Los expertos recomiendan desactivar Java por un fallo

(Reuters) - Los expertos en seguridad informática están recomendando desactivar el muy usado software Java, de Oracle, a raíz de hallarse un reciente problema de seguridad que dicen que los hackers están aprovechando para atacar ordenadores.
"Java es un desastre. No es seguro", dijo Jaime Blasco, director de laboratorio de AlienVault Labs. "Hay que desactivarlo".
Java, que está instalado en cientos de millones de ordenadores en todo el mundo, es un lenguaje de programación que permite a los programadores escribir software usando un solo juego de códigos que se ejecutan virtualmente en cualquier tipo de ordenados.
El software se usa para que los desarrolladores de web puedan hacer accesibles sus sitios desde navegadores que se ejecuten con el Windows de Microsoft o en los Macs de Apple.
Los usuarios acceden a estos programas a través de módulos, o 'plug-ins' que funcionan con software Java en navegadores como Internet Explorer y Firefox.
Tres expertos informáticos dijeron a Reuters el jueves que los usuarios tenían que desactivar estos módulos para protegerse frente a un ataque.
Una portavoz de Oracle dijo que no podía hacer comentarios de inmediato sobre este asunto.
"Es como una temporada de caza abierta contra el consumidor", dijo HD Moore, responsable jefe de seguridad de Rapid7, una firma que ayuda a las empresas a identificar vulnerabilidades críticas de seguridad en sus redes.
Moore dijo que parece que los ordenadores que funcionan con Mac OS X, Linux o Windows son vulnerables a los ataques.
Marc Maiffret, jefe de tecnología con BeyondTrust, dijo que las empresas pueden necesitar seguir usando Java para acceder a algunas webs y programas basados en Internet que funcionan con esa tecnología.
"El desafío principalmente es para las empresas, que tienen que usarlo para algunas aplicaciones", dijo. "Oracle tiene que hacer bastante más para que Java sea seguro", añadió.
Los expertos en seguridad dijeron que el riesgo de un ataque es actualmente elevado dado que los desarrolladores de varias herramientas populares que los delincuentes usan para atacar ordenadores personales han añadido un software que permite a los hackers explotar el defecto recientemente descubierto en Java para atacar las máquinas.

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Movers roundup: Facebook, Best Buy

Among the stock activity stories for Monday, Dec. 31, from AP Business News:
— Shares of Facebook Inc. rose after an analyst said advertising spending was picking up on the Internet social network and raised his rating on its stock.
— Shares of Best Buy Co. rose on light volume as the struggling electronics retailer closed out a rocky year.
— Shares of Duff & Phelps Corp. rose on news that the company had agreed to be acquired.

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Your Snapchats aren’t safe: How to secretly save videos from Snapchat or Facebook’s ‘Poke’

Argue though its executives might, Snapchat is good for two things: sending photos and videos of yourself making stupid faces, and sending photos and videos of yourself naked. The latter, of course, is the more compelling function since that is exactly what the app was designed for. When users send pictures or videos, the recipient can only view them for a set amount of time before they “self-destruct.” Yes, a recipient can take a screenshot but the sender is automatically alerted when that occurs — then, as the saying goes, fool me once… As it turns out, however, Snapchat users (and users of “Poke,” Facebook’s (FB) Snapchat ripoff) can easily save photos and full-length videos received through the service without the sender ever knowing.
[More from BGR: Five tech resolutions for 2013]
As recently relayed by BuzzFeed’s Katie Notopoulos, saving photos and videos from Snapchat or Poke is as easy as connecting a phone to a computer and opening a file browser. The file browser is free and the “trick” requires no jailbreak or any other kind of hack.
[More from BGR: Can Samsung survive without Android?]
Start by leaving the photos and videos you receive in Snapchat or Poke unopened; as soon as a file is viewed, the countdown to its deletion begins.
Then simply connect to a computer and open a free iPhone file explorer like i-FunBox. Open the “User Applications” folder, navigate to the “Snapchat” entry and voilà, all of the photos and videos you have received and not yet opened are available to be copied to your computer’s hard drive.
Then go back and view them normally in the app and the sender will be none the wiser.
The file path is a bit different for Facebook’s Poke app but the end result is the same.

