News stories by Mario Queiroz, page 2

LISBON, Jan 21 (IPS) - Chronic instability, extreme poverty, drug trafficking and corruption are the tragic lot of Guinea-Bissau, which this year commemorates four decades of independence from Portugal.

CASTRO MARIM, Portugal, Sep 24 (IPS) - A promising alternative in Portugal’s profoundly depressed domestic market are incentives for traditional exports which, due to their high quality or uniqueness, do not face fierce foreign competition. “Flor de sal”, the country’s premium hand-harvested sea salt, is one of these products.

LISBON, Aug 01 (IPS) - Portugal was traditionally one of the European countries with the lowest levels of drug use, until the 1980s and 1990s, when problematic drug abuse, especially of heroin, became a major problem.

LISBON, Jul 31 (IPS) - Portugal’s anti-drug policies have been gaining international visibility since this country began to publish the results of its 2001 decision to eliminate all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs.

Going to school without eating breakfast has become a normal part of daily life for thousands of children in Portugal, whose growing vocabulary now includes the word 'crisis'.

For the first time in 38 years, the former soldiers and officers who opened the doors to democracy in Portugal did not take part in the official celebration of the Carnation Revolution, which toppled Europe’s longest dictatorship in 1974.

This winter the mortality rate in Portugal has grown alarmingly, to a level far higher than the seasonal averages of previous years. And the brunt of the death toll is being borne by low-income elderly people.

The flood of economic woes devastating Greece and Portugal are evidence that the German prescription imposed by a troika of multilateral creditors is not working, and that both countries are heading into a blind alley, says economics professor Mario Olivares.

The underground economy in Portugal is booming thanks to the steep increases in taxation and prices demanded by a 'troika' of international creditors to address the country's economic crisis.

The death of the president of Guinea-Bissau, Malam Bacai Sanhá, could usher in a replay of the military uprisings that have set an unmistakable seal of instability on the political life of this small West African country.