He had suffered an aneurysm once before as a young child, but had made a full recovery following treatment, with an optimistic assurance of a very slim chance of it ever happening again.

BBC: Organ donor series

But, for those who once assumed the young would never learn to write, it is a modest reason for hope.

ECONOMIST: Language

Yet increasingly, relatively humdrum, time-consuming tasks, which would once have been foisted on ambitious but inexperienced young recruits, working long hours to earn their spurs in Wall Street or the City of London, are, thanks to the miracle of fibre-optic cable, foisted on their lower-paid Indian counterparts.

ECONOMIST: India aims to become the back office for the world's banks

Newcastle look set to have a fight on their hands once again but they've got some good young players who will have gained a lot from surviving last year.

BBC: Jeremy Guscott's Premiership preview

"Nick Clegg won the trust and votes of young people and their parents by signing the pledge, but has now lost them once and for all by breaking it, " said Mr Burns.

BBC: Students march in London protest

But Eddie has heard nothing for months, and this bright, once energetic young man is suffering from depression.

BBC: The Afghan interpreters seeking asylum in the UK

But Mr Fothergill joked he would take the nest down once the crows' young had fledged because he feared looking ridiculous out at sea with a real crow's nest on his mast.

BBC: Crow's nest built on yacht mast in Aberystwyth

As a former top Republican staff member in the Senate and legal counsel to the New York Stock Exchange, she might have been expected to be sympathetic to the antiregulatory mood of both parties, but, once again, she found herself out of step, most notably when a young company known as Enron called on the C.

NEWYORKER: The Contrarian