He remembers when 13 boats at a time were being built in the local shipyard, now grassed over and deserted. His son is a fisherman, working in Spain where he has lived for eight years. “The only way to make a living from fishing is to leave and live abroad,” the old man says.But he points with pride to a league table of local boats’ contributions to the seafarers’ church. Top of the list of some 300 boats is Ajudado de Deus (Helped by God) which contributed 627,500 escudos (pounds 2,120).

The contributions fund elaborate processions and fiestas to honour the Lady of Help, the protector of sailors “The church is wonderful. It is the heart of our community now,” Mr Sousa says.A rainbow suddenly brightens the sky, but it promises no crock of gold for the fisherfolk of Vila do Conde They must settle for spiritual consolation.Elizabeth Nash. CABLE & WIRELESS, the UK’s second-largest phone company, has raised its offer for International Digital Communications to 88.3 billion yen (pounds 448m) in cash and debt to top Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp’s bid for the Japanese phone company. C&W, which owns 17.7 per cent of IDC and was one of its founding shareholders, said it will offer 107,372 yen per share in cash, or Y55.1bn, for the remaining shares of IDC. That values the Japanese company at Y67bn, a 7.3 per cent premium to C&W’s original offer C&W will also assume Y33.2bn of IDC debt. The higher C&W bid could put pressure on IDC to review its stated intent to support NTT’s bid.. ALAN GREENSPAN, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve (pictured), warned yesterday that the “truly phenomenal” performance of the American economy could not last for ever.

The tight jobs market posed a risk of higher inflation, he said in a speech. “There are imbalances in our expansion that, unless redressed, bring this long run of strong growth and low inflation to a close.” The warning sent both bond and share prices lower yesterday morning.. MICROSOFT, the US software giant, is to take a 29.9 per cent stake in Telewest, Britain’s second-largest cable operator, as part of a broader $5bn Internet and cable TV alliance with AT&T, the American long-distance telephone operator. The deal raises the prospect of Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, becoming the catalyst for a further, final round of consolidation within UK cable industry which may result in the emergence of a single player big enough to square up to both BT and Rupert Murdoch.
Telewest, whose shares soared 31.5p to 287p on the news, was already in talks with Cable & Wireless before yesterday’s deal. Microsoft recently bought a $500m stake in NTL, Britain’s other major cable operator.The purchase of the Telewest stake is the biggest corporate move to date by Bill Gates in the UK.

It comes against the backdrop of growing pressure on the cable operators in the UK to respond to Mr Murdoch’s aggressive bid to win the lion’s share of the UK market for digital television.The main thrust of yesterday’s deal between Microsoft and AT&T is an agreement extending Microsoft’s access to the set-top boxes being installed by AT&T in millions of US homes as part of plans to provide full broadband TV, Internet and voice services throughout the United States.The move which follows AT&T’s takeover of cable operator MediaOne for $57bn earlier this week is in return for Microsoft bankrolling AT&T by subscribing for $5bn new warrants and preferred shares. If exercised these will give Microsoft a 3 per cent stake in AT&T. Microsoft’s backing was instrumental in AT&T seeing off a rival bid for MediaOne from Comcast, another US cable operator.Yesterday’s deal is the latest attempt by Microsoft to diversify into media and communications businesses, reflecting Bill Gates’ conviction that the technology underpinning the computer software and telecommunications industries will increasingly converge.He believes that television will gradually supersede the personal computer as the main access point for Internet related services in the majority of homes worldwide.Hailing the alliance with AT&T yesterday, Mr Gates said: “Our agreement today represents an important step in Microsoft’s vision of making the web lifestyle a reality. Working with AT&T, a leader in the delivery of cable and telephony technologies, we will expand access to an even richer Internet and television experience for millions of people.”The deal is equally significant for AT&T, which under the leadership of chairman and chief executive officer Michael Armstrong, has successfully reinvented itself as a major force in the American cable industry.