Fourteen big-hitting institutional investors have hired feared British lawyers at Clifford Chance to sue the Bank of Portugal to recover their Novo Banco investments.

Funds including Black Rock and Pimco are among 14 institutional investors which will challenge the decision made by the Bank of Portugal’s Governor, Carlos Costa, at the end of 2015 to all but wipe out the value of senior bonds by moving them back to the bombed-out shell of BES.

British workers have been found to be the most keen to work in their home country, while citizens of some other EU nations are also enthusiastic about obtaining jobs in the UK.

An overwhelming 98.5% of Britons said they wanted to stay in the UK for their next job, according to a study of tens of millions in 15 countries of online job searches by website Indeed.

The head of Europol has said it is "unusual" for Police chiefs to be involved in drug trafficking.

Responding to questions over today’s arrests in Portugal of two members of the Judicial Police, the Europol Director, Robert Wainwright, added that he regretted that the corruption of police officials continues to be a facilitator in several crimes.

There are an estimated 23 private customers and 34 named beneficiaries caught up in the Panama Papers exposé alongside 244 businesses and 255 shareholders.

Buried among the 11.5 million documents that were released on Sunday evening are details of Portuguese clients of the law firm Mossack Fonseca who are are involved in offshore companies.

Time-sensitive work to add a cycle and pedestrian lane alongside the existing bridge to Faro Island has come to a grinding halt.

Traffic is being channelled into one lane to and from the island as there is a large section of the road cut away but there is no sign of workmen pressing ahead gamely to complete the job before the tourist season starts in earnest.

Unemployment in Portugal was recorded as 12.3% in February this year, down from 13.5% the previous February.

This was higher than the eurozone average of 10.3%.

Spain’s acting prime minister has vowed to alter the country’s working hours by reverting to Greenwich Mean Time for a “better quality of life”.

Mariano Rajoy vowed that if he becomes the next prime minister, he will ensure that the working day would end by 6pm.

The six crew members of the fishing vessel Avô Melro, which ran aground early on Monday near Arrifana beach, Aljezur, have been rescued by the crew of a Portuguese Navy EH-101 Merlin helicopter, according to Carvalho Pinto, the captain of the Port of Lagos.

Pinto reported that the six crew members were all safe and sound at the airbase at Montijo where the aircraft landed by 9:05 a.m..