Two of the three shepherd children who claimed to have witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Portugal in 1917 are likely to be canonised as saints by Pope Francis during his pilgrimage to Fátima in May, though the timing has yet to be confirmed by the Vatican.

The canonisation is now much anticipated following Pope Francis’ official recognition of the so-called ‘Miracle of the Sun’ witnessed by Jacinta and Francisco Marto, cousins of the eldest seer, Lúcia Santos.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos has managed to persuade international investors to buy €500 million of debt as part of Caixa’s recapitalisation process, but at high price with the bank undertaking to pay a whopping 10.75% interest rate.

With the prospect of such a high rate dangled in front of investors’ noses, even the warnings circulating around the market from Goldman Sachs to avoid the debt issue were not enough to stop the issue being oversubscribed.

Since news that the parents of Madeleine McCann have lost their third court bid for damages against former PJ coordinator Gonçalo Amaral, relative silence has settled over the British media.

Only one tabloid appears to be flying provocative headlines, while it has been left to a fringe news site to put them into ‘journalese’.

The Daily Star proclaimed yesterday that the “Fund set up to find missing Madeleine Mccann could be wiped out”.

A Loulé woman employed by a company working on the IKEA site was killed this morning in what has been described as a work accident.

According to CMTV, 37-year-old Marta Costa was crushed by falling pallets. This was the second work-related fatality to take place at the site, now just days from completion.

A bloody rampage in Barcelos this morning has ended with four people stabbed to death - including a heavily-pregnant woman aged 37.

The alleged attacker has surrendered to police. According to Jornal de Notícias he is a man with convictions for violence, under police surveillance and wearing an electronic tag.

They arrived in Lisbon on a flight from Casablanca in 2013. SEF border controls flagged their false passports, and the two Moroccans - neither ostensibly travelling together - gave similar stories of how this was the “only way” to flee a country where they were being persecuted.

Breaking news stories last night explain how the two men were given refugee status, housed in an asylum centre in Bobadela, Loures (on the outskirts of Lisbon) but were really “two Daesh terrorists” who then set about spreading their extremist ideology “trying to recruit new members” in this country.

Twenty-six-year-old Francisco Lopes was one of the many nationalities caught up in yesterday’s terrorist attack outside London’s Houses of Parliament.

He was crossing the road to catch the Tube as the ‘lone wolf’ killer started mowing pedestrians down in his 4x4 Hyundai.

With the nation focusing on immediate banking woes - like the frightening level of debt emerging from Montepio and CGD’s bid to ‘rise up’ from despond - a much more insidious financial story has started to bubble to the surface.

It began on Wednesday, with stories of “a group of major international investors who lost money with BES advising that now is the time for a deal”.

The tone was interpreted in some quarters as these investors “threatening Portugal”.