Portugal's relief at falling COVID-19 cases tempered by fear

February 12, 2021

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Dr. Nuno Germano had a nagging fear when Portugal’s January surge of COVID-19 cases threatened to overwhelm the public health system, forcing his intensive care unit at Lisbon’s Curry Cabral Hospital to double its number of beds in a week.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to care for the patients,” he says. After Portugal figured for about two weeks last month as the world’s worst-hit country by size of population, anxiety over the recent pandemic peak has eased slightly.

The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital and in intensive care fell Thursday for the third straight day. The health ministry reported the fewest hospitalizations since Jan. 20 and the fewest patients in ICUs for almost two weeks.

But Portugal’s seven-day average of daily deaths remained the world’s highest, at 2.05 per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University. Experts reckon the surge peaked near the end of last month. But Germano isn’t expecting any immediate relief at the intensive care unit he heads, where 25 patients are in care.

“We’re still expecting cases to rise,” he said Thursday, at the end of a 24-hour shift. “There’s a time lag of about one or two weeks between the start of a drop in the number of cases and a reduction of patients in intensive care.”

On top of that, not only has his unit been receiving more patients, but they are patients who are more severely ill than in earlier phases of the pandemic. The labored breathing of his patients, the multiple oxygen tubes and beeping machines are testimony to that.

Dr. Fernando Maltez, one of the country’s leading infectious disease experts who works at the Curry Cabral, is encouraged that Portugal appears to be on the right path. But he says the threat from COVID-19 variants hasn’t diminished.

“The drop (in numbers) doesn’t mean our problems are over,” he said. Since the pandemic erupted, the country of about 10 million has officially recorded just over 778,000 cases and close to 15,000 deaths.

Barry Hatton in Lisbon contributed to this report.

Portugal sets records in one of world's worst virus surges

January 20, 2021

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s new daily COVID-19 cases jumped to more than 14,600 to set a new national record Wednesday, as the country weathers one of the worst pandemic surges in the world. Health authorities officially reported 14,647 new infections — about 3,600 more than the previous daily record set four days ago.

The surge shows no sign of easing, with the government and health experts predicting it will peak next week. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital and in intensive care also rose to new record highs, with 5,493 and 681, respectively.

“The gravity of the situation is clear for everyone to see,” Health Minister Marta Temido told reporters. The public and private health sectors and the military are all collaborating to meet needs, she said, but added that “resources are finite."

The pandemic has gained momentum in Portugal since Christmas, when restrictions on gatherings and movement were eased for four days. Portugal has the highest seven-day average rate in the world of new cases per 100,000 population and the second-highest rate of new deaths, according to data collated through Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University.

Overall, the country of 10.3 million people has 581,605 confirmed cases, and 9,465 confirmed deaths. In another worry for Portuguese authorities, a study by the country’s leading disease control agency said a new variant of the virus first identified in southeast England could represent 60% of new COVID-19 cases in Portugal within two weeks.

The study by the Dr. Ricardo Jorge National Institute of Health, based on data collected since Dec. 1, was published Tuesday. The surge is pushing the public health system, especially hospitals, to the limit of its capacity, and the government is scrambling to keep pace.

The assistant secretary of state for health, António Lacerda Sales, said the system is at full stretch. “We are doing everything in our power to increase the system’s capacity,” he told reporters. A field hospital with 58 beds was due to open later Wednesday in the capital, on the grounds of the Lisbon University campus.

To further relieve pressure on hospitals, authorities are opening more temporary medical installations at sites outside the health sector. The government said Wednesday facilities in such places as hotels, university residences and church premises will soon have 2,300 beds where patients can be kept under observation.

Meanwhile, authorities launched a program of rapid COVID-19 tests at schools in hardest-hit areas amid a severe surge in cases. Portugal is in lockdown, but the government is reluctant to close schools. It says that if schools close there are children who won’t get proper meals, who have no computer, no access to the Internet, and who don’t have their own room at home and get no help with their studies.

Some teachers are unhappy about the policy, however, and are pressing for a national school closure.

Polling booths go to voters in Portugal's pandemic election

January 19, 2021

MONTIJO, Portugal (AP) — Local councils in Portugal sent out teams Tuesday to gather votes from people in home quarantine and from residents of elderly care homes before a presidential election being held amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authorities have taken exceptional measures to ensure that voting in Sunday's ballot is possible, even with the country currently in lockdown. For 48 hours across the country, crews wearing protective clothing and accompanied by a police officer were collecting the votes of people who had registered for the service. The voters are given a ballot paper and privacy to mark their choice.

At an elderly care home in Montijo, a town 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of Lisbon, the visiting team set up a makeshift polling booth for eight voters Tuesday. Olivia Bibe, an 87-year-old resident of the home, went to the booth in her wheelchair and was thrilled to have her say.

“I was very interested to vote for a person I like very much and that I know will do a lot for everyone," she said. Her son-in-law, António Porfírio, said Bibe and her friends at the home were keen to vote.

“These small things matter a lot to them," he said. "They feel they are not forgotten and it is important while they are confined here in this period to feel that support and participate as usual.” All votes are kept for days in a locked box until deemed safe to handle and count.

The election is taking place against a backdrop of almost daily records of new COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations in Portugal. Tuesday's total of 218 deaths in 24 hours — a fatality every seven minutes — was a new high.

But fewer than 13,000 people -- about 15% of those eligible -- signed up for the vote-collecting service, officials said, amid complaints from voters that they were given too little notice about the possibility.

Authorities pointed out that residents of care homes were often outside their officially registered voting district, making it impossible for them to cast their ballot where they are living. On Sunday, 12,000 polling stations will be open, 2,000 more than usual, to help avoid large gatherings of people.

Early voting last Sunday drew a record turnout, with long queues forming in some areas. Some 10.8 million people, 1.5 million of them living abroad, are eligible to vote in the ballot, which will elect a head of state for a five-year term.

Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon.

In Portugal presidential race, how high can a populist fly?

January 22, 2021

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — With the moderate incumbent candidate widely seen as the sure winner of Sunday’s presidential election in Portugal, the most intriguing question for many Portuguese is how well a brash new populist challenger will fare in a ballot skewed by a surging COVID-19 pandemic.

Mainstream populism, which has upended political assumptions elsewhere in Europe in recent years, is a novelty in Portugal. But that could change as taxpayers squeezed by the economic downturn, vexed by hefty bailouts for banks and galled by corruption look for somewhere to vent their anger. A significant political shift in Portugal could help add fresh momentum to a continental trend.

