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the dangers of prolonged gaming sessions after a boy was taken to hospital after playing Counter-Strike solidly for nine days and nights

The fourteen year old from Romania was playing over the net via a local internet café, and doctors at the hospital said he was both mentally and physically exhausted.

The boy's mother said he had lost weight, stopped washing, skipped classes at school, and even stolen from his own home to fund the addiction.

The best-selling video game of 2007, "Halo 3," took in more revenue ($170 million) on its first day of sales than the opening weekend receipts of "Spider Man 3," ($151 million), the highest-grossing movie opening ever.

computer and video games to meet the demands and tastes of audiences as diverse as our nation's population.

Today's gamers include millions of Americans of all ages and backgrounds.  In fact, more than two-thirds of all American households play games. This vast audience is fueling the growth of this multi-billion dollar industry and bringing jobs to communities across the nation.

In Quetta, a city in southwestern Pakistan, Afghan refugees said teachers in madrassas and members of hardline religious parties urge young men to join the new Taliban insurgency.

That depth of feeling, some Pakistanis note, is what makes Osama bin Laden so difficult to catch.

As dusk arrived in the city last Saturday and the call to prayer sounded from local mosques, a young Afghan madrassa student in a turban demanded that a visiting American leave the area. As the foreigner drove away, a young boy spat in his face.

The suicide of a young Chinese boy in the Tianjin province has highlighted once more the growing dangers of game addiction, when those responsible don't understand or notice the risks of unhealthy play. Xiao Yi was thirteen when he threw himself from the top of a twenty-four story tower block in his home town, leaving notes that spoke of his addiction and his hope of being reunited with fellow cyber-players in heaven. The suicide notes were written through the eyes of a gaming character, so reports the China Daily, and stated that he hoped to meet three gaming friends in the after life. His parents, who had noticed with growing concern his affliction, were not mentioned in the letters.

My kid was like someone taking drugs who could not control himself,"

"His mother and I were very worried about him. But we knew little about the Internet and we did not know how to save him." Previously, Xiao's parents had found him starving after two days and nights in an internet cafe playing online role-playing games. When questioned about his bizarre behaviour, his father said that a tearful Xiao had told him that he had been poisoned by games and could no longer control himself.