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Ubuntu se mete en los celulares con un sistema operativo propio

Al igual que otras plataformas que buscan una convergencia entre el mundo móvil y la PC, Canonical confirmó el arribo de su sistema operativo Ubuntu a los dispositivos móviles. Disponible en una primera instancia como una instalación no oficial para la línea de smartphones Nexus 3, la versión de Linux utilizada en más de 20 millones busca posicionarse como una alternativa ante un mercado dominado por compañías como Apple y Google, junto a las propuestas de Microsoft con Windows Phone y Research in Motion con sus teléfonos BlackBerry.
La compañía dio un primer paso en febrero de 2012 con Ubuntu for Android , una distribución para "mejorar" el Android convencional.
La versión actual es un sistema operativo que sólo comparte con Android el uso de sus drivers (ambos están basados en Linux), pero no usa una máquina virtual Java, por lo que los 700.000 programas con las que cuenta Android no estarán disponibles directamente. Ubuntu tendrá su propia suite de aplicaciones, y permitirá la suma de nuevas que estén programadas en HTML5 o sean nativas.
Canonical también planea lanzar un teléfono de diseño propio que llegaría al mercado en 2014, pero no brindó mayores detalles sobre el fabricante involucrado. Los recientes cambios en la interfaz de Ubuntu, denominada Unity, marcaron una tendencia en la distribución hacia la interacción en pantallas sensibles al tacto, y este lanzamiento representa un primer paso de la distribución para ingresar en el mundo móvil de los smartphones y las tabletas.
Las prestaciones de una PC, en un dispositivo de bolsillo
Según Mark Shuttleworth, CEO de Canonical, en un principio esta versión de Ubuntu apunta a los entusiastas de la plataforma, pero con una rápida expansión hacia el resto de los usuarios. "Por primera vez en la historia los usuarios de los teléfonos celulares pueden tener las prestaciones completas que tiene en una PC, y tenemos una ventaja en esto", dijo el ejecutivo.

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18 million Android devices could get whacked with malware in 2013

One security firm on Thursday claimed that 2013 will be the year of mobile malware for Android users, however no specific numbers had been given. The team at Lookout Mobile Security has painted a similar picture for Google’s (GOOG) operating system. The firm notes that more than 1.2 billion mobile devices are expected to be purchased in 2013 and in the following year users are forecasted to download over 70 billion mobile apps. Due to Android’s popularity, it is estimated that 18 million devices running the operating system may encounter some form of mobile malware. The likelihood that users will encounter malware or spyware, however, is heavily dependent on geographical location and behavior. Research from the security firm reveals that users in the U.S. have a 0.40% chance of seeing malware, compared those in Russia with a 34.7% chance.

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PUC approves writing rules for smart meter opt-out

EL PASO, Texas (AP) -- The Public Utility Commission has decided to develop a set of rules so consumers can opt out of the smart meters installed in millions of Texas homes and businesses.
Consumers have opposed the new meters, citing possible health hazards and privacy concerns. Some have installed steel cages around their analog meters to prevent utility workers from replacing them with the new digital units and one Houston woman held a gun to impede a utility worker from replacing her meter.
PUC spokesman Terry Hadley said Friday that an opt-out would leave already-installed smart meters in place but disable the devices' radio frequency capabilities.
A draft of the new rules will be written and submitted for public comment, Hadley said. After that, the PUC will vote again on whether to adopt them, which means there's still a chance the opt-out will fail. But, he said, "at this point the Commission is leaning toward an opt-out."
It will take several months until the new proposal is drafted and voted, Hadley said.
Smart meters allow for remote metering via radio frequency and are make the billing process cheaper since there is no need to send utility workers to read them. The meters also provide real-time information on energy consumption and help utilities prevent grid overloads during peak times. They also report to the utility when there is a power outage, making reconnection faster.
In websites and meetings organized by PUC, those against smart meters have spoken of possible government snooping and violations of the Fourth Amendment —unreasonable search and seizure — as well as the chance that hackers could access people's information from the meters.
On a petition template that's posted on www.bantexassmartmeters.com , meters are called "surveillance devices" because they record the household occupants' activities and can be used to "gain a highly invasive and detailed view" of their lives. Smart meters record consumption in 15-minute intervals.
Health hazards from the radio frequencies emitted by the meters have also been cited. The Public Utilities Commission says the meters have a lower impact than cellphones and microwave ovens and are well within Federal Communications Commission's standards for radio frequency devices.
It's likely that consumers who opt out will have to pay to have their meters read. As part of the rule-writing process, the Commission will gather information on how much it costs to send employees to read the meters and what disabling the radio frequency device would cost.
Users in California and Nevada pay between $75 and $107 to have the devices replaced along with monthly fees ranging from $8 to $10 to have the meters read. Meanwhile, Vermont legislators decided in May that utilities cannot charge users that opt out.
About 93 percent of the nearly 7 million smart meters in Texas' competitive markets for electricity, mainly in Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, have been deployed, Hadley said.