Lawyer and former TV soccer pundit André Ventura leads a right-wing populist party called CHEGA! (ENOUGH!), founded in 2019. Nobody expects him to win on Sunday, as he is polling around 11% compared with more than 60% for incumbent Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Even so, Ventura, 37, could conceivably place second among the seven candidates, drawing a level of support that until recently was unthinkable and sending a shudder through Portuguese politics.

A recent surge in the COVID-19 pandemic that has placed Portugal among the worst-hit countries in the world for new daily infections and deaths has added an unpredictable ingredient into the contest, even though the head of state is not directly involved in organizing the country's response.

A potentially low turnout as voters, especially the elderly, possibly shy away from busy polling stations could upset expectations and allow determined populist sympathizers to capture a bigger share of the ballot.

Ventura's showing “is quite something for a new party,” says Marina Costa Lobo, a senior researcher at Lisbon University’s Institute for Social Sciences. “He has gained a lot of visibility, a lot of exposure.”

Like other populists, Ventura portrays himself as leading common people against an entrenched and corrupt elite. French far-right populist Marine le Pen flew in for one of his campaign events in Lisbon. Ventura has participated in rallies in Italy held by Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party.

Ventura occupies his party’s single seat in Portugal’s 230-seat parliament. But he punches above his weight by generating headlines. He is eloquent, happy to scrap in public and disdained by mainstream parties. His firebrand speeches have whipped up public support, especially on social media. He calls his supporters the “Portuguese Popular Army.”

He has complained that “minorities are living at our expense” and questions recent liberalizing trends. He asked in parliament last year, “You can change sex at 16 but you can’t go to a bullfight! Doesn’t this country have things the wrong way round?”

Ventura ticks the populist boxes. He wants heavier prison sentences, including currently disallowed life terms, for some crimes and chemical castration for convicted pedophiles and rapists before their release from prison. He opposes letting migrants, especially Muslims, into Europe and supports police demands for higher pay. He also wants to reduce the number of lawmakers in parliament and their salaries.

Major scandals in recent years have provided grist for his cause. Corruption cases against a former prime minister and against the head of the country’s largest private bank, which went bankrupt, have fueled outrage and tainted Portugal’s two main parties, the center-left Socialists and the center-right Social Democrats.

Taxpayers, meanwhile, shelled out more than 20 billion euros ($24 billion) to help banks between 2008 and 2019. That’s a substantial sum in one of the European Union’s smaller economies. The election frontrunner, incumbent Rebelo de Sousa, is the kind of target Ventura relishes: An establishment figure with a 46-year political career, including a stint as leader of the Social Democratic Party.

Over his past five years as president, the gaunt 72-year-old has displayed the patrician bearing and cordial manner expected of a head of state. Though a president in Portugal has no legislative power, which lies with the government and parliament, the role carries considerable influence.

But Rebelo de Sousa’s once cozy relationship with the head of what was Portugal’s biggest private bank, including luxury vacations spent together, and his long spell at the heart of power, have left him vulnerable to attacks from Ventura and the election’s five other candidates.

Even so, Rebelo de Sousa has during his term kept his approval rating above 60% and is held in affection by many in this country of 10.3 million. He cultivates an image of man of the people: Portuguese capture photos of him standing alone in line with his groceries at the supermarket, having a shave at a barber’s shop and chatting with excited children on the beach near his house in Cascais, an old fishing town 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Lisbon. His small security detail keeps a discreet distance.

On Sunday, more Portuguese are likely to value those traits than Ventura’s pugnacity.

Portugal's armed forces help nursing homes battle the virus

December 19, 2020

AMADORA, Portugal (AP) — Tears well up in Diana Correia’s eyes as she recalls the October day that 24 of the 55 residents of her nursing home in Portugal tested positive for COVID-19. The stunning discovery set off a scramble to enact the home’s contingency plan and stiffen safety procedures. With some staff sent into isolation, others worked double shifts of up to 16 hours in full protective equipment, leaving them lathered in sweat and bone-weary. Some of the home’s residents, suddenly confined to their rooms or their floor, were bewildered and chafed at restrictions, even trying to take the elevator and escape confinement.

“They were hard times,” Correia says, trying hard to keep her composure. “Very hard times.” As a resurgence of the pandemic in the fall looked set to overwhelm Portuguese nursing homes like Correia’s, and the country’s public health service struggled to cope, the government mobilized all the resources it could. That included deploying military units.

The soldiers’ mission: fan out across the country to visit hundreds of nursing homes and help shore up their defenses against the pandemic. Long-term care facilities have proven vulnerable worldwide during the pandemic. The age of their residents, their physical closeness inside what is essentially a large house, and the residents’ underlying health problems put them in peril. On top of that, nursing home staff in Portugal commonly work in several different care homes and travel between them on public transport.

Noting that international data on nursing home COVID-19 deaths is “imperfect and limited,” a study of 21 countries by the London-based International Long-term Care Policy Network, which includes scientific researchers, found in October that those homes’ average share of coronavirus deaths was around 46%.

The European Centre for Disease Control, an EU agency that monitors 31 countries, said the same month that up to 66% of all fatal COVID-19 cases have been among nursing home residents. By that measure, Portugal hasn’t fared badly. Care home deaths through Dec. 14 accounted for 30% of the country's COVID-19 fatalities, the General Directorate for Health told The Associated Press.

On Friday, Portugal's total deaths reached almost 6,000. At the end of September, fearing a calamity, the Portuguese government sent a distress call to its military. As well as helping with contact tracing, disinfecting buildings and providing beds for hundreds of virus patients at military hospitals, the armed forces were now being asked to buttress nursing home protections.

Dr. Maria Salazar, a physician and a colonel in the Portuguese Air Force, swiftly drew up a nationwide program to train care home staff at their workplace. The program also ensures the staff get the specific medical advice they need in almost daily online Q&A sessions with doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

Within a week, the program was launched, coordinated from the CECOM military operations command center near Lisbon. About 140 teams of one to three people, taken from the Portuguese Army, Navy and Air Force, have traveled across the country since early October. They have already been to more than half of the targeted 2,770 care homes.

Salazar, a 49-year-old gastroenterologist, says the military presence is reassuring for nursing home staff and residents who were spooked by the virus threat and desperately short of medical know-how.

