As Julia Gillard flew to Portugal for a major international conference on Afghanistan, her troops in the war-torn nation learnt they would be issued with new camouflage to dodge the Taliban. The prime minister is making a flying trip to Europe this...

IN 2001 newspapers around the world carried graphic reports of addicts injecting heroin in the grimy streets of a Lisbon slum. The place was dubbed Europe’s “most shameful neighbourhood” and its “worst drugs ghetto”. The Times helpfully...