US rate on 30-year mortgage rises to 3.71 pct.

Average rates on fixed mortgages rose this week, the first increase in seven weeks. But mortgage rates remain near historic lows, boosting prospects for home sales this year.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan increased to 3.71 percent. That's up from 3.67 percent last week, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, rose to 2.98 percent. That's up from 2.94 percent last week, also a record low.
The rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent since early December. Low rates are a key reason the housing industry is showing modest signs of a recovery this year.
In April, sales of both previously occupied homes and new homes rose near two-year highs. Builders are gaining more confidence in the market, breaking ground on more homes and requesting more permits to build single-family homes later this year.
Low rates could also provide some help to the economy if more people refinance. When people refinance at lower rates, they pay less interest on their loans and have more money to spend.
Still, the pace of home sales remains well below healthy levels. Economists say it could be years before the market is fully healed.
Many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks. Some would-be home buyers are holding off because they fear that home prices could keep falling.
The economy is growing only modestly and job creation slowed sharply in April and May. U.S. employers created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year.
Mortgage rates have been dropping because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. Uncertainty about how Europe will resolve its debt crisis has led investors to buy more Treasury securities, which are considered safe investments. As demand for Treasurys increase, the yield falls.
To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.
The average does not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was unchanged at 0.7 point.
The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages slipped to 2.78 percent from 2.79 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans was 0.5, up from 0.4.

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In Hezbollah stronghold, Lebanese Christians find respect, stability

In a home in a Shiite neighborhood in southern Beirut, images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah share mantel and wall space with the Virgin Mary.
The face of the revered Shiite militant leader appears on posters, a calendar, and in several photographs nestled amid those of Christian homeowner Randa Gholam's family members. Mr. Nasrallah is, Ms. Gholam asserts amid a string of superlatives, “a gift from God.”
Lebanon’s sectarian divides are legendary, and the residents of the historically Christian neighborhood of Harat Hreik, now a Hezbollah stronghold, remember well the civil war that set Beirut on fire. They were literally caught in the middle of some of the most vicious fighting, with factions firing shots off at one another from either side of their apartment buildings.
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But in the intervening years, as Hezbollah cemented its control over the suburb of Dahiyeh, which includes Harat Hreik, the militant group has been an unexpected source of stability and even protection for the few remaining Christian families. Just a few blocks away from Nasrallah’s compound is St. Joseph’s Church, a vibrant church that Maronite Christians from across Beirut flock to every Sunday.
“I feel honored to be here. They are honest. They are not extremists. It’s not like everyone describes,” Gholam says. “I can speak on behalf of all my Christian friends. They would say the same thing."
The Christians living in Harat Hreik are a bit of an anomaly, to be sure. Christians represent a sizable population in Lebanon, though no census has been held in decades. And while Beirut's neighborhoods are gradually becoming more integrated, they still divide largely along religious lines. The fragile peace is under deep strain as regional tensions swirl because of the conflict next door in Syria.
NOT FANNING THE FLAMES
In Hezbollah's early days, its creed was "virulent," and in the past, it may have been responsible for fanning some of those flames. But as Hezbollah gained power and joined the political system, that changed, says Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment Middle East Center.
“It doesn’t carry with it an anti-Christian strain anymore," he says. "That’s almost entirely gone. It’s not in their rhetoric, it’s not in their creed.”
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Recently, when the Shiite holiday of Ashura was approaching, the streets were choked with residents shopping and passing out sweets and blanketed with black banners commemorating the martyrdom of Hussein Ali. But Christians live openly here, and they describe Hezbollah as a tolerant group that has steadfastly supported their presence, even sending Christmas cards to Christian neighbors like Gholam.
Gholam, who throws a party every year in honor of Nasrallah’s birthday and places a photo of him in her Christmas tree, is certainly an anomaly. But other Christian families also speak approvingly of their life under Hezbollah, especially when compared to its predecessor, Amal, which they say forced many Christian residents to sell their homes. In contrast, Hezbollah extended financial support to the Christian families when Dahiyeh needed rebuilding after the civil war and the 2006 war with Israel.
Rony Khoury, a Maronite Christian who was born in Harat Hreik and still lives in the same apartment, says he feels comfortable drinking alcohol on his front porch, in full view of members of Hezbollah, and his wife feels no pressure to don a head scarf or follow other rules governing Muslim women's attire. They have property in a predominantly Christian area of Beirut, but have no desire to move.
“After Hezbollah came, we didn’t have any worries,” Mr. Khoury says, citing safe streets. "The security is No. 1 in the world. I leave my car open, I forget something outside…. It's very safe now, under Hezbollah."
Only between 10 and 20 of the pre-civil war Christian families remain, out of the thousands who lived there before the fighting. While the numbers are low, Khoury insists that many would come back, if only they could afford it. But property values have climbed, and many of those who left can’t afford to move back.
Of course, there are calculations behind Hezbollah's magnanimity. Hezbollah’s political alliance with the Lebanese Christian political party, the Free Patriotic Movement, is important to the group, and it “bends over backward to keep those relations comfortable,” Mr. Salem says.
It might also be a way to one-up Sunnis in Lebanon, with whom Shiites are constantly vying for dominance. “They pride themselves on saying they’re more tolerant, more open than Sunnis. In Lebanon, it’s a point of pride,” Salem says.
Both Khoury and Gholam, as well as neighborhood Shiites who dropped by their homes, said there are far more issues with Sunnis.
"Shiite extremists like Hezbollah, they come to our church" as a show of support, says Khoury. "But Sunni extremists, like Salafis, they kill me, they kill you."
THINGS COULD CHANGE
Ultimately, it is Hezbollah’s foreign backers dictating the mood in Harat Hreik. If it became politically expedient for Hezbollah to abandon its acceptance of Christian neighbors, Hezbollah would be compelled to make life difficult for them.
“For Iran and Syria, their main backers, Hezbollah is mainly a strategic force against Israel. That’s the point – not creating an Islamic state or fighting a sectarian war," Salem says. “Hezbollah is a very top-down organization. If Iran decrees something else, something else will happen.”
But that’s not something Gholam can fathom.
"I will never even think about Hezbollah giving anyone a hard time. I can't even think about answering that question," she says.

