nice place to dump nuclear waste is now coming with hefty grants of free money.

The waste could remain radioactive for 100,000 years.