Newspapers Online Overnight 02-04-2014 | Sci

More than 800 pages on NHS.uk automatically redirected unsuspecting users to pages that contain either malware or advertising.

The affected pages were highlighted by a user who posted details of the problem on Reddit.

In a statement, the NHS said its site had not been maliciously attacked and that it had fixed the problem.

"An internal coding error has caused an incorrect redirect on some pages on NHS Choices since Sunday evening," a statement explained.

"Routine security checks alerted us to this problem on Monday morning at which point we identified the problem and corrected the code."

Typo blamed Reddit user Muzzers said he had stumbled across an infected page while he had been browsing for information about the flu.

"Digging a bit deeper I found hundreds more pages which redirect to either an advertisement or malware infested page," he wrote.

Users trying to find details on dementia, pregnancy, vaccinations, mental health and other areas also found themselves sent to the malicious pages.

The fault occurred due to a typo within the NHS website's source code.

A developer accidentally wrote "googleaspis.com" rather than "googleapis.com" when creating the site.

The mistake went unnoticed until the incorrectly-spelt address was registered by someone in the Czech Republic over the weekend, and was then used to capitalise on the error.

The NHS said the site would not be completely clear of the problem until later on Monday.

Five valid credit card numbers were also posted, BCE's Bell Canada unit said in a release on Sunday. It said its own systems were not affected.

The No. 2 U.S. mobile services provider said on Saturday it would slash the monthly fee for its 10 gigabytes per month data share plan aimed at families to $15 per phone from $40 per phone.

Including other charges, this would mean that a family of four would pay $160 per month or $100 less than Verizon Wireless or $80 less than Sprint Corp and $20 less than T-Mobile US for a comparable service, according to AT&T.

AT&T's move follows recent price adjustments at the top U.S. wireless providers as they attempt to sustain growth in a mature market built on stealing growth from competitors.

"It is too soon to see if others react. With these plans AT&T is still at a premium to Sprint and T-Mobile US, but a clear discount to Verizon," Wells Fargo Securities analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote in a note.

"(Verizon) will be the one to watch, in our view as they have been on record saying it would react to price moves if they felt the need."

AT&T's shares were down 2 percent at $33.32 in premarket trading on Monday, while Verizon's shares were down 1.5 percent at $47.25.

Analysts have said a price war could dent the industry's profits but the new plans might prompt higher data use by consumers.

"While (AT&Ts price cut) will likely have an impact on service revenue from some of the higher data users, this new pricing approach may also have some positives which should bode well for longer-term margin trends," Wells Fargo Securities analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote in a note.

Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson said the best way for AT&T to grow revenues was to increase the amount of data people include in their plans.

"The strategy is important as the market becomes saturated and there are fewer new customers to go around," he said.

AT&T has been fiercely competing with smaller rival T-Mobile U.S. After T-Mobile spent several quarters directly marketing to AT&T customers, AT&T recently offered to pay T-Mobile customers to switch to its service.

T-Mobile's announcement last month that it would pay up to $650 for early termination for customers switching from AT&T, Sprint or Verizon "may have pushed AT&T too hard", making it fight back, J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Philip Cusick said.

AT&T's new pricing plan also targets Verizon's "prized" family plan customers, Jefferies & Co analyst Mike McCormack said.

McCormack said it was possible, but unlikely that Verizon would respond with service price discounts.

U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co and Japan's Toyota Motor Sales USA saw January auto sales plummet, missing analysts' estimates for the month.

But early sales results were mixed for other companies and brands, with Chrysler Group, a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Nissan North America reporting increases and topping analysts' estimates.

"The bad weather only seemed to affect our competitors' stores," teased Chrysler as it reported double-digit sales increases for its Jeep and Ram truck brands.

While snow and bone-chilling weather likely hurt total U.S. auto sales for the month, analysts said any dip in January sales shouldn't cut into the industry's months' long rebound, which has been outpacing the recovery of the overall U.S. economy since the 2008-2010 downturn.

"The weather's an easy scapegoat -- it will be interesting to watch February and March to see if those lost sales in January get made up," said Larry Dominique, executive vice president at industry researcher TrueCar.