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Internet regulation seen at national level as treaty talks fail

 The world's major Internet companies, backed by U.S. policymakers, got much of what they wanted last week when many nations refused to sign a global telecommunications treaty that opponents feared could lead to greater government control over online content and communications.
In rejecting even mild Internet language in the updated International Telecommunications Union treaty and persuading dozens of other countries to refuse their signatures, the U.S. made a powerful statement in support of the open Internet, U.S. officials and industry leaders said.
But both technologists and politicians fear the Internet remains in imminent danger of new controls imposed by various countries, and some said the rift that only widened during the 12-day ITU conference in Dubai could wind up hastening the end of the Net as we know it.
"If the international community can't agree on what is actually quite a simple text on telecommunications, then there is a risk that the consensus that has mostly held today around Internet governance within (Web-address overseer) ICANN and the multi-stakeholder model just falls apart over time," a European delegate told Reuters. "Some countries clearly think it is time to rethink that whole system, and the fights over that could prove irresolvable."
An increasing number of nations are alarmed about Internet-based warfare, international cybercrime or internal dissidents' use of so-called "over-the-top" services such as Twitter and Facebook that are outside the control of domestic telecom authorities. Many hoped that the ITU would prove the right forum to set standards or at least exchange views on how to handle their problems.
But the United States' refusal to sign the treaty even after all mention of the Internet had been relegated to a side resolution may have convinced other countries that they have to go it alone, delegates said.
"This could lead to a balkanization of the Internet, because each country will have its own view on how to deal with over-the-top players and will regulate the Internet in a different way," said another European delegate, who would speak only on condition anonymity.
Without U.S. and European cooperation, "maybe in the future we could come to a fragmented Internet," said Andrey Mukhanov, international chief at Russia's Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.
HARD LINE IN NEGOTIATIONS
Spurred on by search giant Google and others, the Americans took a hard line against an alliance of countries that wanted the right to know more about the routing of Internet traffic or identities of Web users, including Russia, and developing countries that wanted content providers to pay at least some of the costs of transmission.
The West was able to rally more countries against the ITU having any Internet role than agency officials had expected, leaving just 89 of 144 attending nations willing to sign the treaty immediately. They also endorse a nonbinding resolution that the ITU should play a future role guiding Internet standards, along with private industry and national governments.
Some delegates charged that the Americans had planned on rejecting any treaty and so were negotiating under false pretenses. "The U.S. had a plan to try and water down as much of the treaty as it could and then not sign," the second European said.
Other allied delegates and a U.S. spokesman hotly disputed the claim. "The U.S. was consistent and unwavering in its positions," he said. "In the end—and only in the end—was it apparent that the proposed treaty would not meet that standard."
But the suspicion underscores the unease greeting the United States on the issue. Some in Russia, China and other nations suspect the U.S. of using the Net to sow discontent and launch spying and military attacks.
Ror many technology companies, and for activists who are helping dissidents, the worst-case scenario now would be a split in the structural underpinnings of the Internet. In theory, the electronic packets that make up an email or Web session could be intercepted and monitored near their origin, or traffic could be subjected to massive firewalls along national boundaries, as is the case in China.
Most technologists view the former scenario as unlikely, at least for many years: the existing Internet protocol is too deeply entrenched, said Milton Mueller, a Syracuse University professor who studies Net governance.
"People who want to `secede' from that global connectivity will have to introduce costly technical exceptions to do so," Mueller said.
A more immediate prospect is stricter national regulations requiring Internet service providers and others to help monitor, report and censor content, a trend that has already accelerated since the Arab Spring revolts.
Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet Society, also predicted more fragmentation at the application level, with countries like China encouraging controllable homegrown alternatives to the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
Zittrain, Mueller and other experts said fans of the open Net have much work to do in Dubai's wake.
They say government and industry officials should not only preach the merits of the existing system, in which various industry-led non-profit organizations organize the core Internet protocols and procedures, but strive to articulate a better way forward.
"The position we're in now isn't tenable," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity advisor to the White House based at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "For us to say 'No, it's got be an ad hoc arrangement of non-governmental entities and a nonprofit corporation ... maybe we could get away with that 10 years ago, but it's going to be increasingly hard."
Lewis said the United States needed to concede a greater role for national sovereignty and the U.N., while Mueller said the goal should be a "more globalized, transnational notion of communications governance" that will take decades to achieve.
In the meantime, activists concerned about new regulation can assist by spreading virtual private network technology, which can national controls, Zittrain said.
Backup hosting and distribution could also be key, he said. "We can devise systems for keeping content up amidst filtering or denial-of-service attacks, so that a platform like Twitter can be a genuine choice for someone in China."

