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German jailbirds are using smuggled phones to stay in contact with the outside world, plan escapes, threaten witnesses and even, in some cases, to continue their unlawful activities.

But not for much longer. Germany's Interior Ministry will plunge £80,000 into developing a tracing device that will be able to pin point a mobile to within a particular cell. If successful, it will be marketed worldwide.

The contract has

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been won by Gelsenkirchen university and the "mobile scout" is expected to be on the market by the start of next year.

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry said that despite successfully confiscating a number of mobiles "the phones are still getting in. They are so small now they are proving impossible to trace as they can be hidden in the most bizarre places."

On the other side of the world, in Japan, mobile phones are causing trouble on the inside of a different sort.

Authorities are worried about the effect that electromagnetic interference produced by mobile phones has on pacemakers.

A Tokyo subway operator and six private railway companies are relaunching their ban on phones with a more assertive message. An official for the Japan Non-Government Railways Association said: "Passengers should basically mind their manners."

The restrictions range from a complete ban on phone use on even-numbered carriages to rush hour clamp-downs.