Gamers’ enthusiasm for keeping fit or playing tennis in their living rooms may be on the wane as sales of the Wii console plunged in the first half, slashing Nintendo’s profits and prompting the group to cut its full-year forecasts. Nintendo said it had continued its strategy of “putting smiles on many people’s faces… regardless of age, gender or gaming experience” this year. Yet there would have been few smiles in its boardroom as the gaming giant reported that net income had fallen from ¥144.8bn (£950m) to ¥69.4bn.

North Acton is an unlikely outpost for Hollywood. Yet in a West London business park, in headquarters filled with film memorabilia, Lovefilm is plotting its rise. A life-sized model of Indiana Jones cracks his whip next to the reception desk, while Kung Fu Panda aims a kick at visitors. The walls are plastered with stills and quotes from iconic movies from The Godfather to Jaws. The office is a vibrant reflection of an online DVD rental company that has leapt from 100,000 subscribers to more than a million in four years – one that hopes to more than double its ...

Advertising and media giant WPP today predicted a “marked improvement” in second-half profits but warned that consumer confidence remained fragile. The company added that third quarter trading was “less worse” than the previous three months, with revenue declines slowing to 8.7 per cent. But it said: “Confidence remains fragile amongst consumers, because of the shadow of high unemployment levels and amongst corporates, because Armageddon and Apocalypse Now were barely avoided in September 2008.”

They gaze out at the camera with every variety of human expression – fear, hope, doubt, bafflement, dread. Some are asleep. One gapes with huge eyes. Some of the tiniest manage a sunny smile. But in truth, these children have little to smile about. What binds them together is that all of them were whisked away from their homes by criminal gangs and sold to families desperate enough to buy a child because they either want a son or are unable to have a child themselves. A newly launched Chinese police website is aimed at reuniting scores of children found during ...