A man in Spain tried to fake his own kidnapping for the purpose of extorting ransom money from his parents.

The unnamed man from Cartagena, in the south-east, was arrested after the police became suspicious.

Spain recorded its hottest ever temperatures during the first half of this year.

The average temperature measured 15.5C, while July had the hottest monthly temperature on record of 26.5C on average. The previous July high of 26.2ºC was in 2003.

Stock markets across the globe fell sharply today as a direct result of China's "Black Monday" where the biggest one-day plunge in eight years was recorded amid fears of an economic slowdown and a degree of panic selling from millions of individual traders.

Last Friday, China, the world’s second biggest economy, reported its worst manufacturing results since 2008 after having devalued its currency in a shock move earlier in August.

With the near collapse of the Chinese stock market, Angbang Insurance’s €3.5 billion conditional bid for Novo Banco may also be sliding off the rails.

The Bank of Portugal’s August 31st deadline to sell Novo Banco has put the parties under pressure but BoP governor Carlos Costa (pictured) has the option of reopening negotiations with the US venture capital fund Apollo, if the Anbang deal is not achievable.

Now that the migrant emergency threatens to eclipse that following WWII, Germany and France have roused.

After meeting today, the two nations have agreed to push for more coordinated immigration policies and security measures across the EU.

Against the European standards which Portugal’s water resources now are measured, only 52% of the stuff reaches the quality insisted on by legislation, according to an analysis of the proposed new National Water Plan.

This means that half of the country's rivers and reservoirs remain polluted fifteen years after the adoption of a European directive to clean up the country’s water by 2015.

The prediction of nations going to war to secure water is but “a myth”, according to a new report.

Limited water resources have frequently been said will be the cause of many future battles.

The death toll has mounted to ten this year for people involved with bull running in Spain.

The latest victim was an unnamed man in his 40s who died after being struck several times by a bull on Sunday during a run in Borriol, a town in the north-east. Local fiestas were cancelled as a result.