New Year Honours for Games stars

Stars of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been recognised in the New Year Honours list.

Double Olympic champion Mo Farah, plus heptathlete Jessica Ennis, rower Katherine Grainger and cyclist Victoria Pendleton have each been made a CBE. They all won gold in London.

Paralympic athlete David Weir, who won four gold medals at the 2012 Paralympics, becomes a CBE.

Katherine Grainger: "This one's special - it's like winning all over again"

Bradley Wiggins and Ben Ainslie are knighted. Sarah Storey is made a dame.

GB cycling performance director Dave Brailsford and rowing chief David Tanner also receive knighthoods.

Britain's remarkable sporting year is reflected in a list dominated by athletes and coaches from the London Games.

Farah, 29, completed the 5,000m and 10,000m double in August, while Ennis claimed victory in the heptathlon. Grainger, 37, won gold at her fourth attempt, having taken silver in Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

Pendleton retired on a high after adding a gold and a silver to the gold medal she won in Beijing four years ago.

Weir's achievements saw him shortlisted for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award after a year in which he won four Paralympic gold medals to add to his two from Beijing. The 33-year-old also won his sixth London Marathon.

Katherine Grainger: For services to rowing Jessica Ennis: For services to athletics Mo Farah: For services to athletics Victoria Pendleton: For services to cycling David Weir: For services to athletics Dressage star Charlotte Dujardin and cyclists Jason Kenny and Laura Trott, who all won double gold at London 2012, have received OBEs, as has Andy Murray, who won the Olympic men's singles title before adding a maiden Grand Slam at the US Open.

Paralympic dressage star Sophie Christiansen, who won three golds in the summer, and swimmer Ellie Simmonds, who was shortlisted for BBC Sport's Personality of the year after winning two golds, a silver and bronze at London 2012, also get OBEs.

Simmonds, 18, said the award was the perfect way to round off a remarkable 2012 for her and her ParalympicsGB team-mates.

"It's been a great honour to be included in the list, which caps an amazing year for me personally and for British sport," she said.

In total, 29 athletes from ParalympicsGB have been recognised in the New Years Honours list following their achievements in the summer. Britain won a total of 120 medals, 34 of them gold, in London.

Nicola Adams said: "I can't believe how much my life has changed"

Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of the British Paralympic Association, said: "Their performances on the field of play not only received rapturous applause from the crowds at London 2012 and viewers of the TV coverage - many of whom were experiencing Paralympic sport for the first time - but the 11 days of sport that we witnessed this summer also gripped the nation and changed many peoples' perception of disability sport.

"It is fitting that so many of our gold medallists are offered some of the highest tributes possible, which reflect not only their sporting talent but also the sheer hard work and dedication that they put into preparing for their home Games."

Other London 2012 gold medallists appointed MBEs include boxers Nicola Adams, Luke Campbell and Anthony Joshua. GB boxing coach Robert McCracken, who also trains super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch, also gets an MBE.

Triathlete Alistair Brownlee, taekwondo star Jade Jones and shooter Peter Wilson are also recognised.

Rowers Katherine Copeland, Helen Glover, Alex Gregory, Heather Stanning, Sophie Hoskin, Hannah Watkins, kayaker Ed McKeever and canoeist Etienne Stott, are also among those appointed MBE.

Smith delights in 'remarkable' MBE

Gymnast Louis Smith, who won team bronze and individual silver at the Games, is made an MBE, a week after becoming the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing champion.

"To receive this honour is out of this world and something I never would have dreamt of as I grew up in the sport of gymnastics," said the 23-year-old Smith.

"This year has been like no other for so many reasons. I wasn't sure it could get any better but to be awarded an MBE is the icing on the cake and without a doubt the proudest moment of my life."

A number of coaches also become MBEs, including Malcolm Brown (triathlon), Ian Coley (shooting), Will Connell (equestrian), Paul Hall (gymnastics), David Howlett (sailing), Paul Thompson (rowing) and Robin Williams (rowing).

Knighthood: Ben Ainslie - sailing, Bradley Wiggins - cycling

CBE: Katherine Grainger - rowing, Jessica Ennis - athletics, Mo Farah - athletics, Victoria Pendleton - cycling

OBE: Charlotte Dujardin - equestrian, Jason Kenny - cycling, Andy Murray - tennis, Laura Trott - cycling

MBE: Nicola Adams - boxing, Tim Baillie - canoeing, Laura Bechtolsheimer - equestrian, Scott Brash - equestrian, Alistair Brownlee - triathlon, Steven Burke - cycling, Luke Campbell - boxing, Peter Charles - equestrian, Katherine Copeland - rowing, Helen Glover - rowing, Alex Gregory - rowing, Carl Hester - equestrian, Philip Hindes - cycling, Sophie Hosking - rowing, Jade Jones - taekwondo, Anthony Joshua - boxing, Peter Kennaugh - cycling, Dani King - cycling, Mary King - equestrian, Ben Maher - equestrian, Ed McKeever - canoeing, Joanna Rowsell - cycling, Greg Rutherford - athletics, Louis Smith - gymnastics, Heather Stanning - rowing, Etienne Stott - canoeing, Anna Watkins - rowing, Peter Wilson - shooting.

