PLANET BUSINESS

Laura Slatterytakse a sideways glance at some the week's business news.

BY THE NUMBERS

1.4 Billion

Number of people worldwide who are living in extreme poverty, according to a new estimate by the World Bank.

€11 billion

Value of the drop in Russia's foreign capital reserves in the second week in August compared to the previous week, as the conflict with Georgia and tensions with the West prompted nervous investors to pull out.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"Passengers are extremely happy with Terminal 5 . . . It is not surprising if other airlines are envious."

-BA spokesman Paul Marston dismisses Virgin Atlantic's claims that it is gaining passengers as a result of "ongoing" problems at Heathrow's T5.

"Things will not bounce back."

-An Aer Lingus spokesman fails to see any silver linings.

GOOD WEEK

Avon

More women are apparently loading up their car boots with perfumes, lotions and creams and embracing the "ding-dong Avon calling" thing in order to meet rising household bills - or, as the UK president of Avon Cosmetics prefers to put it, "earning extra pocket money". With stag-flation sinking in, direct-sales jobs with flexible hours are increasingly sought after by people in need of second jobs to pay for essentials.

Facebook

The social networking website is set to be immortalised on celluloid by Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, who has signed up to write the story of how Facebook was invented, even though he says (on his Facebook group page) his grandmother is more internet savvy than he is, "and she's been dead for 33 years".

BAD WEEK

Confectionary fans

It's not just your imagination or because you're an adult now: chocolate bars and sweets are shrinking. Mars has become the latest snack firm to announce it is cutting some product sizes to save on higher cocoa, sugar and energy costs, meaning even its funsize bars will be slightly less fun in the future. Worse still, Nestlé is putting just 10 Rolos in a pack rather than 11, making that last Rolo even more precious.

The iPhone

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has banned a television advertisement for Apple's iPhone for misleading consumers about its web capabilities. "You'll never know which part of the internet you'll need . . . which is why all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone," the voiceover claimed. But the watchdog upheld complaints that the iPhone does not support Flash or Java and therefore cannot offer full access to the web.