At the upper end of real estate brands sits Sotheby’s, an estate agency business that negotiated the sale of 51 luxury properties to foreign customers last year, especially in Lisbon and the Algarve, for an average value of €755,000.

Gustavo Soares, the Director-General of Sotheby’s in Portugal said that Portugal continues to attract foreign capital, benefiting Portuguese sellers and the country with inflowing capital and increasing domestic consumption."

An Algarve-based caviar project has steadily and stealthily been developed at the Gambelas Campus of the University of the Algarve.

Successful tests show that the famous beluga and sevruga sturgeon roe - the most expensive in the world worth between €6,000 and €12,000 per kilo - can successfully be produced at an Alentejo-based nursery.

The Guadiana Eurocity project that links Vila Real de Santo António and Castro Marim on the Portuguese side of the Guadiana river, with Ayamonte on the Spanish side, is launching a Eurocidadão Card to enable residents of any of the municipalities to share cultural and sporting facilities and to take advantage of each others' health services, at a discount.

The launch of the card was marked today by the delivery of the first copies of the card documentation to the mayors of the three municipalities of the Guadiana Eurocidade scheme.

A German man aged 40 died today in a parachute accident at Portimão Aerodrome near Penina.

According to the emergency services centre in Faro, Stefan Hewekerl was practicing for the annual 'Skydiving Algarve Spring Boogie' meeting which started on Saturday.

The head of Portugal’s Institute of Chartered Accountants said today that the new free draw for taxpayers who have submitted receipts in the new 'Fatura da Sorte’ lottery should instead have been offered financial benefits rather than an expensive imported German car.

Domingues Azevedo, as chairman of the Institute, today criticised the 'disguised advertising' that the government has given to Audi, the brand of car chosen  for the prizes, and said that money or tax rebates would have been more appropriate.

In last week’s budget, the British Chancellor announced Budget that personal allowances for non-residents are set to be reviewed.

This applies to expats and there are concerns that pensioners could be hit

Every UK taxpayer’s personal allowance allows for a certain amount of income that can be earned before tax must be paid. For the 2014/15 tax year the level is £10,000 for a single person, with different rates according to marital status and age.

The EU reported that in 2012 each person in the 28 member nations produced 492kg during the year of municipal waste which is that generated by households and small businesses.

Of that, nearly all (480kg) was treated – 34% was sent to landfill, 24% was incinerated, 27% was recycled and 15% was turned into compost.

In a sign of improving economic confidence, a 30-year-old pawnbroker in the UK has gone into administration.

With the advent of the banking crisis in 2008 and its attendant recession, pawnbroker shops welcomed a brisk trade.

Now Albemarle & Bond has had to see PriceWaterhouseCoopers being called in.