MS fixes a dozen Office flaws

Microsoft has fixed 12 vulnerabilities in four security bulletins, all of which affect Microsoft Office, says InformationWeek.

The fact that all the vulnerabilities found reside in Microsoft Office, said Eric Schultze, CTO of Shavlik Technologies, supports the current belief that client-side vulnerabilities are more likely to bear fruit for hackers than the server side vulnerabilities.

MS08-014 (maximum severity of critical) addresses a zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel that Microsoft acknowledged in January. It could allow an attacker to take over an affected system if the victim opens a maliciously crafted Excel file.

Not even the US Surgeon General could have predicted this. Apparently, second-hand cigarette smoke can be harmful to the Nintendo Wii, reports BostonHerald.com.

Gamers who puff 'n' play the uber-popular video game console could be unknowingly damaging the laser that reads Wii discs. And now that a hotly anticipated new game has exposed the problem, Nintendo is offering to clean the consoles at no charge.

Several tech and gaming Web sites are buzzing this week about the problem, which surfaced after the game, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, was released in Japan last month.

The Botswana government has contracted a French firm, Sagem Defence, to provide the police with an automated fingerprint identification system, says Botswana Press Agency.

The system, which will also assist in immigration and customs investigations, is worth 30 million pula. The company will install the system and train about 80 officers to the level of technician on how to operate it.

Police spokesperson senior superintendent Christopher Mbulawa said the project and computer operatives are expected to be up and running in about 15 months.

Apple has dismissed claims in the UK press that the Beatles catalogue is about to be made available online through the computer giant's iTunes Music Store as "unsubstantiated speculation", reports Reuters.

Reports on Friday suggested unnamed sources "close to Sir Paul McCartney" had confirmed that the Beatles catalogue would be available online though iTunes and other legal services "within months".

However, the claim has been met with a string of "no comments" from the Beatles' own label, Apple and EMI. "This is not news nor is it a scoop," says an Apple spokesman, declining further comment.