Hospitality Association of the Algarve union management are to join with hotel workers in front of the Hotel Crown Plaza in Vilamoura on Monday, February 10th to demand payment of staff Christmas bonuses from 2013 and a 3% increase in wages as they have not had a pay rose for several years.

The hotel management has steadfastly refused to pay up claiming lack of cash and the workers are taking this step as a last resort in a pay dispute that has seen many top class hotels in the Algarve withold payment for work done despite good trading figures.

Three political parties, the PSD, PS and CDS have already agreed that a draft law covering Maritime Planning for Portugal is a good piece of work and offers a framework within which investment in aquaculture can take place in harmony with the needs of tourism.

A cross party working group has been set up by Socialist MEP Ana Paula Vitorino, who was in the Algarve this week to present the proposals for discussion.

Work on the Panama Canal, orchestrated by a Spanish-led consortium, has ground to a halt over a dispute about cost.

A new lock was being built to accommodate modern vast cargo ships transporting 12,000 containers.

The divorce rate in England and Wales went up in 2012, but only by 0.5% over 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The rate, however, is nearly a fifth lower than it was just a decade before. This may be because fewer people actually married but cohabited instead.

Joao Miguel Gouveia, a survivor of the tragedy of Meco beach which killed six students, has been heard as a witness by the prosecution in court in Almada in what has become a homicide case.

Gouveia, a fellow student at Lusophone University, will be key in finding out what happened to cause the deaths of the young students in December 2013.

December saw a sharp fall in retail sales in the eurozone.

Sales over the Christmas period fell by 1% compared to the same time last year, and by 1.6% compared to November. This was the largest monthly drop in 2.5 years.

In the drip feed of information about the new ‘Fatura da Sorte’ invoice lottery it has been revealed that the number of chances of winning a prize will depend on the value of the invoice submitted.

The Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, Paul Nuncio, confirmed today that the draw will be performed based on the overall value of each invoices registered by the taxpayer, so a 60 cent coffee will not be equal to the purchase of a €1,000 sofa, the invoice for the sofa will have more chances allocated.

Italy is struggling to cope with its ‘massive influx’ of refugees landing on its shores.

In 2013, a total of 2,925 vessels delivered a cargo of some 43,000 people, including almost 4,000 children.

This is an increase of 325% over 2012.