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Delhi gang-rape case could be turning point for India's rape laws

The gang-rape and beating of a 23-year-old woman on a private bus as it cruised around Delhi Sunday could be the turning point for improvements in the country’s rape laws.
After nearly a week of massive protests across the capital demanding tougher punishments for rapists and better protection of women, the parliamentary standing committee will meet next week to discuss creating fast-track courts for those accused of rape.
Proposals for changes in the law come at a critical time. Many people say there is little deterrent for rapists: Because of social stigma, few females come forward to report the crime. Those that do often have to wait years for their cases to be heard. And even then, the conviction rate is just 34.6 percent, according to the National Crimes Record Bureau. Delhi has the highest number of rapes in the country, with 572 rapes reported last year. While Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code lists punishments of up to a life sentence for rape, those convicted are often let off after serving only a few months or years.
But fast-track courts could change how people think about such crimes by expediting the trial period. Proposed amendments would also provide better privacy for women with in-camera trials, which would keep them from being in the same room as the accused.
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While politicians and activists are encouraged that the public outrage could push parliament to reform laws, Anil Bairwa of the Association for Democratic Reforms says fast track courts will not solve the problem.
He points to a report released this week that found as many as 27 Indian politicians in senior positions have rape or molestation cases pending against them.
“When the politicians passing the legislation and governering states across India have themselves been accused of rape and molesting women, it really shows where this country is in its nascent laws to protect women. Hopefully fast-track courts and stiffer penalties will start bringing some of these people to task.”
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Leaders from all political walks of life have pledged their support to improve the safety of women in Delhi and across the country. That these normally polarized politicians could come together on this issue, says Nirmala Sitharaman, the national spokeswoman for the Baratiya Janta Party (BJP), shows that politicians are united in their pledge to improve the laws.
Ms. Sitharaman says the gruesome case that propelled the issue into the national spotlight shows how little perpetrators fear punishment: In the Delhi bus gang rape, both the woman and her friend who tried to protect her were thrown out of the moving bus – on a highway on the outskirts of the city, according to court testimony.
“Though the government may move slow in many areas, the commitment members of parliament have made to pass new legislation to protect women is real,” she says. “This terrible act has shaken the policymakers in this city to their core.”
But not everyone is convinced change is on the way. The pressure people across the city have been putting on the government this week must continue, says Dr. Vandana Prasad of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. “Announcements for changes in a law can mean something happening in one week or 10 years.

