Chancellor Angela Merkel last week focussed her attention on Africa with the intent of reducing migrant numbers entering Europe.

She visited Mali, Niger and Ethiopia and also met the heads of state of Nigeria and Chad.

A Dutchman fell down a cliff onto the rocks below as he tried to rescue his two dogs which had gone over the edge.

The Captain of the Port of Lagos, in conjunction with Lagos Bombeiros, were alerted to the accident at ​​Porto Dona Maria, Praia da Luz on Friday.

Auditors from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, essentially the country’s creditors, will be in Athens this week to scrutinise the economic reforms Greece promised to deliver.

Greece is into its seventh year in the worst post-war collapse and has already had three bail-outs. The most recent was fourteen months ago at a cost of €86 billion.

A 71-year-old grandmother has been jailed in the UK for taking her elderly brother to a care home in Portugal in defiance of a court order.

John Hemming, a former Liberal Democrat MP commented on the case “...in my view it stinks.”

Portugal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs has stated that the twin children of the Iraqi ambassador to Portugal will be declared 'persona non grata' if he does not receive a response to a request for their diplomatic immunity to be lifted due to their involvement in an attack on a youth in Pont de Sor in the Alentejo.

The Portuguese Government has informed Iraq that it will wait until the end of next week for an answer to a request made on 25 August.

The Ministry of Justice is aiming to hire 400 additional staff for Portugal’s struggling courts if its proposal as part of the 2017 State Budget is accepted by parliament.

The Union of Judicial Employees says that "it is better than nothing", while warning that this is not enough to end the staffing problems the court system is experiencing.

A plan to make downtown Albufeira safe from flooding will be presented on November 2nd, a year and a day after the torrential 2015 downpour caused €25 million worth of damage.

The expensive and unauthorised flood defence work carried out under former mayor Desidério Silva proved to be useless and a significant waste of money.

‘Portugal risks spooking investors with new 2017 property tax,’ runs a Bloomberg headline in an article which concluded with a comment from Vilamoura World’s Paul Taylor, “Quite frankly, it’s scary.”

The property developer, who is seeking partners at the huge Vilamoura expansion and requires €1 billion in investment to bring the project to a conclusion, shared his concern about the possible impact of the new tax at a recent real estate conference near Lisbon.