The donation of blood by homosexuals will be allowed after all with certain sensible conditions. The decision is based on recommendations a working group at the Portuguese Blood Institute which have been accepted by the Ministry of Health.
 
The working group unanimously disapproved with the head of the blood service’s earlier calls for using homosexual behaviour per se as a basis for refusing blood donations and, with conditions, represents the end of a ban that had perturbed campaigners.

A German man has been charged with treason for giving secrets to both the CIA and to Russia’s intelligence service.

Markus R, 32, was employed by Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND where, prosecutors said, he had access to sensitive documents.

José Sócrates has convinced himself that his is innocent of any wrongdoings he may be charged with and blames his continued incarceration on a move by the current government to prevent a Socialist Party victory in the general election on October 4th this year.

The former PM could have spend the weeks since June in the comfort of his own home but a condition of his release was for him to sport an electronic ankle bracelet which he was not prepared to do.

A judge in Spain is pushing for economic and environmental crimes to receive the same legal treatment as those committed against humanity.

Baltasar Garzón is known as a campaigning judge whose efforts in the past have resulted in new legal scope for pursuing human rights offenders across national borders – in 1998, for example, he ordered the arrest of former Chilean dictator Pinochet who was in London at the time.

The president of Loulé council, Vítor Aleixo, held a press conference yesterday to say how unhappy he is with the head of the former Estradas de Portugal* company, António Ramalho and he reckons the Algarve has been conned.

Aleixo is one of the three mayors who at least stood alongside protestors on the windswept Guadiana bridge in February to protest about the motorway tolls but his complaint now goes deeper as the extent of the government’s duplicity becomes clear.

As increasingly staunch upholders of the parking and overnight stopping laws, GNR officers so far this year have issued tickets to 179 motorcaravan owners for improper parking or camping where they should not.

With fines ranging from €200 to a potential €22,500 the painful reminder that the law must be obeyed has become all too clear to many caravan and motorcaravan owners who continue to camp ‘wild.’

Construction work in Portugal has plummeted yet again.

A drop of 1.8% was recorded in the April to June quarter of this year when compared to the first quarter. The annual fall was 1%.

With a recorded 132,000 visitors in ten days, the twelfth Silves Medieval Fair was claimed as a success by the council which said the event continues to grow and establish itself as one of the Algarve's most important summer events.

During the 10 days of ‘history recreated’ the organisers in the ‘Magic Capital of Culture’ counted in 236 exhibitors and participants such as artisans, merchants, mystics, and food sellers, with 22 groups performing on horseback and providing other forms of street entertainment.