Morgan Stanley estimated industry sales in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 15.3 million, well below analysts' consensus of 15.7 million.

With companies representing about 75 percent of the industry total reporting early Monday, sales were down about 4 percent from the previous year.

There was little consistency in the initial January sales reports.

"It's tough to make any declarative statement" about the disparity in automakers' sales performances, said Gabelli & Co analyst Brian Sponheimer. "It's really hard to pull anything out of January that's trend-worthy."

Ford said company sales fell 7.1 percent to 154,644. Analysts polled by Reuters had projected 157,441. Ford brand sales dropped 8.4 percent, with declines in such popular models as the Fusion mid-size sedan and the F-Series full-size pickup. But Lincoln brand sales jumped 42.5 percent, on the strength of the MKZ sedan and the MKX crossover.

GM sales dropped 11.9 percent to 171,486, compared with analysts' average projection of 187,782. All four of GM's U.S. brands saw January sales decline.

Toyota's January sales fell 7.2 percent to 146,365, missing analysts' estimate of 153,003.

U.S. President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address last week to veto any legislation that threatens the talks with Iran. U.S. senators including some of Obama's Democrats have co-sponsored a bill that would impose new restrictions on Iran if talks on a permanent accord falter.

But Iran has warned that it will walk away from negotiations - raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East - if the bill becomes law. It is now stalled in the Senate.

"With good will we can reach an agreement within six month," he said in a speech to the German Council on Foreign Relations. "I don't fear a decision in the U.S. Congress ... The U.S. president has promised to veto it."

Zarif was visiting Berlin after meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other members of the six powers negotiating with Iran at the annual Munich Security Conference at the weekend.

Iran reached a landmark preliminary agreement with them in November to halt its most sensitive nuclear operations, winning some relief from sanctions in return. Talks with the six powers about a definitive settlement begin in Vienna on February 18.

The meetings with Kerry and others from the six powers in Munich evoked the easing of antagonism between the Islamic Republic and the West, with Zarif describing the talks in Vienna as an historic opportunity Iran would not squander.

Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful but Western countries have long suspected Tehran of covertly researching the means to develop a nuclear weapon.

The prospect of a deal has lessened the risk of Israel or the United States taking military action against Iranian nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran acquiring a nuclear bomb.

"We will not start a military operation against anyone - I say: against anyone," Zarif said in Berlin on Monday.

Kerry and Zarif have met several times since the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, last June paved the way for the thaw in relations with the West.

Yanukovich, caught in a tug of war between Russia and the West, is seeking a way out of a sometimes violent confrontation with protesters who have occupied city streets and public buildings following his decision in November to spurn a trade deal with the EU and accept financial aid from Moscow.

As he returned to work, looking in fair health, a day before a new session of parliament, the political opposition took heart from fresh expressions of support from Western governments and pressed for more concessions to end protests.

However, the European Union, whose foreign policy chief is due in Kiev late on Tuesday, played down suggestions it was working with the United States on a large-scale aid package aimed at nursing the economy through a political transition.

The president's first urgent task, after an absence that some saw as a tactical gambit to gain time, will be to name a new prime minister to succeed Mykola Azarov, who stepped down on January 28 under pressure from the protest movement.

Russia has suspended its financial support until it sees how a new government will handle relations with Moscow.

But Yanukovich confined himself, in his first public appearance since Wednesday, to warning against the actions of thousands of protesters who have erected barricades around central Kiev and occupied public buildings there and in other cities, as well as militants who have clashed with police.

At least six people were killed in clashes last month.

"We must say no to extremism, radicalism, the fanning of enmity in society, which is the basis of the political fight against the authorities," he said in remarks on video.

On the frontline barricades close to the Kiev parliament building, where riot police and club-wielding, steel-helmeted militants face off across 20 meters of no man's land, his words carry no weight. "We're staying here until Yanukovich is gone," said a 28-year-old masked opposition protester named Dima.

EU, RUSSIAN MONEY

The speaker of parliament, a Yanukovich ally, said the president was still planning to discuss the choice of premier with the opposition and may propose someone this week.

