The Scottish Liberal Democrats, Labour's coalition partners in the Scottish Executive, appeared unperturbed by an apparent attempt by Mr McLeish to distance himself from them in the run-up to the general election.

BBC: McLeish: Election is important to Scotland

And Mr Prodi's apparent success in bringing Italy within shouting distance of the Maastricht test has numbed his right-wing opponents, most of whom approve of the government's euro ambition but have derided its efforts to achieve it.

ECONOMIST: Italy

Opponents of iAdvance -- chiefly long-distance carriers and competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) -- ridicule the apparent contradiction and say Project Pronto proves iAdvance's arguments are bogus.

CNN: SBC lobbyists undercut by DSL rollout