Year: 2019

Ponta Delgada, Portugal, Nov. 8, 2019 (Lusa) – As of Friday, the government of the Azores has decided to put an end to the energy crisis concerning diesel fuel on the islands of Flores and Corvo following the recent passage of hurricane Lorenzo through the archipelago.

In a press release, the regional government pointed out that order 1593/2019 of 3 October, amended by order 1757/2019 of 31 October, which declared the situation of energy crisis in the islands of Flores and Corvo, will be updated and republished shortly in the state journal

“The amendment, which takes effect from today [Friday], determines the end of the energy crisis on Flores and Corvo, concerning road diesel and coloured and marked diesel used in agriculture and fisheries,” it said.

The decision is because it is now possible to supply Flores with 363,000 litres of diesel, leaving the island with a current stock of 600,000 litres.

This supply, which began on Monday afternoon and ended on Wednesday afternoon, was only possible due to the intervention of the tugboat “Pêro de Teive”, owned by the public company Portos dos Açores, which helped the ship “São Jorge”, carrying out the transfer of fuel to the island, in an exceptional operation.

The energy crisis continues only for petrol.

During the passage of “Lorenzo” through the Azores in early October, 255 occurrences were recorded, and 53 people had to be relocated.

The passage destroyed the port of Lajes das Flores, which put the supply to the Western group at risk.

In total, the bad weather caused damage of about €330 million, according to the Azores regional government.

On 14 October, the region’s president, Vasco Cordeiro, requested financial assistance from the state and the activation of the European Union Solidarity Fund.

A week later, the Portuguese government said that it would cover 85% of the damage and speed up procedures to restore the destroyed infrastructure.

The announcement was made by Vasco Cordeiro, in Lisbon, after a meeting with the prime minister, António Costa, and with the ministers of economy and planning, Pedro Siza Vieira and Nelson de Souza, respectively.

According to Vasco Cordeiro, at the meeting, the government assumed without reservation the duty of solidarity with the Azores, as had been requested by the regional government.

On Friday, the governor has scheduled a hearing in Lisbon with the prime minister.

 

A Tera Treme – National Seismic Risk Awareness Exercise November 15 at 11:15 pm

The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) will hold the 7th edition of the national seismic risk awareness exercise, called A TERRA TREME (www.aterratreme.pt) on 15th November at 11:15 am ).

The exercise TERRA TREME is promoted annually by ANEPC, in partnership with the Directorate General of Education (DGE) and the Directorate General of School Establishments (DGEsTE), and aims to empower the population to know how to act before, during and after earthquake, namely that it knows preventive measures and self-protection behaviours to be adopted to protect itself.

The exercise itself comprises the practice of 3 simple gestures that can make a difference to those who practice them in the event of an earthquake. The action takes place during 1 minute, in which participants, individually or collectively (families, schools, companies, public, private or associative institutions), perform the 3 self-protection gestures: Download – Protect – Wait.

In addition to the school age population, whose adherence to the initiative has been significant, ANEPC has the goal of successively widening, year after year, the reflection and debate on the theme of seismic risk and the participation in this initiative to other sectors of civil society. To this end, we consider it strategic to involve organizations – public, private and associative – in this collective purpose, seeking to this end to join efforts and extract synergies from the whole of society, so that individual and collective degrees of resilience are achieved.

Although the exercise has national expression, ANEPC will hold, in coordination with DGE and DGEstE, a main event at Sebastião e Silva Secondary School, in Oeiras, located at Rua do Liceu 61.

Throughout the country, District Relief Operations Commands (CDOS) will, in partnership with local communities, fire associations, municipal civil protection services, other civil protection agents and schools, promote awareness raising on seismic risk and self-protection measures to cope with it, as well as streamline the implementation of the A TERRA TREME Exercise, at a date and time agreed for that purpose.

In the context of the TERRA TREME Exercise, ANEPC created:

Digital The digital website www.aterratreme.pt, where information about the Exercise and dissemination resources can be obtained;

 The hashtag #aterratreme designed to identify personal / institutional publications related to the initiative on social networks.

ANEPC proposes to all citizens, in addition to participating in the exercise itself, the following actions:

Individual Individual and / or Institution registration on the digital website (www.aterratreme.pt/subscribe);

 Response to a survey aimed at assessing the degree of perception of seismic risk (www.aterratreme.pt/inquiry);

 Conduct an evacuation exercise based on an earthquake scenario on 15-11-2019, preferably at 11:15 am, the date and time chosen for the exercise TERRA TREME;

 Holding an awareness session on preventive measures and self-protection behaviours to be adopted in the event of an earthquake;

 Disclosure on the website and other digital media of the respective institution, the initiative (in the form of banners, email signatures, etc.);

 Dissemination of the allusive exercise video spot (available on the digital site).

