The winner in all this would seem to be Porsche, which could end up making a tidy packet from the two-day jump in Volkswagen's share price.

FORBES: Market Scan

Since the mid-1990s, the proportion of 12th-grade pupils who believe smoking a packet or two of cigarettes a day carries a great risk has risen by about ten percentage points.

ECONOMIST: But efforts to warn people off drugs are still too timid

"On the day I got laid off I got a packet slapped in front of my face and that was it, " she says.

CNN: Few laid-off workers keep health insurance, report says

Each day, he sent to her house, on Dupont Circle, a packet of billets-doux and state documents.

NEWYORKER: State of the Union

On the horizon, new data services such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) may make it cheaper for users to stay logged on to AIM all day.

CNN: AOL brings instant messenger to mobile phones