“Suddenly, all these staff ... felt like they didn’t know what they were doing and they were scared to death,” Salazar says. At the root of some muddled decision-making was, simply, fear. “We’ve identified that very clearly,” she says.

In a first phase, troops go in person to the nursing homes and give talks with slideshows that go through the rudimentary rules of cooking, laundry, cleaning and social distancing. It’s COVID-19 101. Correia, the technical director of an AFID charitable association nursing home in Amadora, just north of Lisbon, acknowledges it’s nothing her staff haven’t heard many times before. The difference is who the instructions are coming from.

“It’s a voice from the outside, a military voice with all the weight that carries,” she says. In a recent afternoon session at the AFID home, 10 of Correia’s staff listened intently to Sgt. Ari Silva, from the No. 2 Lancers Regiment, whose barracks are nearby. Wearing military fatigues, a beret and an olive-green face mask, Silva asked his audience how many times they had washed their hands that day. A man sitting at the front said four.

Silva was unimpressed: “Friend, I've done at least double that,” he said. The benefits of the military presence are as much psychological as practical, says 38-year-old Correia. “We feel like someone outside of here feels concern for us,” she said. “It’s not just us who are concerned.”

Spain, Portugal leaders mark border reopening with pomp

July 01, 2020

BADAJOZ, Spain (AP) — The leaders of Spain and Portugal marked the reopening of their land border Wednesday, more than three months after shutting it because of the coronavirus pandemic. Spain’s King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister António Costa for border ceremonies in Badajoz on the Spanish side and later in Elvas, Portugal.

Wearing masks, which they removed to hear their national anthems played, the Iberian leaders toured a Moorish fortress and museum in Badajoz before visiting a 14th-century castle in Elvas, 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. They gave no speeches.

Spain has been one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries in the pandemic, with almost 250,000 cases and more than 28,300 deaths. A strict lockdown enabled Spanish authorities to bring the outbreak under control. Over the past week it has officially recorded almost 2,000 new cases.

Portugal avoided an exponential increase in cases during April and May, but stubborn outbreaks have occurred in recent weeks after a lockdown ended and several hundred news cases have been emerging every day. It has recorded 1,576 virus-related deaths.

Most worryingly, Portuguese authorities are battling community transmission in 19 of the Lisbon metropolitan area’s 118 parishes, located north of the capital. Beginning on Wednesday, people living in those parishes must stay at home when they can and no more than five people can gather together, among other measures.

The Iberian peninsula countries agreed to close their border to traffic, except for trucks and local cross-border workers, on March 17. The land border is more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) long.

Portugal says major wildfire will take days to put out

August 08, 2018

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A major wildfire blackening hills in Portugal's southern Algarve region likely will take several more days to bring under control, the country's prime minister said Wednesday. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that efforts to control the fire that broke out Friday were being hampered by gusting winds, the region's deep ravines and the numerous plantations where combustible eucalyptus is grown for paper pulp.

Costa spoke after visiting the headquarters of the Portuguese Civil Protection Agency, the government body that is coordinating the emergency response to the fire. The Civil Protection Agency said almost 1,300 firefighters from across Portugal were assigned to the blaze, the most since it started. Public TV network RTP said more than 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) have burned in the fire.

The prime minister is aware of potential political repercussions from major wildfires; the deaths of 109 people in blazes last year almost brought down his government. Costa acknowledged that much more work was needed to prevent catastrophic fires, including diversifying the vegetation in Portugal's forests and establishing fire breaks.

High clouds of black smoke have towered for days over the Algarve region, a top European vacation destination. While winds have made the firefighting effort more difficult, crew working overnight kept flames from reaching the town of Silves, a popular tourist spot and home to about 6,000 people.

The torrid weather that has hung over much of Europe for weeks also was subsiding, with a high of 31 degrees Celsius (88 F) forecast for the Algarve on Wednesday. Along with ground crews, 13 aircraft and more than 380 vehicles were battling the blaze.

In neighboring Spain, 27 aircraft were helping some 700 firefighters put out a fire near Valencia. Radio broadcaster Cadena SER said nearly 2,900 hectares have been burned.

Wildfires torment Portugal, Spain; French, Dutch feel heat

August 07, 2018

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Firefighters and anxious residents braced Tuesday for a fifth straight night of battling a major wildfire that is racing across tinder-dry forested hills in southern Portugal. The blaze is sending high plumes of smoke across the Algarve region's famous beaches and bringing criticism of authorities for failing to halt the flames.

A strong seasonal wind from the north known as a "nortada" was driving the fire south toward Silves, a town of about 6,000 people, after it narrowly missed the smaller town of Monchique. Several hundred people were evacuated, and 29 were hurt, one seriously, officials said.

Almost 1,200 firefighters supported by 16 aircraft and 358 vehicles were deployed around Monchique, a town of 2,000 people about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Lisbon, where the blaze came within 500 meters (yards) of the local fire station.

An unknown number of homes — believed to number in the dozens, according to local reports — in the forested hills have burned down. With so many resources deployed, many residents asked why the fire was still burning, especially after 95 percent of it was under control on Monday.

Firefighters also publicly questioned the wisdom of the strategy to counter the flames, with some claiming poor organization was thwarting the operation. Monchique was identified as a high risk area months ago.

Firefighting is coordinated by the Civil Protection Agency, a government body overseen by the Ministry for the Interior, which oversees national defense. The National Association of Professional Firemen and the Professional Firemen's Trade Union issued a joint statement saying that the government's recent reorganization of firefighting capabilities need to be reassessed and rethought. The organizations asked for a "very urgent" meeting with the Minister of the Interior.

The minister, Eduardo Cabrita, told reporters authorities were switching coordination of the Monchique fire from the local Civil Protection Agency to the department's national operational command in Lisbon.

He declined to criticize the firefighting operation, saying the effort had been "notable." Portugal beefed up its wildfire response over the winter after 109 people died last year in forest blazes amid a severe drought.

Vitor Vaz Pinto, the Civil Protection Agency's district commander, said the weather forecast around Monchique was "unfavorable," with a gusting wind from the north, known as a "nortada." Temperatures were forecast to reach 35 C (95 F) — normal for August in southern Portugal.

The Iberian peninsula endured some record heat last weekend, with temperatures exceeding 45 C (113 F), which parched large areas. Spanish emergency services said a wildfire Tuesday near Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast, was almost under control after two dozen aircraft were brought in. The blaze forced the evacuation of around 2,500 people.