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Good Reads: gun laws, lottery winners, online education, and tech gets sensory

The Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut brought a deluge of media attention to gun control. One useful perspective came from the Lexington’s Notebook column in The Economist magazine. Britain’s gun-related homicide rate is drastically lower than that of the United States not only because guns are harder to purchase, but because ammunition is scarce, the writer points out. In one recent incident in a crime-plagued British neighborhood, for example, “the gang had had to make its own bullets, which did not work well....”
In one recent year England and Wales experienced 39 fatalities from crimes involving firearms; the US had 12,000. In Britain, “The firearms-ownership rules are onerous, involving hours of paperwork. You must provide a referee who has to answer nosy questions about the applicant’s mental state, home life (including family or domestic tensions) and their attitude towards guns. In addition to criminal-record checks, the police talk to applicants’ family doctors and ask about any histories of alcohol or drug abuse or personality disorders.”
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Some US gun owners argue that they might need firearms to fight a tyrannical government. But “I don’t think America is remotely close to becoming a tyranny, and to suggest that it is is both irrational and a bit offensive to people who actually do live under tyrannical rule,” the writer responds.
LOTTERY BURDENS
Are you eager to win the next big lottery? BloombergBusinessWeek writer David Samuels offers the cautionary tale of Jack Whittaker, a contractor in Scott Depot, W. Va., who 10 years ago found that his $1 Powerball lottery ticket had won him a $93 million payout after taxes.
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Mr. Whittaker tried to do good with his bonanza, giving away a good portion to charitable groups, especially churches. But he still descended into alcohol addiction; was divorced by his wife; became tied up (by his own count) in some 460 legal actions; and lost his beloved granddaughter, on whom he had lavished piles of cash, to drug addiction. Before his lottery “win,” Whittaker’s contracting business had afforded him a comfortable life. “Nobody knew I had any money,” Whittaker said. “All they knew was my good works.” His life back then, he notes sadly, “was a lot easier.”
ONLINE COURSES VS. COLLEGE LIFE
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are the wave of the future, “the end of higher education as we know it,” as one university president has predicted.Or are they? Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education (“For Whom Is College Being Reinvented?”), Scott Carlson and Goldie Blumenstyk give Luddites their due. While it’s true that an online course conducted by a top teacher might trump a large lecture class offered by a second-rate live lecturer, those pushing MOOCs as inevitable should be heard with a skeptic’s ear.
“The idea that [students] can have better education and more access at lower cost through massive online courses is just preposterous,” says Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. “There is an awful lot of hype about ... the need for reinvention that is being fomented by people who are going to make out like bandits on it.”
Even David Stavens, a founder of the MOOC provider Udacity, concedes that “there’s a magic that goes on inside a university campus that, if you can afford to live inside that bubble, is wonderful.”
HIGH-TECH TOUCH AND TASTE
IBM forecasts that within the next five years technology will vastly improve the way humans experience the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch), according to a report in the Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence newsletter. Online shoppers, for example, will be able to “touch” a product using mobile devices, “using haptic, infrared and pressure-sensitive technologies to simulate touch – such as the texture and weave of a fabric as a shopper brushes their finger over the image of the item on a device screen.”
Clever sensors will also be able to detect sounds in the form of pressure, vibrations, and sound waves. This data will allow predictions of events such as when a tree might fall or when a landslide is about to happen. “Baby talk” will be decoded as a language, letting parents or other caregivers know what infants are trying to communicate. Computer systems will learn to detect emotions and sense a person’s mood by analyzing factors such as pitch, tone, and hesitancy in speech, allowing automated call centers to be more helpful and understanding between human cultures to improve.
Even the finest chefs will be challenged by technology. Computer programs “will break down ingredients to their molecular level and blend the chemistry of food compounds with the psychology behind what flavors and smells humans prefer,” IBM predicts.
Healthy foods will be made more palatable – and programming will pair up foods in ways that maximize taste and flavor. “A system like this can also be used to help us eat healthier,” IBM predicts, “creating novel flavor combinations that will make us crave a vegetable casserole instead of potato chips.