The will was expected to set off another round of squabbling among members of his large and factious family over the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's financial legacy.

Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke said he was not aware of any possible wrangle over the provisional 46-million-rand estate, although when the will was read to family earlier on Monday the mood was "charged with emotion."

"I am not aware of any contest of any type and the will has been duly lodged and accepted," Moseneke said.

Mandela's third wife, Graca Machel, is entitled to half the estate under South African marital law but could waive her claims and opt for specified assets that include properties in her native Mozambique. Machel has not made a decision on whether to weave her rights, Moseneke said.

Some of the estate would be split between three trusts set up by Mandela, including a family trust designed to provide for his more than 30 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Each of the Mandela children and some of his grand-children received $300,000. His upscale Johannesburg house, where he spent most of his life after being freed from apartheid jails, would be home to his deceased son Makgatho's children.

The ANC, which was Mandela's political home, could receive a portion of his royalties from books and other commercial outlets using his name and image. Mandela staff, including his long-time personal assistant Zelda Le Grange, also shared in the fortune with 50,000 rand each.

"It really makes me happy. I didn't think Tata was thinking of leaving something for me," said Mandela's personal chef Xoliswa Ndoyiya, referring to Mandela using the Xhosa word for father.

Mandela, who died in December at the age of 95, left an estate that also included a modest dwelling in his rural Eastern Cape home province and royalties from book sales, including his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom".

More visibly, his legacy includes a potent political and moral brand that some of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren have already used to market everything from clothing to reality TV.

Some of his grandchildren have started a line of caps and sweatshirts that feature his image under the brand "Long Walk to Freedom". Two of his U.S.-based granddaughters starred in a reality television show called "Being Mandela".

Hoffman, 46, was discovered unresponsive on the bathroom floor of his Greenwich Village apartment by police responding to a 911 call, and Emergency Medical Service workers declared him dead at the scene, New York City police said in a statement. An investigation was under way.

A police spokesman said investigators found Hoffman with a syringe in his arm and recovered two small plastic bags in the apartment containing a substance suspected of being heroin. A police department source earlier told Reuters that Hoffman had died of an apparent drug overdose.

Hoffman, who is survived by three children with his partner Mimi O'Donnell, had detailed his struggles with substance abuse in the past.

"We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone," Hoffman's family said in a statement issued through his publicist.

"This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving. Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers," it added. A representative said the family would not make any further statements for now.

Onlookers gathered on Sunday afternoon near Hoffman's apartment in a four-story red brick building in a fashionable neighborhood of the West Village, where many other actors keep homes. The entire block was cordoned off by police.

Rachel Melman, a neighbor who described herself as a fan, said she frequently saw him around the neighborhood.

"I never spoke to him, but I always wanted to," she said, adding that she would see him sitting on the scaffolding of the building, often dressed in socks and no shoes, "just reading and hanging out there.

"Of course I'm sad. It was such a shocker," she said.

CNN, citing a law enforcement official, reported that Hoffman was last seen alive at 8 p.m. Saturday. He had been expected to pick up his children on Sunday but failed to show up, prompting playwright David Katz and another person to go to his apartment, where they found him dead, CNN said.

Hoffman spoke in the past of struggling with drugs, including a 2006 interview in which he told CBS he had at times abused "anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all."

The Japanese electronics and media giant called the report inaccurate while acknowledging that it was looking at various possibilities for the unit.

"Sony continues to address various options for the PC business, but the press report on a possible PC business alliance between Sony and Lenovo is inaccurate," the company said in a statement.

Sony has said it plans to revise its product and manufacturing strategy for the Vaio unit as it faces a slump in its PC business, hit by the popularity of smartphones and tablets.

Sony, which will release results next week, had previously predicted its PC business would be in the red for the year to end-March, without disclosing figures.

Moody's Investors Service cut Sony's debt rating to junk status last week, highlighting challenges in its television and PC businesses and pressure on profitability at its entire core consumer electronics operation.

Lenovo earns about 80 percent of its revenue from personal computers but has been aggressively diversifying into more promising markets.