The high temperatures moved northward to France. The hottest weather was expected in central and northeastern France, with temperatures that could reach 40 C (104 F). Dutch authorities evacuated four campsites as a brush fire swept through parched countryside in the eastern Netherlands, where temperatures were in the mid-30s C (90s F). The regional security service said that firefighters from three provinces were battling the blaze Tuesday in Wateren, 135 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of Amsterdam.

Lisbon breaks record for maximum temp, hits 44 C (111.2 F)

August 05, 2018

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Lisbon broke a 37-year-old record to notch its hottest temperature ever as an unrelenting heat wave baked Portugal and neighboring Spain. New heat records were set in 26 places around Portugal.

Portugal's weather service said the capital reached 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday afternoon, surpassing the city's previous record of 43 C (109.4 F) set in 1981. The day's hottest temperature of 46.8 C (116.2 F) was recorded at Alvega in the center of Portugal. The country's highest temperature on record is 47.4 C (117.3 F) from 2003.

Portugal's weather service said new maximum highs were recorded at 26 places from measurements taken at a total of 96 weather stations around the country. More than 60 percent of the country registered temperatures of over 40 C (104 F).

The hot, dusty conditions across the Iberian Peninsula are the result of a mass of hot air from Africa and have increased the risk of forest fires. Over 700 firefighters were still battling a forest fire near the Portuguese town of Monchique in the southern Algarve region, a popular tourist destination.

Six people were injured late Saturday as they escaped a separate blaze near the Portuguese town of Estremoz, civil protection officer Jose Ribeiro told the Portuguese state television RTP. Sunday's forecasts called for temperatures to dip slightly while remaining extremely high.

Portugal issued warnings of extreme heat for most of the country and forecast maximum temperatures of 44 C (111.2 F) for some areas in the south. Spain lowered its warnings for heat from "red" to "orange" for large parts of the south, but highs there were still predicted to reach 40-42 C (104-107.6 F).

40 die in fires in Portugal, Spain; Rain helps firefighters

October 17, 2017

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Rain and lower temperatures are helping emergency teams in Portugal and Spain fight the forest fires that killed at least 40 people over the weekend. Civil Protection authorities say wildfires in Portugal were under control by Tuesday morning, after at least 36 people died and dozens were injured. Portugal, which still has seven people missing in the blazes, began three days of national mourning on Tuesday.

In northwest Spain, where four people have died in the fires, regional authorities in Galicia say 27 forest fires are still out of control Tuesday, seven of them close to inhabited areas. Investigations are still underway to find the cause for the late-season wave of hundreds of forest fires, which officials in both countries are blaming mostly on arsonists.

Portugal faces dire drought, the worst in more than 20 years

September 11, 2017

SANTA SUSANA, Portugal (AP) — Portugal's Pego do Altar reservoir looks like disused quarry now, its bare, exposed slopes rising up steeply on each side and shimmering in the sun as it holds barely 11 percent of the water it was designed for.

The huge lake where people used to swim, boat and fish has shrunk to a slither of water, surrounded by baked, cracked earth and a handful of white fish carcasses. It is a desolate and disturbing sight — and one that has become increasingly common in southern Portugal.

While parts of the United States and the Caribbean are drowning in water amid ferocious hurricanes, a drought is tightening its grip on wide areas of Portugal. More than 80 percent of the country is officially classified as enduring "severe" or "extreme" drought — conditions among the country's worst in more than 20 years.

Water has sporadically been scarce in this part of southern Europe for centuries. But Portuguese Environment Secretary Carlos Martins tells The Associated Press that "it has gotten worse with climate change."

The prolonged dry spell is most acute in the Alentejo region, south and east of Lisbon, the capital. Here, the essential river is the Sado, Portugal's seventh-largest. As its flow has dwindled, so the reservoirs in the river basin, such as Pego do Altar, are drying up. In some places now, the Sado is a thin, knee-deep flow.

The receding water at Pego do Altar has exposed a small, 18th-century stone bridge which was last seen in 1999. Locals have been coming to take photos of themselves next to it. The dead fish in Pego do Altar's dried mud are the canary in the mine for authorities. Large numbers of fish dying due to depleted oxygen levels would contaminate the area's public drinking water, so a program to scoop out the doomed fish from four Sado basin reservoirs is now underway. It's a race against the clock.

"It's a preventive measure," says Carlos Silva, a spokesman for EDIA, a state company that helps manage the Alentejo's water supply. "It would be a catastrophe if the fish started dying off" in large quantities.

As gray herons watch from the bank and birds of prey glide silently by, fishermen Tomaz Silva, 25, and Miguel Farias, 29, nudge their boat toward silver nets buoyed by empty plastic water bottles that they had strung across the reservoir the previous day. Chatting in a strong Alentejo accent, they throw the fish into a box where they flap around. Some weigh 5 or 6 kilograms (up to 13 pounds) and are as long as an adult's arm. Many, however, are skinny due to the fierce competition for diminishing food.

With the water level so low, it's a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. Silva and Farias catch on average between 1 and 1.5 metric tons a day. Their haul is taken away to be turned into fishmeal. Over about six weeks, officials expect to harvest more than 100 metric tons from the four Sado reservoirs.

Martins, the environment secretary, said a government drought monitoring committee is working to reconcile the conflicting demands placed on the region's scarce water resources. Making sure there's enough water for drinking faucets is the top priority, he says.

That could end up bringing a ban on the irrigation of farmland, which uses up 80 percent of the region's available water. Farmers are fretting over their parched pasture land and wilting cereal crops. Cattle breeders are demanding drinking water for their livestock. And energy companies want water to flow to keep up their hydroelectric production at dams.

The Alentejo is a famously pretty part of Portugal, with groves of olive trees, stone pines and cork oaks — native varieties resilient enough to survive its weather extremes. But it's also one of the European Union's poorest regions — sparsely populated, covering 34 percent of the country but containing only 7 percent of its population. Almost half of its residents are more than 65 years old.

Many people here make a living from farming, and cutting off irrigation would sound the death knell for their jobs. At Torrao, a 15th-century hilltop village with a panoramic view of the Sado basin's Vale do Gaio reservoir, locals live with daily evidence of the drought.

Antonio Sardinha, an 82-year-old subsistence farmer with thick fingers and a sun-kissed complexion, says he has never seen the reservoir so low. Official records say it's at 18 percent of capacity. The water in his well is so shallow, he says, that his bucket hits the bottom.

"Water is the key to everything," Sardinha said. "You need water to create everything else."

