France Telecom says it does not rule out spinning off some non-core activities, including its stakes in Thomson SA and Compagnie des Machines Bull SA – stakes the government wanted the company to retain.

The theme for the UK’s Data Protection Registrar’s annual report, submitted to the UK Parliament yesterday, was the pressing need for a thorough review of current data protection legislation. The basic principle of the Data Protection Act passed in 1984 is protect personal information held on computers, but the legislation was drawn up during the late 1970s when few people realized how widely technology would infiltrate our lives. The law made no provisions for applications such as Electronic Data Interchange transactions that enable information to be electronically exchanged without human intervention, or the recent rise in popularity in the Internet. During the year the European Union Data Protection Directive was finally agreed, which the UK must implement by 1998, the report implores the government to grasp the opportunity that will create legislation for the next century.

Prosecutors yesterday banned the head of the Bulgarian Telecommunication Co from leaving the country over the phone company’s joint venture with Intracom SA of Greece, the state news agency BTA reported. The Bulfon joint venture was set up last September to install and operate cellular and other information and telecommunications systems. Intracom holds a 68% stake while Bulgarian Telecom has only 32%, and in May the chief state prosecutor filed a lawsuit against Danov over his involvement in Bulfon. Another prosecutor said Bulfon posed a threat to national security because Bulgaria had only a minority stake.