Ricardo Videira Pinheiro, the 19-year-old driver of the adapted Renault van that crashed in Montbeugny, central France, killing 12 of the occupants, was charged on Thursday with manslaughter and aggravated bodily harm.

Pinheiro’s uncle, 43-year-old Arménio Pinto Martins, is the registered owner of the vehicle which had been poorly and illegally adapted to carry passengers in its load space. Martins also has been accused of the same crimes, according to information published today in news service, La Montagne.

Parliament has rejected a move to unravel the discredited Algarve Central Hospitals management group.

The Communists smell a rat and believe that the former coalition parties which voted against the move reveal "an intention to proceed with mergers to concentrate public hospitals with the aim of reducing the ability to provide State health care and in this way benefit large private groups operating in the sector."

“Arrow Global? Never heard of it until December 2015” claims the former Minister of Finance, Maria Luís Albuquerque, in one of her trademark statements that perhaps lacks the full credibility only built up in careers defined by honesty and openness.

The new employer of the former Minister manages a bad debt portfolio of €5.5 billion and counts among its Portuguese clients, Banif, Millennium BCP, Montepio, Santander and Banco Popular.

The Volkswagen launch of its Tiguan at the Herdade dos Salgados hotel and conference complex in Albufeira has been another success story for the NAU Hotels & Resorts Group.

The eight week show, ending on April 24th, will see 19,000 people arrive for a presentation of the new car model, a total of 28,000 overnight stays.

British exports have been slowed by the global economic slowdown, forcing manufacturers to cut jobs and prices last month.

Sluggish demand from outside the UK resulted in British manufacturing registering one of its weakest performances for three years, according to the respected Markit survey.

The Portuguese branch of the Anonymous collective of computer hackers says that its members have hacked into various official websites of the Angolan government in disgust at the sentences handed out to 17 members of a Luandan book club.

The collective says it shut down 20 government websites after the activists were jailed for plotting a so-called rebellion.

The price of an average house in the UK has stretched above the £200,000 mark for the first time, according to Nationwide Building Society.

An average home in the south costs £313,670 while a house in northern England averages £150,917, making a typical house in the north less than half the price of one in the south.

The Brazilian billionaire who owns London’s iconic Gerkin skyscraper has been charged with corruption.

Joseph Safra, 77, was charged on Thursday with corruption in relation to a conspiracy to pay 15.3 million reais (€3.77 million) in bribes to Brazilian tax officials, Brazilian prosecutors said.