The pencil went past Mrs Wegner's right nostril and into her brain

A woman in Germany who has spent 55 years with part of a pencil inside her head has finally had it removed.

Margret Wegner fell over carrying the pencil when she was four. It punctured her cheek and part of it went into her brain, above the right eye.

The 59-year-old has suffered headaches and nosebleeds for most of her life.

Demonstrated at the Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, the tools make it far easier to steal account details, said Robert Graham of Errata Security.

Identifying files called cookies are stolen in the attack which let hackers pose as their victim.

This gives attackers access to mail messages or the page someone maintains on sites such as MySpace or Facebook.

Google wants a bigger slice of the mobile advertising market

Reports suggest that the web giant is developing a series of"GPhones", centred on its mobile services, such as search, e-mail and maps.

In a statement, Google said it was working with carriers, phone makers and content providers to "bring its services to users everywhere".

The firm would not say if its efforts included plans for a handset.

The Google statement said: "What our users and partners are telling us is that they want Google search and Google applications on mobile, and we are working hard every day to deliver that."

Those are the key findings of a new survey conducted by analyst firm Entertainment Media Research.

The survey found that some 53% of people actively surf social networking sites to find music.

A further 30% said they went on to buy or download music that they had discovered on a social network site.

Some admit that they have only downloaded legally "once"