Aspose Words : mail merge from a custom data source

Aspose.Words enables .NET and Java applications to read, modify and write Word® documents without utilizing Microsoft Word®.

Custom datasource is possible.
As showed on this example

http://www.aspose.com/Documentation/file-format-components/aspose.words-for-.net-and-java/aspose.words.reporting.imailmergedatasource.html

VB.NET : XML Literals and Embedded Expressions

Allowing XML literals is a nice feature in VB9.
Beth Massi wrote a nice article
http://www.code-magazine.com/article.aspx?quickid=0807061