British holidaymakers flocked to Spain in record numbers during July this year.

Official statistics show that 9.6 million tourists went to Spain during July and of these Brits accounted for about 25%.

The famous Portuguese welcome now has a ranking with the country coming in at number ten worldwide of the friendliest places for foreigners to move to - and number one within Europe.

The InterNations survey released this week states that the ‘affability level’ is one of the factors that contributes to a happy and successful relocation to any new country.

Portugal's Competition Authority finally has decided not to oppose the government's repurchase of TAP shares from Gateway, made necessary by a pledge by PM Antonio Costa that the taxpayer again would control the loss-making airline.

The Competition Authority approved the reversal of the sale by the PSD/CDS-PP government under Passos Coelho which gave Gateway the upper hand in a deal which netted the Treasury just €20 million and left the taxpayer underwriting over €1 billion in TAP loans.

Many of the Algarve’s more urban councils are concerned at the number of abandoned vehicles clogging up their city centres, yet in many cases the vehicles can not be touched.

In Olhão, the council says that it can not remove certain categories of vehicle, for example when they are owned by a finance company or have been seized through the courts in lieu of debt.

The Algarve’s association for hoteliers has slammed the government and its agencies for doing nothing at all to stamp out illegal rentals of villas and apartments.

The AHETA has condemned the illicit tourism rental in the Algarve and demands appropriate action from Finanças, Tourism of Portugal and local mayors which, it says, have done nothing to stop this illegal business.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Portuguese State must repay €30,000 to Visão magazine.

At issue was an abuse of the freedom of the press and of defamation.

A doubling of fish production by 2020 and a consequent reduction of imports are the twin goals of the 'Aquaculture +' programme presented by minister Ana Paula Vitorino on a visit to Aveiro.

The Minister for the Sea and all things fishy presented a new package of measures for aquaculture and hopes the €80 million to be made available will attract an equivalent sum of private investment.   

Spain is set to ask Germany for the return of certain archaeological treasures which it gave willingly to one of the most powerful men of the Nazi regime.

Gold and bronze artefacts from the Visigoth period in Spain were presented to Heinrich Himmler, head of the notorious SS. Himmler was on a visit to General Francisco Franco in 1940 in Madrid.