The crew swam from the sinking ship as Heptarchy, a well-known feature among Olhão’s seagoing community, slid beneath the waters off Farol island in the Ria Formosa.

Returning from a six week round trip from the Algarve to the Balearic islands and back, with a stop in Cartagena, Múrcia, due to foul weather, Heptarchy was close to completing its first voyage after a year-long refit in an Olhão shipyard.

BES depositors returning to Portugal for their summer holidays have wasted no time in voicing their disgust and anger at the way they have been treated by their once trusted bank, by Novo Banco, by the Bank of Portugal and by the treasury as they tried to storm a Novo Banco branch in Sabugal today.

The depositors group already has scheduled a rally for August the 10th outside Novo Banco’s head office in Lisbon but, not content to wait, around 50 protestors today met in Sabugal to create some early pressure.

British police are off to Magaluf and Ibiza to deal with British nationals who are involved in crime or who become victims of crime.

West Midlands police are sending two officers to assist the Spanish Guardia Civil in the resorts, both of which attract thousands of British young adults intent on partying.

Sky is being investigated by Ofcom in the UK over concerns that it does not let customers cancel at the end of their contracts.

Although the company’s contracts state that customers may cancel using letter, email, fax or phone, a number of contract holders found that their subscriptions remained in force.

In the ever tightening world of tax evasion an agreement has been signed by the Portugal’s Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, Paul Núncio (pictured), and the US ambassador in Lisbon, Robert Sherman.

The document governs the exchange of information between the two countries regarding accounts in all financial institutions in both countries.

A damning IMF report has highlighted the real financial situation in Portugal.

With the highest combined debt levels in the eurozone at over 360pc of GDP, Portugal has “strangulating debt levels, falling job creation and bad loans.”

A festival featuring street food of many varieties, a party atmosphere, a warm night, what possibly could go wrong?

With one child seriously ill in hospital and  around 100 others suffering from salmonella poisoning, the organisers can do little more at this stage than collect the names of those affected and offer apologies.

Loulé court has enforced an order made in 2011 that an entire Albufeira apartment bloc must be demolished, and the top floor of another removed, at an estimated cost of €500,000.

Albufeira’s mayor and councillors currently each are paying fines of €25 per day until the work is done.