Wildfires rage on untamed in Greece, Portugal and Corsica

August 13, 2017

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hot and dry weather stoked another round of wildfires burning across southern Europe on Sunday as firefighters in Greece, Portugal and the French island of Corsica struggled to corral the flames.

Greek authorities voiced suspicions that at least some of the several dozen fires that broke out on both the mainland and the island of Zakynthos over the weekend were started deliberately. Over 4,000 firefighters were battling more than 250 wildfires in Portugal, which requested assistance from other European Union nations.

On Corsica, fires that have raged since Thursday forced the evacuation of 1,000 people, authorities said. The latest blaze in Greece started Sunday afternoon in a pine forest and had damaged as many as 20 houses by night in a town north of the capital. Kalamos, a town some 44 kilometers (27 miles) north of Athens, is a favorite vacation spot for Athenians.

Authorities said they have shut down a large portion of the local road network as the blaze expanded in several directions, including toward Athens. They also evacuated two children's campgrounds. Portugal Civil Protection Agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said the country set an annual single-day record for new fires on Saturday, when 268 separate fires started. That surpassed the previous year-to-date high mark of 220 fires reached Friday.

While the weather isn't helping, nature was responsible for igniting a minority of the blazes, Gaspar said. "We know that more than 90 percent of the fires have a human cause, whether intentional of from negligence. Both are crimes," she said.

Authorities believe a series of fires raging on several fronts on the western Greek island of Zakynthos were started deliberately. The country's fire service said there were "well-founded suspicions of foul play" after five fires broke out late Saturday and early Sunday, followed by another three later on Sunday morning.

Greek Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis, who is also the local member of parliament, said of the multiple blazes while visiting the island: "This is planned." The fire service said 10 of the 12 fires burning on Zakynthos were still unchecked, with high winds making it difficult to control the flames.

A total of 53 wildfires broke out in Greece on Saturday and several more did on Sunday, including on the island of Kefalonia, next to Zakynthos. Authorities said the multiple blazes had stretched firefighting capabilities to the limit. Firefighting planes and helicopters cannot fly at night, adding another degree of difficulty. In Zakynthos, authorities were monitoring the progress of the flames with a small camera-equipped drone, which provides information to firefighters on the ground, the fire service said.

Trouble controlling flames and forecasts calling for more hot and dry days ahead prompted Portugal's government to ask other countries in Europe for help, Minister of Internal Administration Constanca Urbano de Sousa said.

Portugal has been especially hard hit by wildfires, including one that killed 64 people in June, during a summer marked by high temperatures and a lack of rain. Wildfires in Portugal this year have accounted for more than one-third of the burned forest in the entire 28-country European Union.

The EU's Emergency Management Service said the amount of forestland blackened in Portugal as of Aug. 5 was about five times larger than the average recorded in the country between 2008 and 2016. In southern France, fierce flames have ravaged some 2,100 hectares (5,190 acres) of land since Thursday — with 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) burned in Corsica alone.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said there have been no casualties from the fires thanks to the efforts by 1,200 firefighters and the air teams that carried out 300 water drops in 24 hours. While the mainland fires were tamed over the weekend, the Corsica blazes were ongoing and still required "major means," Collomb said.

Firefighters continued to fight wildfires in the Corsican towns of Manso and the hilly Pietracorbara. Northern Corsica Prefect Gerard Gavory said over 1,000 thousand residents and tourists have been evacuated.

Portugal battles to contain deadly wildfires amid heat, wind

June 20, 2017

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Emergency services in Portugal said Tuesday they were making headway in their battle to control a major wildfire that killed 64 people in the central area of the country, but another blaze nearby grew in size and caused concern.

The Civil Protection Agency said about 1,200 firefighters and nine water-dropping aircraft were fighting the deadly wildfire in Pedrogao Grande, which was raging for a third consecutive day about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Lisbon. Officials said that blaze was mostly contained though still burning fiercely.

Temperatures forecast to reach 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit), gusting winds and bone-dry woodland were fueling the blazes, Commander Vitor Vaz Pinto told reporters. Some resources were being diverted to Gois, about 20 kilometers from Pedrogao Grande, where almost 800 firefighters and four planes were battling the flames. Vaz Pinto said the Gois wildfire was "very fast and very explosive" and had forced the evacuation of 11 hill villages.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Antonio Costa ordered an investigation into what happened on Saturday night when the deaths occurred, 47 of them on a road as people fled the flames. Costa's order asked three questions: whether the extreme weather could explain the scale of the disaster, why emergency services communications at times didn't work, and why the road where the deaths occurred was not closed.

Portugal awaits foreign help to fight deadly wildfires

June 19, 2017

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — More than 1,500 firefighters in Portugal are still battling to control major wildfires in the central region of the country, where one blaze killed 62 people. Reinforcements are due to arrive Monday, including more water-dropping planes from Spain, France and Italy as part of a European Union cooperation program.

Portugal is observing three days of national mourning after 62 people were killed in a wildfire Saturday night around the town of Pedrogao Grande, which is by far the deadliest on record. Just over 1,000 firefighters are still attending that blaze about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Lisbon.

Scorching weather, with temperatures surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), as well as strong winds and dry woodland after weeks with little rain are fueling the blazes.

Eurovision winner greeted by ecstatic Portuguese nation

May 14, 2017

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Eurovision winner Salvador Sobral was greeted as a national hero upon his return home to Portugal on Sunday, a day after winning the song contest in Ukraine's capital. The 27-year-old Sobral was a virtual unknown before his triumph in Kiev, but around 2,000 jubilant fans cheered his arrival at Lisbon's airport.

"Without wanting to sound presumptuous, this win is very important for Portuguese culture," Sobral said. "But I'm not a hero. That's (local soccer star) Cristiano Ronaldo." A visibly tired Sobral added: "I'm exhausted and just want to rest. I know this won't last. I want to be known as a musician. Not as the Eurovision winner."

His gentle romantic ballad Amar Pelos Dois (Love For Both) conquered all in Saturday night's extravaganza, which was watched by millions of spectators around the world. "I'm happy my romantic song won, and I hope the gala stops being a popularity contest," Sobral said at a news conference, while thanking Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso for his support.

The weekend was a busy one in Portugal, with Pope Francis' visit to Fatima and Lisbon soccer team Benfica winning its fourth straight Portuguese league title, also on Saturday. But Sobral was the man of the hour on Sunday, after the Lisbon native with a heart condition put an end to the southern European country's long misery in the famed Eurovision contest, which he took in a landslide.