In what the company called its "best-ever prices," AT&T said a family of four can get unlimited talk and text with 10GB of shared data for $160 a month. The discounts are available to any customer, including small businesses with up to 10 lines, and customers of other carriers who switch to AT&T.

The cuts follow recent price adjustments at all four U.S. wireless providers as they attempt to sustain growth in a mature market built on stealing growth from competitors.

AT&T and T-Mobile U.S. have been competing fiercely. After T-Mobile spent several quarters directly marketing to AT&T customers, AT&T recently offered to pay T-Mobile customers to switch to its service.

As part of its new effort, AT&T, for a limited time, is offering new and existing customers a $100 credit for each new line of service. While it does not have an ad Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast, the company plans to run existing advertising the same day in hopes of generating interest in its plans.

Opposition leaders, addressing the crowd on their return home from meeting European and U.S. officials, said they hoped for international mediation in negotiations with the government and for constitutional change to limit presidential power.

Calling for a complete change of leadership after weeks of crisis that have divided the country and set the West against Yanukovich's Russian allies, opposition figures who attended a security conference in Munich told supporters they would secure international economic aid if they were able to take power.

Yanukovich, who angered opponents in November by spurning a trade pact with the European Union and turning instead to Moscow for financial support, announced on Thursday he was on sick leave and has not been seen in public since.

Critics saw in that a tactic to deflect pressure for political compromise. On Friday, he signed legislation revoking unpopular new restrictions on protest meetings that has, however, failed to appease opponents who are demanding the release of dozens of people arrested in recent weeks.

On Sunday, a presidential statement said Yanukovich planned to return to work on Monday after an acute respiratory infection: "After undergoing required treatment, the president of Ukraine feels well and his health is satisfactory," it quoted a state medical official, Oleksandr Orda, as saying.

PROTEST

On the capital's Independence Square, focus of a sprawling, barricaded protest camp throughout the winter, thousands of people gathered to listen to opposition leaders despite a freezing wind and Arctic temperatures which helped keep attendance well below those of major rallies in recent weeks.

Vitaly Klitschko, a former world champion heavyweight boxer-turned-politician, said they had discussed with senior Western officials in Munich bringing in international mediators in talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

"The democratic world has understood that there is no trust in the Yanukovich regime," he told the crowd.

"So we spoke about international mediation in negotiations with Yanukovich, so that afterward there will no differing interpretations of obligations."

Reid, a Democrat, is the senior member of Obama's party in Congress. On Wednesday, Reid said he was "against fast track" and urged a slow approach to trade negotiations.

"Look, I respect Harry Reid. I've worked with him for a long time, obviously," Kerry, a former U.S. senator, said during remarks at a security conference in Munich.

"I've heard plenty of statements in the Senate on one day that are categorical, and we've wound up finding accommodation and a way to find our way forward. So this should not be a deterrent, and I hope nobody will let it stand in the way," Kerry added.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama asked for fast-track trade negotiation authority. Legislation before the House of Representatives and Senate would grant the White House power to submit free trade deals to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without amendments.

This authority would allow the Obama administration to speed up the negotiations for two massive free trade pacts that would cover about two-thirds of the world's international trade - a pan-Pacific trading bloc and a U.S. agreement with the European Union.

"I think that everyone would be well-advised just to not push this right now," Reid said on Wednesday.

Kerry on Saturday said that "there's a lot of room here still" despite Reid's comments. Also in Munich, another member of Obama's Cabinet, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, underscored Kerry's comments on trade.

"I would hope that this would get done by the United States Senate. It's clearly in everyone's interest," said Hagel, also a former member of the Senate.

"Let's be smart and let's be wise and let's be collaborative and use all of the opportunities and mechanisms that we have to enhance each other - culturally, trade, commerce, exchanges," the Pentagon chief added.

Fast-track authority is seen as a litmus test of political support for free trade deals, which have been opposed by some of Obama's power bases - unions, environmentalists and consumer groups concerned about lost jobs and weaker labor and pollution restrictions.

Top Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday called on Obama to "get his own party in line" behind the fast-track trade negotiation authority.