ANEPC, DGE and DGEsTE invite citizens and entities to register at www.aterratreme.pt as a demonstration of their personal / institutional commitment to the cause of safety and security, and as a means of public support and expression.

On 5^th November 2019, the World Tsunami Awareness Day is promoting the “Sendai Seven Campaign” which focuses on reducing disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services.

Tsunamis are rare events, but can be extremely deadly.  In the past 100 years, 58 of them have claimed more than 260,000 lives, or an average of 4,600 per disaster, surpassing any other natural hazard. The highest number of deaths in that period was in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. It caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand hardest-hit.

Over 700 million people live in low-lying coastal areas and Small Island Developing States exposed to extreme sea-level events including tsunamis (IPCC).

Tsunami is a series of giant waves. In Japanese, tsunami means ‘Harbour Wave’. A wave is created when energy passes through water. Moving air or wind provides energy to water, forming regular waves.

While on the ocean floor, when a tectonic plate suddenly slides beneath the other, the resulting earthquake releases tremendous amount of energy. This energy spreads outward from the point of earthquake, triggering waves that can form tsunami. Initially, these waves are small in size but they travel at great speeds. However, when the waves approach the shore, the rising seabed obstructs the energy of waves. This slows down the speed of waves. But the energy flux must remain constant leading to an increase in height of the waves, thus resulting in tsunami.

Borba Volunteer Firefighters were attacked and beaten early on Saturday within their own headquarters by a group of “about 20 people”. Two persons were injured.

According to Fire Commander Joaquim Branco, “around 0.30 hrs, a group of about 20 Roma people went to the station to make an alleged distress call for a person who was unconscious, but was not”. “Firefighters asked if they had called 112, but they said “no” nor had to do it, and what they required was help for a situation that did not really match the initial information.”

After responding that the Integrated Emergency Medical System had to be informed and activated, one of the group “punched a fire fighter” and, after the firemen closed the door, the attackers broke the windows, and through various items at another firefighter.

The group then broke into the barracks and chased other volunteers who fled and hid. Only after the GNR were called and responded through a patrol in the Évora district, and a car from the PSP Intervention Corps, did the attackers leave.  The two firefighters were treated at Estremoz Health Centre. The GNR stayed in place to control the situation.

Although the injuries were “not serious,” the firefighters were “very psychologically affected,” the commander said. The picket that remained for the rest of the night in the barracks was accompanied by a GNR patrol. No one has yet been identified or arrested.

he commander also revealed that some security-enhancing measures will be taken, namely “raising alert levels, coordinating with the Republican National Guard, notably Borba’s post, with the aim of providing sufficient support for situations that prove to be worrying ” because” there have been more situations, but not with such seriousness. ”

 

Lisbon, 22 Oct 2019 (Lusa) – New traffic and information signs, particularly to indicate areas of residence and traffic of vehicles with reduced pollutant emissions, will enter into force in April 2020.

The new regulation creates traffic signals indicating zones of residence or coexistence of vehicles and pedestrians, as well as zones of reduced emissions, where only cleaner vehicles can circulate.

Signs of danger include approaching a passage for cycling, warning that the track may be crossed by Iberian lynx and amphibians.

Already in the new signs of obligation we highlight those that indicate a compulsory road for motorcycles and a road reserved for vehicles with high occupancy rate.

Warning signs are also provided on road pavements of speed limits in places where “special hazard situations may occur”, in addition to existing vertical signs, in particular indicating a ban on driving above 30 kms per hour.

As for road markings, their dimensions have been introduced with a view to “their uniformity”.

“In response to social developments, new information signs, new tourist, geographical, ecological and cultural indication symbols are introduced, as well as new tables with the graphic representation of the signals of drivers, traffic regulators and the graphic representation of light signals. ”, Stresses the regulatory decree.

In the most significant changes made since 1998, traffic signals, traffic signals and drivers are distinguished, “making it clear that traffic signals include temporary signs and comprise vertical signs, markings road signs and traffic lights “.

The revision of the traffic signalling regulation aims “to improve and update road signs in accordance with the Road Code” and are in line with the National Strategic Road Safety Plan – PENSE 2020.

Amendments to the traffic signalling regulations, indicate that as of April 1, 2020, no new signs may be placed that do not comply with the rules now approved.

According to the Decree Regulation, road signs which do not comply with the amendments remain valid until they are replaced by the new signs now published and must be replaced by 1 January 2030.

Tthe National Authority for Medicines and Health Activities (Infarmed) has suspended the license to two distributors for illegal export of a drug and for “serious irregularities” in drug distribution activity and has filed nine infringement proceedings.

In a note sent to the Lusa agency,  Infarmed also says it has 10 other cases with additional investigations underway.