Sobral won easily, giving Portugal its first Eurovision win since it started competing in the international competition in 1964, and prompting congratulatory messages from the country's highest authorities.

"When we are very good, we're the best of the best. Congratulations Salvador Sobral," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa wrote in a message Saturday night. Prime Minister Antonio Costa followed the lead with a tweet of his own.

"A page of history has been written in Portuguese this evening at Eurovision. Bravo Salvador! Bravo Portugal," Costa said. The previous best Portuguese Eurovision ranking was 6th place, back in 1996. Unlike the 25 other competitors who performed on a wide stage backed by flashing lights, bursts of flames and other special effects, Sobral sang from a small elevated circle in the middle of the crowd, an intimate contrast to others' bombast.

"Music is not fireworks, music is feeling," he said while accepting the award. The feeling was never more mutual than Sunday afternoon, when Sobral was embraced by his countrymen and women upon arrival, as hundreds physically swarmed him at the airport concourse, chanting his name while being escorted by police.

Among them was Claudia Zellen, a 39-year-old social worker who, like many others across the country, praised the winning song, which Sobral performed in Portuguese next to his sister, Luisa, who wrote the tune and sat beside him at the welcoming news conference.

"It is a very emotional and different song, that sends a message of love and peace," Zellen pointed out. "I think that Salvador is unique and that he is able to transmit beautiful things to all of us, even those that do not understand our language."

Neighboring Spain, meanwhile, finished last after a poor performance by its representative, Manel Navarro. With Portugal rallying around its new national musical hero, even recently-crowned soccer champion Benfica took the time to congratulate Sobral.

"We aren't the only winners this evening...! Well done Salvador Sobral!" the team posted on its official Twitter account. But one of the most surprising tweets came further north, from British novelist J.K. Rowling, author of the popular Harry Potter book series.

"Yay Portugal!" Rowling wrote. Sobral captured 758 points in the contest, 143 more than second-placed Kristian Kostov, from Bulgaria. His win ensured Portugal would host next year's Eurovision contest.

"I hope to keep making music that means something and remain happy, playing it. Emotion always prevails," Sobral said. "The song was meant to be sung in Portuguese, but we need to feel whatever we are singing, no matter the language."

Mario Soares, Portugal's former president and PM, dies at 92

January 07, 2017

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Mario Soares, a former prime minister and president of Portugal who helped steer his country toward democracy after a 1974 military coup and grew into a global statesman through his work with the Socialist International movement, has died. He was 92.

Lisbon's Red Cross Hospital said in a statement he died there on Saturday afternoon with his son and his daughter at his bedside. The hospital did not provide a cause of death, but Soares had been a patient since Dec. 13 and in a coma for the past two weeks.

Soares, a moderate Socialist, returned from 12 years of political exile after the almost bloodless Carnation Revolution toppled Portugal's four-decade dictatorship in 1974. As a lawyer, he had used peaceful means to fight the country's regime, which eventually banished him.

Soares was elected Portugal's first post-coup prime minister in 1976 and thwarted Portuguese Communist Party attempts to bring the NATO member under Soviet influence during the Cold War. He helped guide his country from dictatorship to parliamentary democracy and a place in the European Union.

"The loss of Mario Soares is the loss of someone who was irreplaceable in our recent history. We owe him a lot," Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in India, where he was on a state visit. Costa said three days of national mourning will begin Monday and that Soares would have a state funeral at an unspecified date.

"His cause was always the same: freedom," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said in a televised speech. "At decisive moments, he was always a winner." Soares' role as an international statesman was solidified through his work with the International Socialist movement. As a vice president from 1976, he led diplomatic missions that sought to help resolve conflicts in the Middle East and Latin and Central America.

Soares was visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip when Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1995. Both Arafat and Rabin were longtime friends of Soares.

In 1986, Soares became Portugal's first civilian president in 60 years. His broad popularity brought him two consecutive five-year terms. During terms as prime minister and foreign minister, Soares helped rehabilitate Portugal on the international stage after decades of isolation under the dictatorship established by Antonio Salazar in the 1930s. Soares' insistence on using the ballot box instead of weapons to end the dictatorship won him respect around the world.

Soares belonged to a generation of influential European Socialist leaders that also included his close friend Francois Mitterrand of France, Germany's Willy Brandt, Olof Palme in Sweden, and Felipe Gonzalez in Spain.

The 1974 coup shot Lisbon to the center of Cold War attentions as Portugal lurched to the political left after the dictatorship's fall. Days after the Carnation Revolution — so named because people stuck red carnations in soldiers' rifle barrels — Soares returned home by train from Paris to a rapturous welcome from crowds that flocked to meet him at Lisbon's Santa Apolonia train station.

The Communist Party's influence surged following the coup, prompting fears in the West that Portugal — a founding member of the Atlantic military alliance — would come under the Soviet Union's influence and encourage other radical leftist movements in western Europe.

Soares said that at an October 1974 meeting in Washington, then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told him he thought Portugal was doomed to communist rule. But Frank Carlucci, the new U.S. ambassador to Lisbon and later head of the CIA, argued that moderate democratic forces, especially Soares' Socialists, would prevail. The 1976 election proved Carlucci right.

Soares, an affable figure and eloquent campaigner who led the Socialist Party, won the country's first entirely free elections and became prime minister. Portugal had western Europe's last colonial empire, and Soares was instrumental in quickly granting independence to Portugal's five colonies in Africa. Protracted wars had sapped the Portuguese economy and soured its relations with other western nations that had turned away from colonial rule years earlier.

Soares later was criticized for cutting the colonies loose so abruptly. All of them — Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe — became single-party Marxist states supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba after their independence. Angola and Mozambique drifted into civil wars as proxies in the Cold War struggle for influence in Africa.

Soares held posts in a string of governments that lasted less than a year in the post-revolution political chaos. Banks were nationalized, spooking wealthy financiers who fled the country, and poor farmers seized the land they had long worked at large private estates.

Born in Lisbon in 1924, Soares started out as a radical student organizer and became a renowned defense lawyer. He was a relentless opponent of Salazar's regime, which along with Franco's roughly contemporary rule in neighboring Spain, shut off the Iberian peninsula to outside influences. Salazar's secret police, known by its acronym PIDE, jailed Soares 12 times and exiled him twice, once to the island of Sao Tome off west Africa.