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92K Missourians affected by insurance data breach

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- State officials say the personal information of more than 92,000 Missourians was accessed by potential identity thieves who hacked the computer systems of Nationwide Insurance, which also does business as Allied Insurance.
Missouri's insurance department said Friday the Oct. 3 data breach could affect more than 1.1 million people across the country who did business with Nationwide or Allied.
Missouri's insurance director says the breach affected the records of people who got quotes for auto insurance after August 2011. The department says Nationwide believes the hackers accessed names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and birth dates, among other things.
Nationwide is offering free credit monitoring and identity theft protection to people affected by the data breach. The insurer says it's not aware that the information has been misused.

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Soccer-Marseille cling on with leaders after beating St Etienne

 Andre Ayew struck just before the break to give Olympique Marseille a 1-0 home win against St Etienne on Sunday and keep them level on points with leaders Paris St Germain.
As Ligue 1 goes into a three-week break, OM are third with 38 points, behind pacesetters PSG and second-placed Olympique Lyon on goal difference.
St Etienne, who last beat OM at the Velodrome in 1979, are 10th with 27 points from 19 matches.
The game got off to a rather dull start with neither team creating chances and Marseille looking cautious having lost their last two home games.
Marseille, however, went ahead on the stroke of halftime when Ghana striker Ayew, who will play in the African Nations Cup with the Black Stars from Jan. 19 to Feb. 10, headed home from a Rod Fanni cross.
Josuha Guilavogui was set up by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but Steve Mandanda dived into the midfielder's feet to deny St Etienne an early opportunity to equalise two minutes into the second half.
Fanni cleared Aubameyang's strike off the goal line 15 minutes from time to keep his team ahead.
Andre Ayew then came close to doubling the tally in the 85th minute after being set up by his younger brother Jordan, only for his low shot to be blocked by Stephane Ruffier.
Earlier, Valenciennes moved up to sixth on 29 points after goals by Gregory Pujol and Jose Saez gave the Northerners a 2-1 win against visiting Evian Thonon Gaillard.
Toulouse, who had bagged only four points from their last eight games, beat Sochaux 2-0 courtesy of goals by Adrien Regattin and Emmanuel Riviere.
On Saturday, PSG claimed a 3-0 win at Stade Brest and Lyon beat Nice 3-0 at home.

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Soccer-European roundup-Barca win again, Chelsea score eight

