Links from Launcher not connecting

I believe thw launcher auto updated this morning as I logged on to program v = 1.7.2.
I am not the player, simply the father of the player and I was going to seek support for another issue so I started the program in an endeavour to utilise the official links which are normally displayed in the splash screen.
None of the:-
Official Links
Community Links
Mojang on Twitter Links
go anywhere.
As I have previously utilised the facility for community help, I imagine the fault lies with the release and not my own environment

What I expected to happen was...:
A browser window to open and connect me to the Minecraft Forums

What actually happened was...:
Nothing

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Double click the desktop shortcut for Minecraft
2. Watch the launcher load and run
3. Select a link by clicking it
4. Even double clicking it produced nothing other than a highlighted selection of the double clicked word