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Deep emotions run beneath Russia's adoption ban

You usually can judge Vladimir Putin’s dislike of a reporter's question by the intensity of his expression. Such was the case this week at his annual news conference, when he greeted with a hard scowl the subject of pending Russian legislation that would ban Americans from adopting orphaned children. Mr. Putin unleashed invective on the fact that consular representatives aren’t allowed to visit adopted Russian children in the United States.
“I believe that is unacceptable. Do you think this is normal? How can it be normal when you are humiliated? Do you like it? Are you a sadomasochist or something? They shouldn’t humiliate our country,” he told reporters in Moscow.
As is often the case in Russia, there is the issue of what is going on versus what is really going on. And as is often the case in Russia, it’s complicated.
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There is very little doubt as to the goal of the legislation, which passed its third and final reading in the lower house of parliament Friday and must still be signed by Putin. The bill is named after Dima Yakovlev, the toddler who died of heat stroke in 2007 after his adopted father forgot him in a locked car in Virginia for nine hours. The father, Miles Harrison, was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Dima, whose adopted name was Chase. His acquittal in 2008 sparked banner newspaper headlines, incendiary TV news reports, and howls of outrage in Russia.
Lawmakers in the State Duma made it clear that today's legislation is a direct response to the US “Magnitsky Act,” a law designed to sanction a particular group of Russian officials connected to the death of a whistle-blowing lawyer in a Moscow prison.
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In other words, a law designed to punish people tied to a lawyer’s prison death has been answered with a law to prevent people from adopting orphaned children, many of whom have have developmental or other disabilities and will otherwise end up living much of their lives in orphanages that often resemble state mental hospitals of a bygone era.
Adoption is a searingly emotional issue for Russians, and one easily manipulated by the Kremlin. The institution of adoption is relatively uncommon in Russia, for cultural and other reasons. And judging by headlines in the Moscow tabloids, and the rhetoric of some state lawmakers, you’d think that Americans adopt Russian children to eat them.
Bolstering those who are suspicious of adoption is a smattering of abuse cases in Russian orphanages that have seized the public attention. In one notorious case, a nurse in a southern Russian children’s home was accused of taping pacifiers to the mouths of children to keep them from crying. And cases like that of Dima and of Artyem Savelyev, whose adoptive American mother sent the then-7-year-old boy home to Russia with a "to whom it may concern" note of rejection in 2010, give Russians fair reason for pause over foreign adoptions.
But for many Russians, the adoption of children by foreigners is a polite way of saying “foreigners are purchasing our children for export.” Some 60,000 Russian children have been adopted by Americans in the past two decades, and Russia trails only China and Ethiopia in popularity for Americans seeking to adopt foreign children, according to the US State Department.
Many also see it as ironic that Russia is being sanctioned for human rights violations by a country whose policies over the past decade have seared “Guantanamo” into the English language lexicon – an irony that Putin, who like many Russians has a nose for hypocrisy, clearly relished in pointing out.
“Not only are those prisoners detained without charge, they walk around shackled, like in the Middle Ages. They’ve legalized torture in their own country. Can you imagine if we had anything like this here? They would have eaten us alive a long time ago,” he said.
But regardless of the moralities involved, the fact of the matter is that there will be clear winners and losers from this ordeal.
The winners will be the middlemen, the orphanage directors, the bureaucrats, and the administrators all of whose signatures or stamps, essential to the adoption process, can yield a lucrative stream under-the-table revenues – revenues from well-meaning, would-be foreign parents with the means to pay thousands of dollars for the right to adopt a Russian orphan.
And the losers will be orphaned children who remain institutionalized. That was the point of US Ambassador Michael McFaul’s statement released Friday after the Duma vote: “The welfare of children is simply too important to be linked to others issues in our bilateral relationship.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a man not known for pulling his punches when it comes to US policy, has voiced his doubts, suggesting that more moderate voices might stop the bill's passage. Perhaps Putin, having made his point with his press conference performance and with the performance of the malleable State Duma, will relax his rhetoric and soften the bill to open the door to foreign adoptions again, thus portraying himself as doing the best for the children.