Dec 23 (Reuters) - Barcelona finished the year with a win at Real Valladolid and a record haul of 49 points for this stage of a La Liga season with Lionel Messi scoring his 91st goal of the calendar year while arch rivals Real Madrid lost at Malaga.
Chelsea eased the disappointment of their Club World Cup final defeat by beating Aston Villa 8-0 but Manchester United's lead over local rivals City at the top of the Premier league was cut to four points after they were held at Swansea City.
The Ligue 1 title race is a thriller with three teams - Paris St Germain, Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille - on 38 points at the halfway stage as European club football in the major leagues outside England heads into the winter break.
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SPAIN
Lionel Messi struck his 91st goal this year as unbeaten La Liga leaders Barcelona won 3-1 at Real Valladolid while Real Madrid slumped to a 3-2 defeat at Malaga where Jose Mourinho surprisingly left captain and keeper Iker Casillas on the bench.
The setback left champions Real 16 points adrift of Barca, who have a record haul of 49, and seven behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, 1-0 winners at home to Celta Vigo.
Valladolid kept a dominant Barca at bay until two minutes before halftime when Xavi turned a low cross into the net.
Messi doubled Barca's lead on the hour with a trademark run and finish for his 26th goal of the league campaign as he extended the calendar year record he broke earlier this month when he overhauled Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old mark of 85.
Substitute Cristian Tello added a third in what was the perfect tonic for Barca following the news that coach Tito Vilanova had to have throat surgery last Thursday and is starting a course of chemo- and radiotherapy.
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ENGLAND
Chelsea, playing with a swagger missing for much of the season, routed Aston Villa 8-0 to move up to third place while Premier League leaders Manchester United wasted the chance to move six points clear after a 1-1 draw at Swansea City.
Striker Fernando Torres began the rout after three minutes and David Luiz and Branislav Ivanovic made it 3-0 at the break. Frank Lampard marked his 500th Premier League game with a rasping fourth before Ramires (two), Oscar and Eden Hazard joined in the fun for Chelsea, who also missed a late penalty.
United, who led at Swansea through Patrice Evra before being pegged back by league top scorer Michu's 13th goal this season, hold a four-point advantage over Manchester City, who beat Reading 1-0 thanks to Gareth Barry's stoppage time goal.
United have 43 points from 18 games, followed by City on 39 and Chelsea - who handed interim manager Rafael Benitez his first home league win - on 32 with a game in hand.
United boss Alex Ferguson was left fuming after their match, saying Robin van Persie "could have been killed" by Swansea's Ashley Williams when the prone striker was struck in the head from point-blank range by a clearance after a foul was given.
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ITALY
A late double from substitute Alessandro Matri helped top of the table Juventus to a 3-1 victory at 10-man Cagliari after the Serie A leaders had missed a penalty.
Lazio's 1-0 win at Sampdoria put them second above Inter Milan who were held 1-1 by Genoa in the final matches of 2012.
Champions Juve have 44 points, eight ahead of Lazio with Fiorentina and Inter, who slipped to fourth, a further point behind.
Cagliari took the lead against Juventus through Mauricio Pinilla's 16th-minute penalty after Marco Sau was fouled.
But they had Davide Astori sent off in the 65th for a second booking and Juve finally scored 10 minutes later through Matri after Arturo Vidal blasted his spot kick into the stands.
Home keeper Michael Agazzi kept Cagliari in the match until Matri added his second in stoppage time and then Mirko Vucinic scored a flattering third for the visitors.
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FRANCE
Ligue 1 top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted his 18th goal of the season as Paris St Germain reached the halfway mark leading the standings with a 3-0 win at Stade Brest.
PSG have 38 points and are first on goal difference from Olympique Lyon, who beat visitors Nice 3-0, and Olympique Marseille, 1-0 winners at home to St Etienne thanks to Andre Ayew's first-half header.
Fourth-placed Stade Rennes, who beat AC Ajaccio 4-2, trail the top three by six points as Ligue 1 takes a three-week break.
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NETHERLANDS
Jeremain Lens's early double set PSV Eindhoven on the way to a 6-1 win over neighbours NAC Breda that left them top on goal difference from Twente Enschede who won 3-0 at AZ Alkmaar.
Lens opened the scoring after 11 minutes when he netted a rebound and while Breda goalkeeper Jelle ten Rouwelaar saved a penalty from Lens six minutes later, the PSV forward soon made amends with his second goal of the match.
Further strikes from Georginio Wijnaldum, Mathias Jorgensen, Luciano Narsingh and Juergen Locadia took PSV's league tally to 60 this season.

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UPDATE 3-Soccer-Ligue 1 summaries

