The Algarve Communist Party MPs, Paulo Sá and António Filipe have sent the Minister of Justice a report on the shortcomings of Lagos Court which they claim is woefully inadequate.

In addition to noting a shortage in staff numbers, the court building and its facilities "seem to be frozen in time" with leaks, rattling old window frames that let the rain in, air conditioning does not work with several rooms without any, inadequate furniture, faulty shutters and problems with the electrical system."

The billing software used by Portugal's restaurants has allowed owners to delete cash sales if an invoice with fiscal number is not requested by the customer.

Because there are flaws in the legislation and in the authorised range of software, the Tax Authority has lost more than €500 million in VAT receipts each year with 40% of payments still being made in cash.

Paulo Núncio, the former Secretary of State for tax affairs, said that he took "political responsibility" for not publishing details of the €10 billion in transfers to offshore tax havens between 2011 and 2014.

The socialist party said Núncio’s admission proves neglect by the former PSD CDS-PP coalition government in not following up this significant financial outflow and in not allowing Tax Authority inspectors to check that the sources of the money were legitimate and that the account holders were fully tax compliant.

The international row between Portugal and its former-colony, Angola, is continuing with the African State media stating that the indictment of its Vice-President, Manuel Vincente, on fraud, bribery and money laundering charges just goes to show that 'there is international campaign especially orchestrated to denigrate the image of Angola and its main leaders in election year.'

Vincente has been charged in Portugal for bribing State prosecutor Orlando Figueir with €750,000 to drop a money laundering inquiry.

A young man was found dead in the river Arade at Portimão on Sunday after a two hour search.

Authorities were called to the scene after a witness said he had seen a young man fall into the river just after 07:00 this morning.

British exports of gin reached record levels last year, amounting to nearly £500 million.

The result represents a surge of 12% in one year, up from £474 million the year before, according to figures from HM Revenue & Customs, and a staggering leap of 32% in the last five years.

There are more than 2.3 million Portuguese living outside the country. According to data gathered in the most recent report from the Emigration Observatory, Portugal has the second highest emigrated population in the EU, behind Malta.

The loss of Portuguese from their homeland in the past three years finds an equivalent only in the exodus in the 1960s and 1970s as around 110,000 people have been leaving each year to 2015, as the recession continued.

The secrecy surrounding Caixa Geral de Depósitos is to be lifted as a court decided today that, despite a legal appeal by the bank, the details of the larger loans made by the bank since 2000 will have to be revealed.
 
In a separate petition, the Constitutional Court has rejected the request for confidentiality made by the former short-lived president of Caixa Geral, António Domingues, who wanted his income and asset statements kept from public view.