After democracy, Soares served four times as the country's foreign minister and three times as prime minister. As prime minister in 1986 he ushered Portugal into the European Economic Community — later the European Union. That turned out to be a watershed year which placed the country on a fast-track modernization program.

Soares capped his political career that year by becoming head of state. He rapidly set about keeping his campaign pledge to serve as "President of all the Portuguese" after years of division and unrest which brought eight governments between 1978 and 1985.

He was a fierce critic of the economic liberalism embraced by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British leader Margaret Thatcher which was alien to his Socialist convictions about the benefits of welfare capitalism.

As president, Soares established a professional, if cool, relationship with center-right Social Democratic Prime Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva, who admired Thatcher. Though an unlikely team, Soares and Cavaco Silva together oversaw the shedding of many left-inspired economic structures, such as the nationalization of banks, adopted after the coup.

Opponents claimed Soares had abandoned his Socialist ideals, but Soares insisted his "cohabitation" with Cavaco Silva contributed to the country's new-found stability. He won a thumping re-election victory to serve a second five-year term in 1991.

Soares then retired from politics to set up a cultural foundation. At the request of the United Nations, he became head of the Independent World Commission of the Oceans. He also led a U.N. fact-finding mission on human rights to Algeria in 1998.

He returned to politics in 1999, winning a seat in the European parliament as the main candidate of the Socialist Party but then failing to be elected head of the assembly. He also ran again for Portugal's presidency in 2006, at the age of 82. Younger voters had little grasp of his historic achievements and he finished third.

He is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

Fires ravage southern France, Portugal, 4 dead, 1,000s flee

August 11, 2016

MARSEILLES, France (AP) — Fires whipped by high winds ravaged swaths of southern France and Portugal on Wednesday, killing at least four people, burning scores of homes and forcing the evacuation of thousands, including tourists.

In France, multiple fires formed a column marching toward the Mediterranean port city of Marseille. Hundreds of miles away, a fire swept overnight into Funchal, the capital of Portugal's Madeira Islands, killing three elderly people and leaving more than 300 with minor burns and smoke inhalation. A forest watchman was killed on the mainland during the night when one of more than 100 blazes engulfed the caravan he was sleeping in 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Lisbon.

Two people were reported injured, one seriously, as the fire in southern France moved toward Marseille, firefighters said, and 20 to 25 homes were burned. At least 2,700 hectares (6,670 acres) of land were devastated. Four firefighters were injured, three seriously, battling a separate blaze in the nearby Herault region — brought under control like a fire in an industrial area outside Marseille that stocks oil and petrochemicals.

The Marseille airport rerouted incoming flights to make way for firefighting aircraft, while officials in Marseille, France's second-largest city, were bracing for flames that risked lapping at its doors, and the airport warned flights risk delays or cancellations Thursday.

Thick layers of ochre-colored smoke dimmed the afternoon skies of sun-drenched Marseille, while black plumes rose above Vitrolles and Pennes-Mirabeau. "It was a scene really like the end of the world," Caroline Vidal, a Vitrolles resident told iTele TV, describing the scene as she fled her home to her grandmother's house and saw people running on the highway to escape.

Assistant Prefect Yves Rousset, asked at a pre-dawn meeting with reporters in Marseille, whether the fire might reach France's second-largest city overnight, said, "We can never say there will be no risk, but we're doing everything so it doesn't." Firefighting aircraft were restarting duty at daybreak, while the battle continued on the ground.

Firefighters in both countries battled multiple blazes fanned by high winds and fed by brush in a hot, dry summer, considered fire season in both countries. A full 186 wildfires were counted Wednesday on Portugal's mainland.

But the blazes were exceptionally powerful in both countries, roaring through Madeira and southern France at the height of the tourist season — a mainstay of the economy of Madeira islands, off northwest Africa.

Portugal's National Civil Protection Service reported 14 major wildfires burning out of control in mainland Portugal where almost 4,500 firefighters were in action in a massive operation, supported by 28 water-dumping aircraft and 1,300 vehicles. Desperate, the government requested help from other European Union countries.

The Madeira fire forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents and tourists in the islands. Residents described chaotic nighttime scenes, with people fleeing the flames by car at high speed on the wrong side of the road.

Miguel Albuquerque, head of Madeira's regional government, told reporters the three local victims died in their burned homes early Wednesday as the wildfire hit the coastal city in the dark. He said two other people were seriously hurt and one person went missing. At least 37 houses and a five-star hotel had burned down.

In southern France, more than 1,000 people were evacuated in several towns, notably Vitrolles, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Marseille where some homes were burned down, and in nearby Pennes-Mirabeau.

"The fire is progressing. It's progressing fast," Deputy Marseille Mayor Julien Ruas said on BFM-TV. He said firewalls had been set up on the corridor leading toward the city, but if the fire passed those "it will move toward the northern neighborhoods of Marseille."

"The fire is extremely powerful, fast, explosive, and continues burning everything in its path," firefighters said in a statement from a temporary headquarters set up in Vitrolles. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, visiting firemen in several locations, said 1,800 firefighters were mobilized to fight the blazes. Some 400 police officers were helping towns secure homes and firefighting aircraft, from Canadairs to Trackers, were mobilized.

The origins of the French fires, which started in Rognac, north of Vitrolles, were unknown. The Madeira blaze broke out Monday and firefighters said the island's steep hills and dense woodland made it hard to reach the flames. Albuquerque, the regional government chief, said officials suspect that fire was started deliberately and police have made two arrests.

Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal; Ganley reported from Paris.

Portugal rises to No. 6 in FIFA rankings, Argentina leads

July 14, 2016

ZURICH (AP) — European champion Portugal has risen two places to No. 6 in the FIFA rankings, and Copa America winner Chile stays fifth. Argentina is still No. 1 despite losing to Chile in the final for the second straight year.

Belgium remains second after losing to Wales in the European Championship quarterfinals. Wales climbed 15 places to 11th. Colombia at No. 3 and Germany at No. 4 are in an unchanged top five, while Euro 2016 runner-up France is seventh, up 10 places. Iceland is at best-ever 22nd, up 12.

Mexico leads CONCACAF nations at No. 14, and Copa America semifinalist United States has risen six to 25th. Algeria is Africa's best at No. 32; No. 39 Iran leads Asia; and Oceania champion New Zealand has risen 54 places to No. 93.

