Telefonica on Saturday pulled out of negotiations to acquire a euro7.15 billion stake in Brazil's leading cell phone company Vivo

MADRID Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica on Saturday pulled out of negotiations to acquire a euro7.15 billion ($9.3 billion) stake in Brazil’s leading cell phone company Vivo. Telefonica said in a statement to Madrid’s stock exchange early Saturday that the deal fell through after Portugal Telecom’s board of directors failed to accept the Spanish company’s offer by the deadline.”The deal has been extinguished,” Telefonica said.Though PT shareholders voted two weeks ago to accept the offer, the Portuguese government used special voting rights to block the sale, citing national interests.The European Union’s Court of Justice then ruled that the Portuguese government’s blocking of the deal was illegal.

Telefonica and PT each own 50 percent of Brasilcel, a Dutch holding company which owns 60 percent of Vivo. The Spanish company’s offer was to buy PT’s half of Brasilcel and following the court’s finding it extended the offer until July 16.Telefonica is eager to expand its significant presence in the fast-growing Latin American sector, where it has an important foothold in burgeoning markets such as Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela and Brazil.

Brazil’s economy is booming, in contrast to Telefonica’s home territory of Spain which is struggling to emerge from nearly two years of recession.PT is Portugal’s largest telecommunications operator and the Portuguese government demanded it maintain a foothold in Brazil as it did not want to lose PT’s Brazilian revenue stream.

Telefonica SA is a much larger company than Portugal Telecom SGPS SA, employing about 237,000 people compared with the around 32,000 employees at its Portuguese counterpart.Telefonica would not comment Saturday on the possibility of legal action following the collapse of the deal.Calls to Portugal Telecom on Saturday went unanswered.Telefonica shares fell 1.55 percent to euro16.16 on Friday while Portugal Telecom directors were still considering the deal. Portugal Telecom shares slid 4.53 percent to euro8.08 per share. (AP)

Seven Cuban political prisoners and members of their families arrived in Madrid on Tuesday

MADRID Seven Cuban political prisoners and members of their families arrived in Madrid on Tuesday, the first of a group of inmates the government in Havana has promised to release, an official said.The prisoners arrived on two flights that left Cuba’s capital Monday night, a Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Together with their families they numbered around 35, the official said.It was the start of a mass liberation of dissidents promised by Cuba – actions once seemed unthinkable.

Cuba says it will free a total of 52 inmates after Cuba’s Roman Catholic Church reached an agreement last week with the government to liberate those still imprisoned from a 2003 crackdown that jailed 75 activists.Spain, which took part in the negotiations, agreed to accept the first group.The Foreign Ministry official was speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with ministry regulations.

He said six former inmates – Lester Gonzalez, Omar Ruiz, Antonio Villarreal, Julio Cesar Galvez, Jose Luis Garcia Paneque and Pablo Pacheco – were aboard an Air Europa flight that arrived at 12:49 p.m. (1049 GMT, 7:49 a.m. EDT) at Barajas airport.A seventh released prisoner, identified as Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso, arrived on an Iberia flight about an hour later.

The seven were expected to come through arrivals together after the second plane landed. It was not immediately known how many of them would speak to the media.”They have come from jail to the plane. I feel a mix of joy and pain because to live in freedom one must leave the country,” said Blanca Reyes, representative in Madrid for the Cuban dissident group Ladies in White, who was at the airport.

One of the released, Omar Ruiz, who had been serving a 12-year sentence for treason, told The Associated Press on Monday he and six other former inmates were driven in a van to Havana’s Jose Marti International airport, where they were reunited with relatives in a special waiting room. All were then escorted to an Air Europa flight bound for Madrid.He said Cuban officials were watching them.”That’s why I won’t consider myself free until I arrive in Spain,” he said.

The government of Raul Castro has pledged to free 52 Cubans who international human rights group say were jailed for their political beliefs. That process is expected to take three or four months and is part of a landmark deal last week between Cuban authorities and the island’s Roman Catholic Church that was brokered by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.Spanish authorities have said that once the Cubans arrive, they will not be required to stay in Spain and will be free to head elsewhere.

The church says another 13 opposition activists and dissidents behind bars will go free soon. It was not known if subsequently released prisoners will be allowed to stay in Cuba or will be forced to go to another country. Both the U.S. and Chile have offered to grant them asylum, in addition to Spain.(AP)

Airbus will reduce its exposure to the troubled A400 military transport plane project

MADRID Airbus will reduce its exposure to the troubled A400 military transport plane project unless the governments that ordered it reach a decision soon on financing cost overruns, an official said Thursday.Airbus Military spokesman Jaime Perez-Guerra said time is of the essence because Airbus parent company EADS presents its 2009 earnings on March 9.He said EADS needs a decision so it can book its share of the cost overruns in its 2009 financial results, rather than carry over uncertainty into the first quarter.”We are squeezed, absolutely squeezed,” Perez-Guerra told The AP.

Perez-Guerra said EADS is not setting a new deadline for a decision but insists one must be all but completed very soon. If not, he said the company will take measures that could include diverting money, personnel and equipment to other projects.”EADS really has to see that an agreement is practically sealed,” he said.Airbus CEO Tom Enders gave the warning Wednesday as he met with union leaders during a visit to an Airbus plant outside Madrid, the spokesman said.

France said this week the seven nations that have ordered the plane have agreed to commit an extra euro2 billion ($2.75 billion) in funding. France is proposing that governments make available an extra euro1.5 billion in reimbursable loans. The project is nearly four years behind schedule.EADS has reduced its demands for extra funding to euro4.5 billion – but the government proposal still falls euro1 billion short.The four-engine turboprop military plane had its maiden flight in December. The price tag for the 180 planes ordered was fixed at almost euro20 billion in the initial contract in 2003. Germany is the biggest costumer with 60 aircraft ordered, and France wants 50.The A400M is seen as occupying an important niche market between the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules, which carries only half the payload, and Boeing’s C-17 Globemaster III, which is larger, costlier, and less tactically versatile.The countries that have ordered the planes are Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey.(AP)