Europe is set for a restless summer as the slumbering financial crisis reawakens. Luke Baker looks a problem that refuses to go away.

The Portuguese government have made a u-turn on a decision to increase taxes.

A political crisis in Portugal threatens to plunge the euro back into crisis just as experts were cautiously predicting that EU economies would start growing again next year.

The UK's Scotland Yard has urged Portuguese authorities to reopen the search for Madeleine McCann today as detectives said there were 195 potential leads to finding her alive.

Portugal's hospital services and refuse collections have been hit by coordinated strike action.

The Portuguese government says it does not know yet when it will send its formal request for a bailout to European authorities.

PORTUGAL’S caretaker government said it had decided to seek financing from the European Union in an abrupt turnaround after resisting a bailout for months despite sharply deteriorating financial conditions.

Ratings' agency Moody's has downgraded Portugal's rating by a notch from A3 to Baa1.

Ireland is unlikely to get any decision on changes to the interest rate of our bailout loan at this week's European summit, it has been claimed.

All the signs are that Portugal is set to become the third European country to be forced to take a bailout from the EU and IMF.

The debt-burdened Portuguese government has successfully raised €1.2bn on the money markets this morning.

Portugal has had its credit rating downgraded by the Fitch Ratings agency amid mounting concerns over the country’s ability to raise money in the markets to finance its hefty borrowings.

The Portuguese government has said it is under no pressure from the ECB or other eurozone member states to accept financial aid to ease its debt and deficit problems.

THE IRISH-owned Oceânico Group on Portugal’s Algarve has submitted a bid to host the 2018 Ryder Cup. Its acclaimed Victoria course in Vilamoura is one of seven courses in the Oceânico portfolio and is regarded as one of the finest in Europe.

EMERGENCY crews used sniffer dogs yesterday to search through huge piles of debris for at least four people missing in Madeira after flash floods and rockslides killed 42 people on the Portuguese vacation island.

Emergency crews were searching today for at least four people still missing after mud and rockslides killed 42 people on the holiday island of Madeira.

Kate and Gerry McCann tonight threatened to pull out of plans to return to Portugal to help police reconstruct the events around their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance amid a furious row over leaked interviews.

Madeleine McCann’s parents are hoping some good will come from the leaking of interviews suggesting the young girl was left alone and crying the night before she disappeared, their spokesman said today.

Europe’s leaders will stamp their carbon footprint all over Europe’s new reform treaty this week.

Wildfires fanned by high winds burned out of control across Portugal today as the country suffered its worst drought in years.

The Portuguese government plans to increase the amount of money it will transfer from the pension fund of a state-owned bank to the general fund for public employees to keep its budget deficit under 3% of gross domestic product.

Portugal was accused tonight of breaching EU rules on free movement by banning a Dutch ship on a sexual health mission from its waters.

THE army launched a coup in the West Africa country of Guinea-Bissau yesterday, arresting the president and ordering government ministers detained, according to reports.

The author of a report into collusion between the security forces and paramilitary killers in Northern Ireland is to attend a Belfast conference into corruption within police force ranks.

THE Government will today move to ease its cash crisis by setting up a borrowing agency to raise anything up to €10 billion from the private sector over the next five years.

The Angolan Government has begun efforts to secure a ceasefire and kick-start the country’s stalled peace process following the death of UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi on Friday.