One of the distributors who had his license suspended was identified to market a medicine to the intra-Community market when it had been banned for public health reasons. The other had several serious irregularities during the distribution activity.

Infarmed recalls that since August, when the new legislation came into force that only allows exports of medicines to Europe if the Portuguese market is stocked, to avoid ruptures in pharmacies, 173 inspections have been made to several entities.

Among the entities inspected were 56 laboratories, 25 wholesale distributors and 92 pharmacies, covering mainly 157 medicines.

The National Medicines Authority explains that, among the various irregularities, it identified non-supply or unfair supply by pharmaceutical industry laboratories in situations of stock and non-fulfillment of pharmacy orders even when stock was available. medicines concerned in the stores of wholesale distributors.

It was also detected “the communication of faults to the National Association of Pharmacies (ANF), electronically, despite the existence, in some cases, a significant number of packages in stock in pharmacies,” explains the note.

Infarmed underlines that it has been developing various inspection and market surveillance actions, already in accordance with the new legal framework, “in order to verify the availability of medicines and to verify the fulfillment of the supply and dispensation obligations by the circuit entities. of the medicine ”.

Cited in the statement, Infarmed president Rui Santos Ivo points out that the problem is complex and “affects all European countries”, and the Medicines Authority “is doing everything to combat this phenomenon”.

“Infarmed will continue to act incisively to preserve the Portuguese’s confidence in the drug circuit and its stakeholders,” says the official.

 

 

The Government wants to “stop the scourge of domestic violence” and proposes in the Government Program presented today “to develop an integrated signalling system for potential victims and aggressors”.

Government  proposes to promote the integrated action of the education system, the health system, the police, the judiciary and other agents and to focus on primary prevention, particularly in schools, universities and health services, in order to avoid dating violence and all forms of gender violence.

Thus, it promises “to expand the National Domestic Violence Victims Support Network to ensure full coverage of the national territory, while offering increasingly specialized responses to the various cases of domestic and gender violence.

In the program released on Saturday 26^th October, the Government outlines the creation of a ”single point of contact for victims of domestic violence, where it is possible to address all issues, with guarantees of privacy and ensuring the monitoring and protection of victims”. .

“Unifying the Domestic Violence Database by establishing an information processing system that is based on a global and integrated view on homicides and other forms of violence against women and domestic violence” is another intention.

The Government admits “to consider the possibility, in the current constitutional framework, and through the analysis of comparative experiences, to realize an integrated judicial approach regarding the decision of criminal, tutelary and promotion and protection cases concerning the commission of crimes against victims. particularly vulnerable, in accordance with the recommendations of the Council of Europe’s Expert Group on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence ”.

In the document, the Government also devotes a chapter to combating all forms of discrimination and strengthening the fight against racism and xenophobia and will create “an observatory of racism and xenophobia, as well as“ institutionally empowering the fight against racial discrimination in treatment. of migration issues ”

“Combat the direct and indirect segregation of Afro-descendant children and Roma children within the education system”, “create incentives to support young people from the Roma community for the continuation of their education in the 3rd cycle and secondary education, observing equality of gender ”are other intentions.

The Government also intends to “develop, within the framework of the 1st Law program, specific initiatives to support the integration and access of Roma and Afro-descendant communities to housing, in order to counteract phenomena of ethnic-racial ghettoization and to eradicate“ camps ”. and non-classical housing zones that exist throughout the country. ”

It also wants to “counteract the effects of residential segregation by promoting integrated resettlement initiatives and the provision of public services, particularly education, of heterogeneous territorial scope”.

The firefighters from the Alenquer Corporation, accused by the Public Prosecution Service (MP) of causing forest fires in Lisbon district, between 2017 and 2018, have appeared the Court of Loures on Tuesday (29^th October).

The prosecution of the MP, stated that the defendants, 21 and 24 years old – one of whom remains in pre-trial detention – were serving at the Alenquer Volunteer Firefighters Corporation. One volunteered in 2014 and May 2017, became a professional firefighter, while the other was a volunteer firefighter for the last six years.

The prosecution describes that, for reasons not fully established, the two firefighters decided to set fires in the municipality of Alenquer “to increase the response action to the fires by the Alenquer Volunteer Firemen.”

In some of the fires, one of the defendants acted alone and in the others acted in co-authorship.

Arriving at the locations, “armed with ignition devices such as lighters and combustion accelerators such as gas or gasoline,” one of the men stood behind the wheel of the vehicle, while the other “started the fire”.

“The locations chosen for the outbreak of the fires were hard to reach places, usually dirt roads in poor places, with limited traffic of vehicles or people, with easy access to easily inflammable undergrowth, underbrush and reeds, rich in combustible material ”, explains the MP.

