News Analysis: Conspiracy or just the way business works? The evidence cuts both ways in the Microsoft antitrust case

A TOP executive of America Online, the biggest internet service provider in the US, yesterday said his company reached a near-exclusive agreement to distribute Microsoft's web browser Internet Explorer because the software giant made an offer that was hard to refuse.

DAVID KOMANSKY, the Merrill Lynch chief executive, has been under severe strain of late.

The Net is giving troubled teens somewhere to go for help. One person they turn to is Matthew Whyman, AOL's agony uncle

George Michael's done it. So has Noel Gallagher. It seems you can't log on these days without bumping into a celebrity in a chat room.

THE United States navy and America's biggest Internet provider, America Online (AOL), have agreed compensation for a naval officer who faced dismissal, with no benefits, on grounds of homosexuality.

The announcement of a new standard for 56K modems should make life easier for ordinary users who want to buy a faster modem. However, there are still a few details that need to be ironed out.

The world's most popular Internet service provider said yesterday that it will boost the monthly charge for unlimited use to $21.95 (pounds 13.71) from $19.95. America Online said the move was necessary to keep pace with increased online usage by its subscribers.

Sirs,

After the way the stock market has been behaving recently, plenty of investors, both professional and private, may be feeling a little foolish about some of their investment decisions. However, there is one website which glories in its foolishness - The Motley Fool.

An allegedly gay sailor is challenging his discharge from the US Navy, claiming that the Navy and a major Internet service provider breached his right to privacy.

AOL's fight against spammers

Communications between users of AOL and MSN broke down as users of MSN 2.5 found their e-mail to AOL being bounced for several days. Normal service was resumed last week, but with no one quite sure what had gone wrong. Aware that neither company has been without its e-mail problems in the past, the competitors did not indulge in the sort of high-profile slanging match that rivals in computing industries seem so disposed towards. "It is not yet clear what caused the problem," AOL spokesman Rich D'Amato said. "What's important is that the mail is flowing again. AOL and MSN together are trying to determine what the problem was and where it occurred."

A young American woman has a small video camera trained on her bedroom 24 hours a day. The camera, connected to a computer, relays continually updated colour photographs from her Washington flat into her Internet website, where 100 million visitors around