Dec 23 (Infostrada Sports) - Summaries from the Ligue 1 matches on Sunday
Sunday, December 23
Olympique Marseille 1 Andre Ayew 45+1
St Etienne 0
Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 37,007
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Toulouse 2 Adrien Regattin 26, Emmanuel Riviere 85
Sochaux 0
Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 16,401
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Valenciennes 2 Gregory Pujol 14, Jose Saez 74
Missed penalty: Mathieu Dossevi 50
Evian Thonon Gaillard FC 1 Saber Khlifa 33
Red Card: Djakaridja Kone 73
Halftime: 1-1; Attendance: 14,308
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Saturday, December 22
Bastia 4 Jerome Rothen 9, Anthony Modeste 13,63, Sambou Yatabare 26
AS Nancy 2 Benjamin Moukandjo Bile 51, Andre Luiz 76
Halftime: 3-0; Attendance: 1,200
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Olympique Lyon 3 Lisandro Lopez 40, Anthony Reveillere 55, Bafetimbi Gomis 77pen
Red Card: Dejan Lovren 90
Nice 0
Red Card: David Ospina 74
Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 30,903
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Girondins Bordeaux 0
ES Troyes AC 0
Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 19,726
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FC Lorient 2 Maxime Barthelme 48, Pedrinho 90+1
Stade de Reims 2 Odair Fortes 6, Gaaetan Courtet 70
Halftime: 0-1; Attendance: 16,471
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Ajaccio 2 Adrian Mutu 2, Fousseni Diawara 41
Stade Rennes 4 Julien Feret 17pen,72, Romain Alessandrini 44, Cheick Diarra 60
Halftime: 2-2; Attendance: 6,312
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Lille 4 Nolan Roux 24,62, Dimitri Payet 43, Ryan Mendes Da Graca 74
Montpellier HSC 1 Souleymane Camara 82
Red Card: Younes Belhanda 45+1
Halftime: 2-0; Attendance: 44,735
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Friday, December 21
Stade Brest 0
Red Card: Abdou Sissoko 34
Paris St Germain 3 Zlatan Ibrahimovic 55, Kevin Gameiro 73, Bernard Mendy 90+2og
Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 14,601

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Soccer-Villa's Lambert keen to move on from Chelsea mauling

- While most managers fret over congested fixtures during the festive season, Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert must be thankful his shellshocked side have only two days to stew over Sunday's 8-0 mauling by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Villa's worst ever league defeat has dragged them back into the relegation battle and the Midlands side now sit just three points above the drop zone.
The defeat was all the more galling for Villa given they had gone five games unbeaten in the Premier League since a 5-0 drubbing by champions Manchester City last month, while Chelsea's form had been patchy under interim coach Rafa Benitez.
Scot Lambert acknowledged his team had been second best in every department on Sunday.
"Everything that could go wrong went wrong," he told Villa's official website. "We have been on a really good run but we got beaten up today by a really good side. We were second best."
Spanish striker Fernando Torres needed just three minutes to confirm his return to form to put Chelsea 1-0 up, before David Luiz and Branislav Ivanovic made it 3-0 at the break.
Frank Lampard marked his 500th Premier League game with a fourth before Ramires (two), Oscar and Eden Hazard joined the fun for Chelsea, who also missed a penalty.
Stamford Bridge has not been a happy hunting ground for Villa, who were hammered 7-1 there in 2010.
Lambert said Sunday's defeat would sting his side into action and he was looking for a response when they host sixth-placed Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.
"You always learn when you win, lose or draw. That will be a wake-up call for us," he added.
"We only have two days to mull over it but we have to go again against Tottenham on Wednesday. I am sure whoever plays on Wednesday will atone for that."
Former Norwich boss Lambert has had a mixed start since taking over at Villa at the end of last season, taking just six points from their opening nine Premier League games.
However, their recent unbeaten run, which included an impressive 3-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield last week, gave the fans hope they had turned the corner.
Lambert said he had not given his players a roasting in the dressing room after the embarrassing defeat to Chelsea as they were well aware their level of performance was unacceptable.
"You can go in there and rant and rave all you want but it won't really do you much good. They know my feelings on it," he said. "But they know themselves that they have let everybody down."
Also on Sunday, Norwich City said they had come to an agreement with Lambert and Aston Villa to settle the dispute over his departure at the end of last season.
Villa will pay Norwich the original amount agreed in Lambert's contract with the Norfolk club, who will pay the former Scotland midfielder his bonus due after the 2011/12 season.

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Soccer-Benitez demands more after Chelsea smash eight

LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Rafael Benitez was still scribbling notes towards the end of Chelsea's 8-0 rout of Aston Villa on Sunday and after the game, the Spaniard said there was plenty of room for improvement.
As Chelsea made it 13 goals from two games since returning empty-handed from a 12,000-mile (19,312-kilometre) round trip to Japan for the Club World Cup a week ago, Benitez demanded even more from his players.
"I can see the team improving with the little things we wanted to improve," said Chelsea's interim manager after his team climbed to third in the English Premier League.
"But we can still improve some things. I say that after winning by eight."
Striker Fernando Torres, rediscovering the killer instinct he showed under Benitez at Liverpool, opening the scoring with a thumping header in the third minute at Stamford Bridge.
The goals kept flowing, Frank Lampard marking his 500th Premier League start with a sweetly struck fourth and Brazilian Ramires netting twice in an early Christmas stuffing of Villa.
"The players have been really focused since I arrived," Benitez, whose appointment angered Chelsea fans following last month's sacking of Roberto Di Matteo, said.
"They knew they had a new manager and they had to perform. We have to try to adjust things in every training session but I was impressed with the way we played.
"From day one, they were keen to learn and to improve," added the Spaniard, whose meticulous attention to detail are beginning to reap dividends for the Blues.
"Chelsea were a top side before I came here. They still are. You can see the team has confidence in themselves. They believe, they have good movement and they create chances."
Becoming the first holders to exit the Champions League at the group stage and then failing to compensate for it by lifting the Club World Cup, the pressure had been on Benitez.
Chelsea still trail Premier League pace-setters Manchester United by 11 points, and Manchester City by seven, albeit with a game in hand.
But Benitez, who has tinkered with his side to good effect since their gruelling trip to the Far East, believes Chelsea can climb back into the title race.
"Now we have to sustain this run and it will be easier for me to say we can compete," the Spaniard added.
Many of Chelsea's players had said while in Japan that having time away from the bearpit of the Premier League to work with and adapt to Benitez's style would bring its rewards.
"To win is always special, but the mentality of the players was good," said Benitez, game-by-game beginning to look the part in his official Chelsea suit.
Credited by the players for making the team more compact defensively, against a Villa side woefully out of their depth, Chelsea's attacking football was at times breath-taking.
"Even after we scored our sixth goal, we kept pushing forward for more," purred Benitez. "We had the balance we are looking for.

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TSX ends flat as RIM buckles, gold miners bounce

Canada's main stock index ended little changed on Friday as gold miners gained on safe-haven buying amid U.S. budget uncertainty, while BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plunged more than 20 percent.
The index's materials sector, which includes miners, rose 0.4 percent. Even though the price of gold was near its lowest level in four months, the gold-mining sub-sector added 0.9 percent as investors fretted over stalled U.S. budget talks that could throw Canada's largest trading partner back into recession.
"As our tiptoes are over the (U.S.) fiscal cliff and we're looking over the abyss, the markets are upset obviously, and this is sort of putting a damper on the stocks," said John Ing, president of Maison Placements Canada.
"But we've had a mixed reaction in Canada, mainly because the resources have been much better, like gold for example, which is hedging into the uncertainty (around the budget talks)," he said, noting gold miners had been under pressure for the last two weeks.
Miner Barrick Gold Corp edged up 0.2 percent to C$33.29. Centerra Gold Inc jumped more than 3 percent to C$9.10.
Gold miners are playing catch-up after underperforming throughout the year and could rise further in 2013, said Gavin Graham, president at Graham Investment Strategy.
Shares of RIM dropped 22.2 percent to C$10.86 on fears that a new fee structure for its high-margin services segment could put pressure on the business that has set the company apart from its competitors.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> fell 3.01 points, or 0.02 percent, to end at 12,385.70. It gained 0.7 percent for the week.
Efforts to avoid the looming U.S. "fiscal cliff" were thrown into disarray on Friday with finger-pointing lawmakers fleeing Washington for Christmas vacations even as the year-end deadline for action edged ever closer.
Graham said that until a deal is reached in the U.S. budget talks, investors will avoid economically sensitive Canadian stocks and those most closely tied to the U.S. economy: auto parts manufacturers, forestry companies and resource stocks generally.
"The resource sectors in Canada, which is half of the index, is going to be adversely affected, correctly or not," he said.
"Chinese demand is likely to pick up somewhat now with the new leadership there but people will be focused on the U.S. given that it is still by far the most important export market for Canada."

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Google working on "X Phone", "X" tablet to take on rivals - WSJ

Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed "X-phone", aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Google acquired Motorola in May for $12.5 billion to bolster its patent portfolio as its Android mobile operating system competes with rivals such as Apple and Samsung.
The Journal quoted the people saying that Motorola is working on two fronts: devices that will be sold by carrier partner Verizon Wireless, and on the X phone.
Motorola plans to enhance the X Phone with its recent acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer. The new handset is due out sometime next year, the business daily said, citing a person familiar with the plans.
Motorola is also expected to work on an "X" tablet after the phone. Google Chief Executive Larry Page is said to have promised a significant marketing budget for the unit, the newspaper said quoting the persons.