The prosecution describes that the defendants allegedly setting off wildfires on the afternoon of September 7, 2017, at dawn on June 16, 2018 and on June 17, 2018, and there was an attempted fire in late July 2017

The two young men are accused by the MP of co-authoring four forest fire offenses in the consummate form and one forest fire offense in the attempted form.

One of the defendants is also responsible for two forest fire crimes, in the consummate form, and one aggravated forest fire crime, in the consummate form.

The judgment is scheduled to be read at 12:15.

 

A former Irish priest, considered one of the greatest paedophiles in the Catholic Church for admitting rape and sexual abuse to more than 20 children in the 1970s and 1980s, has been detained in the Algarve.

The person widely reported in the media as 74-year-old Oliver O’Grady was being sought by the Irish authorities on suspicion of child pornography. Since late 2018, O “Grady lived in Loulé, in the Algarve hills, where he fled after a recurring crime. On Monday, he was located by inspectors from the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Judicial Police, who complied with the European Arrest Warrant.

O’Grady has a long history of sexual offenses against minors. In 1993, when he was a priest in California, USA, he was sentenced to 14 years in jail for crimes of sexual abuse. He served about half and was deported to Ireland. Then he moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Despite his registration and not working in the Church, he worked as a volunteer in a parish of Rotterdam, where he organized children’s parties.

But the scale of O’Grady’s crimes was even greater and was not known until 2006, when the convicted paedophile admitted to having raped and abused more than 20 children in the documentary “Deliver us from evil”, which reported the crimes and the way the Church handled the case. It didn’t stop anyway. In 2010, he was again arrested. A computer was left on a plane and police found more than 280,000 images, six hours of videos and 500 pages of discussion about child pornography. He was sentenced to three years in jail.

In 2016, journalists found him living in Dublin, near a playground and schools. At the time, he said he avoided leaving when children were on the street and admitted, “Maybe I’m better off in a more secluded area.” The Irish authorities have kept an eye on him and believe he has relapsed.

Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria confirmed they arrested him on Monday.

They added: “The Irish national was wanted by the Irish authorities on suspicion of a crime of child pornography.

“He has been remanded in prison after a court appearance pending his handover to the Irish authorities.”

Lisbon, 26 Oct 2019 (Lusa) – The Government wants to make changes to the Aliens and Borders Service so that there is a “very clear” separation between the police and administrative functions of immigrant documentation, according to the executive program presented today.

“Without prejudice to a determined role in combating human trafficking networks or preventing terrorism, we must reconfigure the way public services deal with the phenomenon of immigration, adopting a more humanistic and less bureaucratic approach, in line with the objective, from regular and orderly attraction of labour to the performance of duties in different sectors of activity.

To this end, the Government will establish a very clear organic separation between the police functions and the administrative functions of permitting and documenting immigrants, ”reads the Government program.

Assuming that Portugal needs the “contribution of immigration” to its economic and demographic development, the program of the XXII Constitutional Government approved today by the Council of Ministers presents several measures to attract foreigners to the country and simplify procedures, aiming to create “formal migration channels, from the countries of origin and ensure that immigrants“ do not become undocumented or on the margins of the system ”.

In this sense, it wants to streamline and simplify the entry process, eliminate the employment quota system, anticipate a short-term temporary permit that allows immigrants to enter Portugal legally for the purpose of seeking employment, promote and modernize security conventions. Also to simplify and speed up the mechanisms of regularization of resident status, in addition to the implementation of regularization programs for foreign citizens, namely through proximity actions with the school community and deepening the SEF on the Move program.

The Government also announces that it wants to revise the residence permit for investment scheme, the so-called “gold visas”, which will “be directed preferentially to low density regions, investment in job creation and urban requalification and cultural heritage”. ”

Over the next four years, the executive intends to study “the implementation of a foreign citizen card equivalent to the citizen card, eliminating the duplication in the presentation of documents issued by public entities”.

According to the Government’s program, a mobile immigrant information and regularization service will be created in the Lisbon metropolitan area and in regions of the country with a high number of foreign workers and is intended to “simplify and shorten the procedures for renewal of residence permits. Portugal”.

In terms of immigration, the Government also wants to create a zone of mobility and freedom of residence between the countries of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) and launch programs to support the capture of qualified professionals and entrepreneurs in the technological areas. and of high added value, as well as promoting programs to support the attracting of foreign students and researchers by Portuguese higher education institutions, namely in the interior regions.

The XXII Constitutional Government Program approved today by the Council of Ministers has a structure similar to that of the PS electoral program, but different from the traditional thematic organization by ministries that characterized other executives’ programs.

Following approval by the Council of Ministers this afternoon, the Government’s program was sent electronically to the Assembly of the Republic and, as decided at a conference of leaders, will be discussed between Wednesday and Thursday in the Assembly of the Republic – calendar which deserved the disagreement of the PSD.