As the nation’s politicians lock horns in the run-up to autumn elections, the “truth” is that austerity and the policies demanded by the troika have seen Portugal’s public debt “skyrocket” 36.4%.

In simple terms this means that the Socialist government under currently-jailed prime minister José Sócrates left the country with a State debt of €164 billion, while the austerity-led government of the PSD under Pedro Passos Coelho with the backing of CDS-PP coalition partners has taken that total to €224 billion: an overall increase of €59.8 billion.

The data, supplied by public-debt ‘watchdog’ IGCP, translates into Portugal’s debt costing each of its citizens €21,350 - when in 2011 it cost around €15,650.

EDP has been quick to deny all responsibility but police, firemen and council organisers are still trying to discover what caused the death of three-year-old João Martins at a street party in Odivelas in the early hours of Sunday morning.

According to eye-witnesses, the little boy was next to a temporary post rigged up to support floodlights when he “started trembling with convulsions” and lost consciousness.

His father Pedro Martins scooped up the boy and ran for help, but there was nothing on-duty firemen or INEM rescue workers could do.

The general secretary of the Socialist Party has accused the government of overseeing the largest destruction of jobs for years and says he considers it "very serious" that the Prime Minister does not know, or does not care that he is misleading the public with his unemployment figures.

"In recent years we have lived through the greatest destruction of jobs seen for ages with 320,000 jobs lost," said António Costa.

Portugal’s food and safety authority ASAE has offered 10 tons of meat to Lisbon Zoo which gratefully has been accepted.

The meaty bonus will feed the Zoo’s carnivores for more than two months.

A woman has died having been hit by a motorbike which then crashed, severely injuring the driver and pillion passenger.

The accident happened early on Saturday morning near Montenegro in Faro on the access road to the airport and Motorcycle Festival,

Seville has created an impressive network of safe cycle lanes covering 80 kms, transforming the city into the cycling capital of southern Europe.

The lanes traverse the old town over narrow lanes as well as the ringroad where they are segregated from traffic by both a kerb raised to pavement level and a waist-high fence.

Scientific advisers to the UK Department of Health have warned about the consequences of consuming too much sugar.

They would like the Government to instruct people of all ages to reduce the sugar in their diets and opt instead for fibrous foods, such as fruit, vegetables and wholegrain bread and cereals.

Recycled plastic bottles could be used to pave roads as the Dutch city of Rotterdam says it is considering a trial of the different road surface.

A Dutch construction company, Volker Wessels, claims the results from using recycled plastic shows the surface needs less maintenance than asphalt and could ensure greater temperature extremes.