Almost a year after Rodrigo Lapa's brutal death on scrubland near Portimão, the main suspect in the crime has yet to be questioned by the Judicial Police.
The main suspect, a Brazilian named Joaquim Lara Pinto, took a flight to Brazil a few days after Rodrigo Lapa disappeared.
The driving school owner who reported corruption among driving test examiners said that one told him that €5,000 would ‘make life easier’ for his driving test candidates.
According to António Fontes, the owner of driving schools in Cabeceiras de Basto and Vila Nova de Famalicão, the examiners asked for money and also requested gifts such as "brand name boots."
Portugal's Minister for the Environment, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, today said that he thought the complaint made against the expansion of Spain’s Almaraz nuclear power station, specifically the building of a fuel rod storage facility, will be favourably considered.
Fernandes said a complaint went to Brussels a week ago and that he expects a delay of three months before Portugal will be asked for more details. In the meantime Spain’s position will be analysed.
Two local movers and shakers, both marketing professionals, have set up the Algarve’s first Digital Marketing Conference.
SHARE Algarve is supported by Vilamoura Word and will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Vilamoura on February 4th.
Controversial Portuguese drug company Bial has been given a €37.4 million research grant despite having misued a payment made for scientific studies in 2015.
Bial, made internationally famous after the death of a volunteer drug tester in France last January. Others were hospitalised in the BIA 10-2474 molecule tests that went horribly wrong as the company searched for a treatment for Parkinson’s disease at the Rennes laboratory of Biotrial.
Deco, Portugal’s ever-vigilant consumer protection body, has found "millions of bacteria" in hamburgers being sold by local butcher’s shops.
Salmonella and E. Coli, of faecal origin, have been found in samples. This can lead to serious infection so Deco has warned consumers not to buy hamburgers or any meat that already has been minced.
The Portuguese trade balance with Angola has hit its lowest point since 2010 with less than €1.6 billion in goods exported last year, a year-on-year drop of over 30% but Portuguese businesses are still keen to trade.
Oil imports from Angola to Portugal also dropped, by 22%, but "Things can only get better," according to a group of 17 Portuguese businesses taking part in the Angola-Portugal Business Forum in Luanda this week, organised by the Portuguese Business Association, (AEP).
Luís Lima, the president of APEMIP, the Association of Professionals and Companies of Real Estate Agents of Portugal, anticipates a 30% growth in the real estate market this year, alongside a cracking year for tourism.
The one proviso noted by Lima is “if the State doesn’t mess things up.”
