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Perth firm Parker & Parker is to merge with the Perth office of Australian firm Freehill Hollingdale & Page. The merged firm will have 53 partners and 120 fee-earners, and will be known as Freehill Hollingdale & Page. The merger should take effect in May, and the firm will be based in Parker & Parker's offices in Perth. The addition of Parker & Parker's 86 lawyers will make Freehill Hollingdale Australia's largest law firm, with over 180 partners and 400 other lawyers in offices in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.

The Alliance of European Lawyers has added a Polish member, Consultor Limited, which has signed a cooperation agreement and will be known as Alliance Consultor. The French member of the six-firm Alliance, Jeantet & Associés, already has a Warsaw office, but there has been disagreement over its merger with Consultor and it is operating as a separate office despite the cooperation agreement. A Jeantet lawyer in one of the Alliance joint offices says: "It is a bit ridiculous but we all hope the merger will take place some time in May or June." There are practical reasons for the delay, according to Gérard Mazet, partner in Jeantet's Paris office. "Basically we have got problems with premises and with a few conflicts of interest and so for the time being they will remain separate."

Grimaldi & Clifford Chance has opened an office in Padua. This is the third office in Italy the firm has established since the association between Grimaldi e Associati and UK law firm Clifford Chance began in 1993. The office will initially have five lawyers led by two partners, Paolo Rulli and Gianandrea Rizzieri. Rulli has moved from the firm's Rome office and Rizzieri joins from local partnership Studio Rizzieri. Both specialize in corporate and international trade law, with Rizzieri providing experience in litigation and arbitration. Associates Federica Greggio and Susanna Rizzieri specialize in international transactions, contracts and litigation.

• UK firm Simmons & Simmons has appointed partner Huen Wong to the new role of China managing partner. This involves heading the Hong Kong and Shanghai offices and integrating them in preparation for the handover of Hong Kong to China at the end of June.

A decision of the Colombian Constitutional Court, issued in August 1996, has blocked the ratification of a bilateral investment treaty entered into by Colombia and the UK in 1994 and approved by the Colombian Congress in late 1995. With the failure of a recent government initiative to overturn the constitutional basis for the court's decision, it now appears that the treaty has been shelved indefinitely.

Decree 2343 of 1996 establishes new terms and conditions for the trunking of telecommunications services. The aspects of these terms are:

The Court of First Instance recently delivered its judgment in WWF UK v Commission (T-105/95) in which it considered the Commission's decision to refuse the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) access to documents relating to its investigation into the Irish Mullaghmore project to build a visitors' centre in the Burren National Park in Ireland.

In its February session, the Swiss Federal Banking Commission gave the green light for the first two foreign funds with special risks to be sold and marketed in Switzerland.

In the January 1997 briefing we noted that a parliamentary committee was expected to propose amendments to the Companies Act of1975, one of which would permit Swedish companies to repurchase their own shares. This proposal has now been published (SOU 1997: 22).

The amendments to the Finnish Companies Act (see International Financial Law Review, August 1996, page 56) and certain related legislation were ratified in February 1997 and due to come into effect on September 1 1997.