The Guadiana International Bridge linking Spain and the Algarve is at last to undergo repair and maintenance work later this year but the discovery that one of the steel cables holding up the bridge is broken has caused alarm.

Infraestrutura de Portugal says there is nothing to worry about but the local mayors are not best pleased that safety may be compromised, especially with the high traffic weight in the busy summer tourism season.

The European Central Bank will stop issuing or distributing the €500 banknote from 2018.

The decision was taken on the grounds that the high-denomination currency is far too helpful to criminals and terrorists.

A new climate change study outlines the stark reality for Spain and Portugal where the increase in flooding, drought and forest fires now is inevitable.

A group of international scientists from various institutions, including the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, published the study that warns of the many threats to which Europe will be exposed in the coming decades due to climate change.

Vila Real de Santo António council has authorised a tender for the construction of a new sports themed hotel.

The municipality’s company VRSA SGU has published the tender for the hotel’s construction, operation and management at a site by the Santo António Sports Complex.

Stealing food from a supermarket out of necessity should not be considered a crime, according to Italy’s supreme court.

The judgement has handed down in the case of a homeless man who was caught trying to take two pieces of cheese and a pack of sausages from a supermarket in Genoa in 2011.

The German government has announced that cannabis will be legalised for medicinal purposes some time in early 2017.

 "Our goal is that seriously ill patients are treated in the best possible way," said health minister Hermann Groehe.

Portugal’s border control force, the SEF, "will look into" an alleged security breach at Faro airport that allowed a British traveller to fly home using his brother’s passport.

Steve Wilson accidentally picked up his brother Carl's passport and passed through a number of identity checks at Faro airport and at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport on his return.

The ECB vice president Vítor Constâncio says he has no intention at all in taking part in the Banif inquiry.

In a two page written apologia, Constâncio, a former Portuguese Finance Minister, said he only has to answer questions put to him by the European Parliament so he will not be available to explain the crucial role which the ECB played in Banif’s demise.