I am not familiar with the “News Service”. Googling “news service site:avast.com” gave me http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=76349.45 and I do not see that in my status screen. Equally I don’t see this feature added or removed in the changelog: http://www.avast.com/release-history
I am using version 6.0.1203.

Thank you for your concern about my lack of auto-updates. I am aware of all your concerns you brought up… And I promise you the world does not come to a screeching halt if they are turned off.