Mr Schr? said that he respected the sovereign right of France to make its own decision on the treaty

Mr Schr? said that he respected the sovereign right of France to make its own decision on the treaty. Don’t try to punish your [centre-right] government by kicking Europe in the bottom,” Mr Borrell said.Other speakers pointed out that part of the French left was out of step with all its European “brothers and sisters” in rejecting the treaty. Within the European trade union movement, only two organisations have condemned the proposed constitution – both of them French. They also took exception to anxieties fomented on the left – taking up an issue dearer to the far right – that France will be inundated by Eastern European workers.”Don’t be scared of the Polish plumber, just as you used to be scared – without reason – of the Portuguese bricklayer. The presence of a senior British figure would have harmed, rather than helped, the leadership of the Parti Socialiste’s chances of persuading their electorate to vote “yes”.The rally in the Cirque d’Hiver or winter circus was attended by the Spanish Socialist Josep Borrell, president of the European Parliament, the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, the former Portuguese president Mario Soares, and Dutch, Belgian, Danish, Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian politicians.Speaker after speaker poured scorn on the suggestion – argued by the French far left and taken up by part of the Socialist and Green centre left – that the proposed treaty is a hard capitalist blueprint for destroying public services and exporting French jobs to Eastern Europe. The “no” camp on the French left – who hold the key to the swing votes in the referendum – regard Blairism as only marginally less evil than Bushism or Thatcherism. Every week we arranged things with the relatives of my husband, all in jail there.

They sat on one side, we on the other.”Making the videos public, Mr Prestipino said: “These images are shocking. As if the dozens of inquiries demonstrating how detained gang bosses continue to manage business were not enough, they show that the problem of communication [with relatives] is very serious. And if Mafia bosses have no difficulty passing their orders to the outside world, our battle has been lost at the outset.”It’s vital that we find a way to control the effective communications of the prisoners and prevent the criminals from doing this … The answer is absolutely simple: it’s enough to ensure constant and assiduous vigilance [inside the jail].”. Europe’s heavy political artillery – with the notable exception of anyone from the British Government – has deployed in France in an attempt to bombard voters into supporting the EU constitution in nine days’ time. Speaking after a Franco-German-Polish summit in Nancy in eastern France yesterday, he urged French voters to face up to their “responsibilities”.The previous night, leading left-wing politicians from half a dozen countries – but not Britain – joined a left-wing rally for “yes” in central Paris.The absence of anyone from the Blair government was deliberate. BSkyB’s last annual results showed it had sales of £3.6bn, growing at 15 per cent a year.”This strategy is about convergence: convergence between communications and information technology, between fixed and mobile telephony and there is something new – the convergence between networks and services,” Mr Verwaayen said.But what does this mean in practice and will Mr Verwaayen’s new creation really transform BT’s profitability in the long term?In essence, Mr Verwaayen is trying to transform BT from a utility into a growth company Broadband internet access is at the heart of that.

However, unlike Rupert Murdoch’s satellite broadcaster, new BT is growing at a rate of 32 per cent a year. Mr Verwaayen’s favourite measures of earnings per share (up 7 per cent at 18.1p) and dividend per share (up 22 per cent at 10.4p) helped the company’s share price to a healthy 6.3 per cent rise by the end of trading as the City reflected on Mr Verwaayen’s performance.The new BT, positioned very much as the driver of future growth, is basically three things: information and communications technology (ICT) which is big telecoms solutions contracts for businesses and the public sector; broadband; and mobile communications.Together, these three have sales of £4.5bn which, as Mr Verwaayen was quick to point out, is already bigger than such glamorous FTSE 100 media stocks as BSkyB. When he arrived in April 2002, BT was saddled with £13.7bn of debt and a strategy in tatters after the technology boom had bust. Its traditional fixed-line telephony business was in decline.Three years on, its debt is down to £7.8bn, where it will remain for the foreseeable future, the company is trumpeting a new strategy and the decline in its legacy business is much less painful thanks to the palliatives of lower costs, better margins, more attractive pricing and aggressive advertising campaigns.At yesterday’s presentation, Mr Verwaayen announced results for the year to 31 March which showed that group turnover, even allowing for the decline in fixed-line calls, was up 2 per cent to £18.6bn and pre-tax profit up 4 per cent at £2.1bn.

Ben Verwaayen, the chief executive of BT Group, has one, unequivocal message “The BT you have known is no longer there It is now a different company with a different profile. It is a company much more based on the growth of earnings per share and dividends.”

Ben Verwaayen, the chief executive of BT Group, has one, unequivocal message “The BT you have known is no longer there It is now a different company with a different profile. But these days BT has a new business at its centre which, after a three-year gestation period, finally came blinking into the world yesterday when Mr Verwaayen played the proud father routine to the massed ranks of analysts in the auditorium in BT Centre, near St Paul’s Cathedral.Like student doctors gathered to watch a particularly tricky delivery, the City’s teenage scribblers got to see much more clearly what Mr Verwaayen has been nurturing all this time. The stipulation allows sectors such as airlines to pull or delay adverts from running on the day of a major aeroplane crash.Morgan Stanley, which has been used to positive coverage as one of Wall Street’s most successful investment banks, may have not seen the need for such protection until now. The bank has also been ordered to pay $1.45bn (£790m) to Ron Perelman, an American billionaire investor who accused the bank of defrauding him over a business deal.”In the event that objectionable editorial coverage is planned, [Morgan Stanley's ad] agency must be notified as a last-minute change may be necessary,” the new advertising contract says.”If an issue arises after-hours or a call cannot be made, immediately cancel all Morgan Stanley ads for a minimum of 48 hours.”The bank said it had not yet exercised its rights under the new clause. It emphasised it was not planning to boycott publications altogether, but only to move an advert from appearing next to a negative article, or to delay it by a few days.General Motors stopped advertising in The Los Angeles Times last month on the basis that a series of negative articles about the car giant were erroneous.. A spokesperson for the bank, which spends many thousands of dollars a year on advertising, said the change of clause was not an attempt to gag the media.

Morgan Stanley, facing an unprecedented barrage of criticism, has told newspapers that its advertising decisions could be affected by overly negative coverage on their pages. Neither Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, nor the Financial Times would comment.It is common for large companies to have similar clauses in advertising contracts. “We obviously have no say” over editorial decisions, the spokeswoman said.The New York Times confirmed it had received notice of the change. It now has six businesses and debt of £792m after a slew of disposals.He said that the difference between the company’s situation in 2001 and now was “like night and day”.Invensys reported an operating profit of £169m for its continuing businesses, for the year to March. Analysts said cash generation – a key concern – was better than expected, with a net inflow of £38m, against a £40m outflow last time.. The 90 per cent turnout was put down to “election fever”.The opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) is reported to have won all 23 seats in the capital, Addis Ababa.