The GNR’s latest safety initiative to pull over bikers to check for any infractions of the laws neatly coincides with this weekend’s Faro Bikers Festival.

As 15,000 inbound free-spending bikers swell the ranks of tourists in the Algarve and prepare to settle in for a weekend of partying, music and bonhomie near Faro airport, the GNR decided this was an ideal weekend to see how many bikers could be checked for their own safety.

Vila Real de Santo António council suspects deliberate fiddling, or incompetence, over the seawater test results that have made sure a shellfish harvesting ban has in force for over two months.

The council now is questioning the validity of the samples taken by the Portuguese Institute of Ocean and Atmosphere (IPMA) laboratories and have started to take a few of their own.

The body of a slim, blonde man between 20 and 25-years old was found floating near Algar Seco beach in Carvoeiro, Lagoa.

The victim had severe head injuries and repeatedly had been stabbed in the chest and abdomen.

Maria Luis Albuquerque answered questions put to her at today’s Budget, Finance and Public Administration committee meeting which centred on an increasingly bleak prognosis for the ailing Espírito Santo Financial Group.

"Public intervention is always a last resort scenario," according to the Minister, who has done little so far to calm international fears for the future of the banking group.

The Association of Hotels and Resorts in the Algarve has reacted to the draft paper seeking to increase a range of Green Taxes designed to help the environment, including a per head tourist tax, saying today that "there is no direct relationship between tourism and harmful practices to the environment, which would justify penalising the industry with the introduction of higher taxes"

The Association warned that the impact of any new taxes in the draft reform on green taxation may result in more unemployment in the region.

In a rare departure from the party line, Algarve Tourism chief, Desidério Silva, met the Minister of Health today to ‘raise awareness’ of the wide-ranging concerns relating to health cover in the Algarve.

This meeting results from an earlier meeting between Silva and the president of the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve, the president of the Algarve Hospitals Group and representatives from the Nurses Union at which "certain deficiencies in some services in some health units" were identified, particularly in the Algarve’s emergency service cover.

For the Portuguese government to intervene and rescue and ailing bank, it is necessary to show that the money needed is essential and would have to be approved by the European authorities, according to Portugal’s Finance Minister.

Consumer prices in the eurozone rose on average 0.5% in June, unchanged from a month earlier, according to latest official figures.

As the ailing French economy continues to struggle, the gap between France and Germany appears set to grow.

The divergence between the two could threaten economic policymaking in the eurozone, according to a report from the economics consultancy Capital Economics.