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Japanese firms set spending record in buying up foreign assets

In the late 1980s, when Mitsubishi Estate bought Rockefeller Center and Sony snapped up Columbia Pictures, the Western media were full of stories of Japan’s imminent global economic domination. "Japan as No. 1" was a best-seller, and US autoworkers dramatically took sledgehammers to Japanese imports.
But by the end of 2012, Japanese corporations will have bought more foreign companies, spending more in dollar terms, than they did at the height of the '80s bubble economy. No one, however, seems to be taking notice.
The silence speaks to how a country as well-known for cute pop culture as for cutting-edge technology – and which powerful corporations once feared as a foreign predator – is now seen as down on its luck, struggling to recover from disaster. This perception – along with the fact that foreign takeovers are far more frequent, there are more global powerhouses, and Japanese cars are built around the globe – has allowed Japanese firms to go on an unprecedented spending spree overseas without any of the backlash seen decades ago.
“Japan has gone from being the 'exotic' in the 1960s, to a 'threat' in the 1980s, to just being a part of a rich, cosmopolitan human existence,” says Devin Stewart, senior fellow at the Carnegie Council and former director of the Japan Society in New York. “People learn about Japan and its culture nowadays because it is an important part of the world as we know it. It's a place people relate to.”
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In 1990, at the height of the asset bubble in Tokyo, "Japan Inc." made 463 acquisitions of foreign firms. This year, the total is set to top 500 for the first time, with a record total spend of more than 7 trillion yen ($83 billion). IT giant Softbank’s $20 billion takeover of Sprint Nextel Corp., announced in October, will be the biggest foreign takeover ever undertaken by a Japanese company.
The acquisitions this time around are spread across a wide range of industries, rather than the trophy buys of prime real estate that unnerved America during the days of Japan’s roaring bubble economy.
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“There was a slightly indiscriminate hue to Japanese buying in the late '80s, and companies have learned to be more sophisticated, rather than appearing to be carrying around large wads of cash in their back pockets,” says Yuuichiro Nakajima, head of Crimson Phoenix, a cross-border mergers and acquisitions advisory firm with offices in Tokyo and London.
OVERLOOKING A KEY POINT
Japan’s financial institutions, their fingers burned badly by the bursting of the bubble that left them with massive, unrecoverable loans, survived the worldwide crash of 2008 relatively unscathed, having taken a more cautious approach than their Western counterparts. Indeed, it was Japanese investment bank Nomura that bought large chunks of Lehman’s European and Asian businesses after the bankruptcy of the US institution in 2008 that triggered the global financial crisis.
Commentary on Japan often points disparagingly to its shrinking population and domestic market, the challenges of recovering from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and its enormous national debt, which at well over 200 percent of GDP is outranked globally only by Zimbabwe. However, it’s often overlooked that the country’s overseas assets exceed its foreign liabilities by around $3 trillion.
“It seems strange, but Japan is also the world’s biggest creditor nation and has acquired very large overseas assets over the past 30 years. It gets a very good return on these, providing income of 14 to 15 trillion yen ($166.5 to $178.5 billion) a year,” points out Masayuki Kichikawa, chief Japan economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) in Tokyo. “It is this which helps protect Japan from financial crisis, despite the huge government debt.”
And Japan's activity is often overshadowed as the world fixes its eyes on Japan's giant eastern neighbor. “In some ways China has taken the place of the Japan of yesteryear: It has huge firepower and is buying across multiple sectors,” suggests Mr. Nakajima. “And, with China, many of these buyers are state-owned, bringing into question whether the motivation behind acquisitions is strictly profit.”
Yet even China, which almost certainly will displace the US as the world’s economic powerhouse, doesn’t evoke the fear Japan once did.
“But despite the differences between Japan, which was and is a democratic ally, and China, which is not an ally and is nominally communist, the fear about China today seems tame compared with the hysteria about Japan in the 1980s,” says Mr. Stewart of the Carnegie Council. “Back then, Japan was 'taking over the world.' Perhaps people are just more sophisticated about the world and know China faces enormous challenges, as all countries do.