Portugal stuns France to lift 1st cup despite Ronaldo injury

July 10, 2016

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Portugal's players frantically tended to Cristiano Ronaldo's left knee but their tearful captain couldn't withstand the pain any longer. The Portuguese had to win their first major trophy the hard way, stunning host France in the European Championship final after playing without Ronaldo from the 25th minute through extra time on Sunday.

Two hours after being carried off injured with the 1-0 victory secured by his battling teammates, the three-time world player of the year returned a champion for the first time with his country. "I had bad luck because I had a small injury in the beginning of the game, but my colleagues did their part — they run, they fight," said Ronaldo, who has already won every major club honor. "Nobody believed in Portugal but we won".

An unlikely scorer secured the pre-tournament outsiders a title at last. It could be an uncomfortable few months ahead for Eder, the unheralded striker who will return shortly to French club Lille after breaking French hearts with his 109th-minute goal.

"The ugly duckling became beautiful," Portugal coach Fernando Santos said. A second-half substitute, Eder scored only his fourth goal in 29 appearances for Portugal with a low shot from 25 meters (yards) past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

"Cristiano told me I would be scoring the winning goal," Eder said. "He gave me strength and positive energy." In doing so, Portugal denied the French a third final victory on home soil to add to Euro '84 and the 1998 World Cup.

"Football can be very cruel," said Lloris, France's captain. "The overriding emotion is a lot of sadness." Twelve years after losing to Greece on home soil in their last appearance in the final, it was Portugal's turn to spoil the host nation's party. And they achieved it after winning only one of their seven games at Euro 2016 inside 90 minutes, and after losing the inspirational Ronaldo midway through the first half.

"It was tough because we lost our main man and we had all our hopes pinned on him because he's a player who can score a goal at any minute," Portugal defender Pepe said. "When he said he couldn't go on, I tried to tell my teammates that we have to win it for him. That we were going to fight for him."

It was a mostly dull and stodgy final but the record books will only show that Portugal went from third-place in its group to champion, and with little help from Ronaldo in its last match. The championship's first 24-team tournament became a reality over the last month, but the quality of football deteriorated. Such a sterile showpiece — the first European Championship final to be scoreless after 90 minutes — seemed a fitting climax.

"We weren't clinical enough," said France coach Didier Deschamps who lifted the World Cup in the stadium as a player in 1998. "We weren't cool-headed enough." Even France forward Antoine Griezmann, the tournament's leading scorer, couldn't rise to the big occasion. There was no seventh goal of Euro 2016 from the Atletico Madrid forward, who also lost out in the Champions League final six weeks ago to Ronaldo's Real Madrid.

Griezmann was the first player to find the target, but his header was tipped over by Rui Patricio, who was formidable in the Portugal goal. When an inviting cross from Kingsley Coman was delivered in the 66th, Griezmann missed with a free header.

Only once was Patricio beaten, when Andre-Pierre Gignac's shot hit the inside of the post but it came back out. Luck was on Portugal's side, and Eder was able to strike the decisive blow. It didn't seem to be going Portugal's way in the ninth minute when Dimitri Payet's right knee clattered into Ronaldo's standing left leg.

Ronaldo went down in agony — writhing, grimacing and screaming. He was able to return, but this was one injury he could not run off. Ronaldo fell to the turf again in the 17th. One of the moths infesting the national stadium fluttered over Ronaldo's tearful right eye. Teammates tried to help in vain to help, with Nani tending to the knee.

Ronaldo watched the game forlornly on the touchline as strapping was attached before dragging himself back onto the field. But Ronaldo's mobility was restricted. Battling through the pain, regularly reaching down to check on the injury, Ronaldo realized there would be no miracle recovery.

The clock hit 23 minutes and Ronaldo ripped off his captain's armband and tossed it on the turf. Slumping to the ground again, Ronaldo was consoled by Nani, who embraced his former Manchester United teammate as the armband was transferred.

The stretcher came on and in the 25th minute Ronaldo became a spectator. But thanks to Patricio's array of saves and dogged defending, Ronaldo left a champion. Unlike his great rival Lionel Messi, the Argentina and Barcelona forward, the 31-year-old Ronaldo has now filled the medal void on the major international stage. It's a rapid turnaround for a national team that exited the 2014 World Cup in the group stage.

"It's something unbelievable in my career," Ronaldo said. "Something I deserve."

France, Portugal fans mingle amid tight security for final

July 10, 2016

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — France and Portugal fans from as far afield as Switzerland and the South Pacific gathered Sunday at the Stade de France stadium or took in the sights in Paris as they prepared to watch their teams meet in the European Championship final.

Fans mingled peacefully outside the stadium amid tight security in a city still on high terror alert in the aftermath of Nov. 13 attacks by Islamic extremists that left 130 people dead and hundreds injured. That night of bloodshed started when three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France.

Hours before kickoff, a long line of police vans was parked alongside the main road near a metro station and officers in body armor stood outside a high fence ringing the stadium. Mathias Vicherat, the Paris mayor's chief of staff, said some 1,900 police and other security officers would patrol the 92,000-capacity fan zone in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. The city's police chief, Michel Cadot, said 3,400 officers would patrol the Champs-Elysees, where fans are expected to mass after the match.

Jean-Paul Ausu left the palm-fringed beaches of New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, and flew 22,000 kilometers (13,670 miles) to be in France for the tournament. He still wasn't sure he'd make it into the game.

"We tried to find tickets but haven't been able to find any," Ausu said. "We're trying now to see what we can do at the (French Football) Federation's sales point, but we're still waiting." Portugal fans Mickael and Anna Polo-Carvalho, had a much shorter trip to get to the match - driving a few hundred kilometers (miles) from their home in Switzerland - and were planning to motor back again after the match.

"We found tickets at the very last minute. We thought, let's drop off the kids at their grandparents and we hit the road. It all went fine," Anna Polo-Carvalho said. "When we got here, we visited the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees and we started preparing ourselves psychologically for this match. We'll see who wins but we hope it's Portugal. Tonight, it's straight to the car and back at work tomorrow morning at nine."

Patrick Baeurer looked slightly out of place in his Germany shirt as he entered the Stade de France. Baeurer, 22, won two tickets in a competition for videos showing football freestyle skills. "I had thought Germany would make it to the final, but unfortunately they lost last week to France," he said.

He was tipping France to win 2-1, thanks to its home advantage. Long before the final, Laura Bounineau knew she would be a winner come the final whistle. "My dad is French, my mother Portuguese, so I'm supporting both nations and proud of it," she said. "There's no problem: I will be happy tonight no matter what."