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Instagram diverts attention from botched policy change with another new filter

Instagram messed up big time this week when it freaked everyone out with changes to its privacy policy related to licensing user photos for advertisements. After days of backlash, Instagram reverted back to its old terms of service. While the damage has already been done, Instagram is hoping a new update to its iOS and Android app will silence everyone. Instagram 3.4.0 adds a new filter called “Mayfair” that adds another hint of lavender to images and brightens up the center, support for 25 languages, photo sharing from any album, Facebook (FB) iOS 6 integration and various bug fixes. Version 3.4.0 comes hot off last week’s update that added the new “Willow” filter and numerous UI tweaks. Is a new filter enough to keep users from flocking to the new Flickr or Twitter apps; both with built-in filters? Instagram certainly hopes so.

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Suicide bombers attack mobile phone firms in Nigeria

Two suicide car bombers attacked the offices of mobile phone operators India's Airtel and South Africa's MTN on Saturday in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, killing themselves but no civilians, police said.
Islamist sect Boko Haram has previously targeted phone firms, blowing up telephone masts and offices, saying the companies help the security forces catch its members.
"The one who hit the Airtel office was shot by military men before the bomb exploded ... at the MTN office the car rammed into the fence but no civilians were killed," Ibrahim Idris, the chief of police in Kano, told Reuters.
Airtel Nigeria's parent company Bharti Airtel, India's top cellphone operator, gave no immediate comment.
The national emergency agency confirmed the bombing and said it was not aware of any civilian casualties. The security forces have played down the death toll in previous bombings.
At least 2,800 people have died in fighting in the largely Muslim north since the sect launched an uprising against the government in 2009, watchdog Human Rights Watch says.
The sect wants to impose strict Islamic law on a country of 160 million people split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.
The group has previously targeted churches on Christmas Day and security has been increased in all the major northern cities, although security experts say given the scale of Christian worship in Nigeria they cannot protect everyone.
Kano, Nigeria's second largest city after the southern commercial-hub Lagos, was the site of Boko Haram's most lethal attack which killed at least 186 people in January in coordinated bombings and shootings.

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2 bombers target mobile phone firms in Nigeria

Authorities blame a radical Islamist sect for twin suicide car bombings targeting two major mobile phone companies, an official said Saturday, blacking out a top operator's network in most of Nigeria's northern commercial hub.
A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden car into the facilities of the Nigerian subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India at about 8 a.m. in the city of Kano, said Capt. Iweha Ikedichi, who speaks for a special taskforce deployed in Kano to reduce the threat of the Islamic rebels known as Boko Haram. The attack left an Airtel worker injured, authorities said. It also damaged a switch station, said James Eze, an Airtel spokesman. He said the company was still assessing how bad the damage was, but declined to comment further.
Switch stations control the regional mobile phone network and if they are seriously damaged, the entire network could go down. An Airtel staff who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press said the targeted switch station covered six northern states, including Kano. But while Airtel's network appeared to be down across Kano Sunday, calls to lines in some of the other states went through.
At about the same time as the Airtel attack, another bomber targeted the facilities of the Nigerian subsidiary of South Africa-based MTN Group Ltd., about two miles (three kilometers) away. That attack was botched by security officers who shot the bomber, causing an explosion at the company's gate, Ikedichi said.
The target of the foiled attack was MTN's switch station, said Funmilayo Omogbenigun, spokeswoman for Nigeria's largest cell phone network provider.
Authorities suspect the Boko Haram sect is behind the attacks. The group is held responsible for more than 770 deaths this year alone, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. Boko Haram's campaign of bombings and shootings has targeted mosques, churches, schools, universities and government buildings. But, four months ago, the group broadened its scope by attacking mobile phone towers for the first time.
In September, a series of attacks damaged more than 31 towers operated by all the major mobile phone providers in the country. Other attacks have occurred since then, further straining the one link Nigeria relies on for communication in a country with very few landlines. While no one claimed responsibility for the attacks, the Islamist sect had threatened mobile phone companies earlier in the year, warning that they would be targeted for cooperating with the government to flush out its members.
In Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with more than 160 million people, mobile phones serve as a valuable lifeline in both cities and rural communities. Landlines remain almost nonexistent, as the state-run telephone company has collapsed and repeated efforts to privatize it have failed. More 87 million mobile phone lines were in use in 2009, according to estimates.
"Never would we have expected that telecommunications could be targeted," said Damien Udeh, a spokesman for the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria. "It portends a dangerous situation for everybody, especially government.

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