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PREVIEW-Soccer-Table-topping United face testing nine days

LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has presided over enough festive fixtures to know rotation is the key as he prepares for a busy period starting with the visit of Newcastle United in the Premier League on Wednesday.
A disappointing 1-1 draw at Swansea City on Sunday saw United's lead at the top cut to four points over Manchester City and maximum points at home to Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion and away to Wigan Athletic are on Ferguson's holiday menu.
He can take heart from the fact that Newcastle, who languish in 14th place, have not won at Old Trafford since a 2-0 victory in the old first division way back in 1972.
Ferguson has been cheered by the return of key defenders from injury including Serbia international Nemanja Vidic, who made his first start since September at Swansea, and Jonny Evans, who also started the match in Wales.
"We now have three games in the next nine days," said Vidic. "Obviously we have a few players who are coming back from injury and they will be important for that period."
Ferguson was true to his word about utilising his squad over the seasonal holidays by fielding his 26th different back-five combination this year at the Liberty Stadium.
United's problems in defence are reflected in the 25 goals they have conceded so far - the highest by a team topping the Premier League at Christmas since Norwich City, who had let in 34 goals by the same stage of the 1992-93 season.
That has not deterred Ferguson from making changes.
Asked in the build-up to the Swansea match if he would rotate his squad, the Scot told MUTV: "Absolutely. No doubt. It won't be the same team in any of these games. There will be changes each game."
MIXED BLESSING
All of England's top flight clubs play on Dec. 26 in the traditional Boxing Day programme except Arsenal and West Ham United, whose match at the Emirates Stadium has been postponed due to a planned London Underground strike.
Manchester United will be mindful that being top at this time of year has been a mixed blessing. In the 20 completed seasons since the formation of the Premier League in 1992, the leaders on Dec. 25 have only won the championship nine times.
Norwich City, Aston Villa, Leeds United, Arsenal (twice), Newcastle United (twice), Liverpool (twice) and Manchester United (twice) have all failed to lift the trophy after celebrating Christmas Day at the top of the tree.
Manchester City's title chase continues on Wednesday at Sunderland where they have only won twice in their last five visits. They went down 1-0 at the Stadium of Light last season after Ji Dong-won struck in injury time.
But City have acquired the knack of scoring late winners and Gareth Barry's strike against Reading on Saturday ensured they entered the Christmas period breathing down United's neck. They visit Norwich and host Stoke City after the Sunderland game.
Third-placed Chelsea are next up at Carrow Road and will be in high spirits after putting eight past Aston Villa, who had never conceded that many goals in a top-flight match.
The Blues have finally found their shooting boots under new manager Rafa Benitez, who has even found a way to get fellow Spaniard Fernando Torres scoring again.
The London side trail Manchester City by seven points but have a game in hand over the top two.
Captain Frank Lampard, who became Chelsea's highest scorer in the top flight with 130 goals after scoring in the 8-0 win over Villa, said the team were finding their rhythm.
"I think we showed a great appetite. The early goal helped. We are enjoying playing again," he said.
RELEGATION BATTLE
At the other end of the table, the battle to avoid the drop is heating up, with Queens Park Rangers hosting seventh-placed West Brom and bottom side Reading welcoming mid-table Swansea on Wednesday with the two sides desperate for home wins.
They both missed out on earning a point last Saturday and their respective managers vented their frustrations as the pressure of trying to avoid relegation mounts. QPR and Reading are five and six points away from the safety zone respectively.
Fifth-placed Everton, who have lost only twice in the league this season, continue their fight for a top four finish at home to Wigan, who are 18th and in the final relegation position.
Sixth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, level on 30 points with Arsenal, Everton and West Brom in the battle for a Champions League place, travel to Paul Lambert's Villa, who will be desperate to restore some pride after the debacle at Chelsea.
Liverpool visit Stoke City looking to build on Saturday's 4-0 home win over Fulham as they also chase European football.
Southampton could slip into the bottom three if they fail to get a positive result at struggling Fulham, who will themselves be looking to make amends for their poor display at Anfield.