Dame: Sarah Storey - cycling

CBE: David Weir - athletics

OBE: Sophie Christiansen - equestrian, Ellie Simmonds - swimming

MBE: Jessica-Jane Applegate - athletics, Natasha Baker - equestrian, Danielle Brown - archery, Mickey Bushell - athletics, Hannah Cockroft - athletics, Mark Colbourne - cycling, Josef Craig - swimming, Deborah Criddle - equestrian, Aled Davies - athletics, Neil Fachie - cycling, Jonathan Fox - swimming, Heather Frederiksen - swimming, Oliver Hynd - swimming, Helena Lucas - sailing, Craig MacLean - cycling, Nigel Murray - boccia, Jonnie Peacock - athletics, Josie Pearson - athletics, Pam Relph - rowing, Naomi Riches - rowing, James Roe - rowing, David Smith - rowing, Lily van den Broecke - rowing, Sophie Wells - equestrian, Richard Whitehead - athletics.

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Fellaini banned for three games

Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini has been banned for three matches by the Football Association for headbutting Stoke's Ryan Shawcross.

The incident occurred in the 59th minute of Saturday's 1-1 Premier League draw at the Britannia Stadium.

It was not seen by the match officials, but was caught on video.

Everton have decided not to appeal against the charge, meaning Fellaini will miss the Premier League games against West Ham, Wigan and Chelsea.

Fellaini should be punished - Moyes

Referee Mark Halsey confirmed he saw two further incidents in the 71st and 91st minutes, also involving Fellaini and Shawcross, neither of which he deemed to be violent conduct.

Everton manager David Moyes publicly criticised his player's behaviour.

"It was a terrible thing to do and I expect him [Fellaini] to be punished," Moyes said in his post-match interview.

And Fellaini, 25, said: "I apologise completely to Ryan Shawcross, my team-mates and to our fans at the game. I lost my temper and it was unprofessional."

Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association, gave credit to Fellaini and Moyes.

"It is good to see the lad has apologised for his actions," Taylor said. "It is disappointing. He has had a great season and obviously it is an aberration.

"It was refreshing to hear the manager accept what he did was wrong and for the player to apologise. He's prepared to accept what comes his way."

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Spam virus hits Android video games

18 December 2012 Last updated at 15:15 GMT Popular games, such as Angry Birds, are being used by the Android scammers Cyber-thieves are using games including Angry Birds to turn Android phones into spam-sending drones.

Phones have been infected with spam-forwarding software that hid inside free versions of popular Android games.

Once installed, the booby-trapped app contacts a web server for a list of phone numbers then starts sending junk text messages to them.

Angry Birds Space, Need for Speed Most Wanted and many other games have been used in the attack.

The first stage of the campaign to recruit phones to act as spam relays. It involved sending out thousands of messages supposedly offering people free versions of popular Android games, said network security firm Cloudmark in an analysis of the SpamSoldier attack.

The copies of the games were held on a server in China rather than on the main Google Play store, it said. After the app is downloaded users must disable some safeguards, grant the app permission to install and give it the ability to browse the web or send texts messages before it will run.

Attack spreading

Once installed the app removes its icon from a phone's main screen and then contacts a central server for a list of target phone numbers. It then starts sending out spam messages in a bid to trick more people into downloading and installing the rogue app. Other spam messages sent via infected phones falsely told people they had won a gift card.

In a separate analysis mobile security firm Lookout said SpamSoldier worked hard to hide its activity by editing outgoing message logs to hide the junk texts being sent. In addition, it also looks for responses from the numbers it spammed to prevent victims finding out about its presence.

So far, said security firms, the number of phones infected remained low but junk texts sent by infected phones were starting to pop up on all US carriers. Cloudmark said whoever was behind the attack had recently ramped up their use of it. Now, it said, it was seeing more than 500,000 junk texts per day being sent through infected Android phones.

"This sort of attack changes the economics of SMS spam, as the spammer no longer has to pay for the messages that are sent," said analyst Andrew Conway at Cloudmark. " Now that we know it can be done, we can expect to see more more complex attacks that are harder to take down."

Ciaran Bradley, head of handset security at Adaptive Mobile, said growing numbers of spammers were adopting this tactic.

"We've also seen the spammers try to spread the infection by advertising free adult videos featuring a well-known reality TV star," he said. ". It illustrates the lengths spammers will go to to ensure their messages are delivered and to avoid detection."

To help protect themselves, Android owners were urged to be wary of unexpected messages that offer free versions of apps which are usually sold.

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