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Marseille cling on with leaders after beating St Etienne

PARIS (Reuters) - 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 January 19 to February 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-Liverpool eager to extend Gerrard contract

Dec 24 (Reuters) - Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has expressed his desire to extend Steven Gerrard's contract as soon as possible to ward off potential suitors for the inspirational Reds captain.
The 32-year-old, who has 18 months left on his current deal, capped a dynamic performance with a clinical goal in Liverpool's 4-0 home win over Fulham at the weekend.
Rodgers, who took over from Kenny Dalglish at the start of the season, asserted that Gerrard remained a pivotal part of his plans at Anfield.
"I don't think there's any question (we want to extend his contract," Rodgers told Liverpool's official website (http://www.liverpoolfc.com).
"It's vital. Steven has a real hunger to succeed. He's 32 years of age but he's still got so much left."
Liverpool's talismanic England midfielder had been linked with a move to Chelsea after the team's famous victory over AC Milan in the 2004-05 Champions League final in Istanbul.
Jose Mourinho, then Chelsea manager and now in charge of Real Madrid, remains an admirer, while even Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson speaks highly of Gerrard.
"He applies himself every day, he eats well, rests well, recovers well, works well," said Rodgers, who has begun to get Liverpool playing more consistently in recent weeks.
"This is a guy who has led his life focused purely on being a footballer. And that allows you to go on playing well into your 30s."
Gerrard provided two assists on top of his sharp finish against Fulham and has played in every minute of Liverpool's 18 Premier League games this season.
"The run that he made for the goal, he's been doing that all season but the ball has just never arrived," Rodgers added.
"He's still been making the runs and his influence within the team has been outstanding.
"His influence for me, especially once he's started to understand what I'm looking for, has been absolutely first class."
Rodgers added: "(Against Fulham) he had everything in his game, and he's been an inspirational captain for us. I want him to stay beyond his current contract. There is absolutely no question about that.

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Soccer-Lampard hails David Luiz's midfield display for Chelsea

LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - David Luiz is sparkling like a diamond in his new playmaking role and vice-captain Frank Lampard believes the Chelsea number four can be equally valuable to the team in midfield and in his usual position in defence.
The mop-haired Brazilian bustled and chased around Stamford Bridge like an over-exuberant puppy in Sunday's 8-0 demolition of Aston Villa but he also showed the full range of his ball skills with some incisive passing and deadly accurate shooting.
"He has the ability to play either position and he's been a fantastic central defender," Lampard told the club's website (www.chelseafc.com) on Monday after the European champions climbed to third in the Premier League.
"People say that central midfield is also a role for him and I think they are right. You still have to have discipline and be in the right position, and you can't take liberties, and against Villa he showed he has the discipline and the ability to do that role."
Chelsea fans have been imploring the club to utilise Luiz's creative talents in midfield for a long time but new interim manager Rafael Benitez is the first coach to play him in that position.
The Brazilian occupied the role for the first time at the Club World Cup in Japan at the start of the month and he marked his second appearance as a playmaker by scoring with a dipping 20-metre free kick in the first half against Villa.
"You don't see the hours put in on the training pitch to work on that technique," Lampard said.
"David has done it and now you are seeing the rewards because every time we get a free kick in that area you fancy him to get it on target."
CROWD DARLING
It was Lampard, though, who was the darling of the crowd on Sunday.
The 34-year-old England international's contract ends this season and he said earlier this month that this could be his final campaign at the club he joined in 2001.
Lampard was given a standing ovation when he was substituted in the second half against Villa, with the supporters crying 'sign him up' over and over again.
"The fans have supported me from the first minute I arrived and I appreciate them doing that," the midfielder added. "I try to play well for them."
Lampard grabbed the fourth goal against Villa with a typically venomous long-range thunderbolt.
The former West Ham United player now has 190 Chelsea goals, three behind the club's second highest scorer Kerry Dixon and 12 adrift of Bobby Tambling.
"I am very pleased with our win," Lampard said. "We showed everything we are about when we are at our best and I am pleased to be a part of that and to contribute with a goal as well.
"We showed great appetite from the first minute with our desire to move the ball quickly and the early goal (by Fernando Torres) helped."
Chelsea, who are now seven points behind Manchester City and 11 adrift of leaders Manchester United with a game in hand on both clubs, next travel to Norwich City on Wednesday.

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