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There are deep concerns laboratory tests are incorrectly telling people they are free of the coronavirus. Stories in several countries suggest people are having up to six negative results before finally being diagnosed. Meanwhile, officials in the epicentre of the epidemic, Hubei province, China, have started counting people with symptoms rather than using the tests for final confirmation. As a result, nearly 15,000 new cases were reported on a single day - a quarter of all cases in this epidemic. What are these tests and is there a problem with them? They work by looking for the genetic code of the virus. A sample is taken from the patient. Then, in the laboratory, the virus's genetic code (if it's there) is extracted and repeatedly copied, making tiny quantities vast and detectable. These "RT-PCR" tests, widely used in medicine to diagnose viruses such as HIV and influenza, are normally highly reliable. "They are very robust tests generally, with a low false-positive and a low false-negative rate," Dr Nathalie MacDermott, of King's College London, says. But are things going wrong? A study in the journal Radiology showed five out of 167 patients tested negative for the disease despite lung scans showing they were ill. They then tested positive for the virus at a later date. And there are numerous anecdotal accounts. These include that of Dr Li Wenliang, who first raised concerns about the disease and has been hailed as a hero in China after dying from it. He said his test results had come back negative on multiple occasions before he had finally been diagnosed. Chinese journalists have uncovered other cases of people testing negative six times before a seventh test confirmed they had the disease. And similar issues have been raised in other affected countries, including Singapore and Thailand. In the US, meanwhile, Dr Nancy Messonnier, of the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says some of its tests are producing "inconclusive" results. What might be going on? One possible explanation is the tests are accurate and the patients do not have coronavirus at the time of testing It is also cough, cold and flu season in China and patients may confuse these illnesses for coronavirus. "The early signs of coronavirus are very similar to other respiratory viruses," Dr MacDermott says. "Maybe they weren't infected when first tested. "Then, over the course of time, they became infected and later tested positive for the coronavirus. That's a possibility." Another option is the patients do have the coronavirus but it is at such an early stage, there is not enough to detect. Even though RT-PCR tests massively expand the amount of genetic material, they need something to work from. "But that doesn't make sense after six tests," Dr MacDermott says. "With Ebola, we always waited 72 hours after a negative result to give the virus time." Alternatively, there could be a problem with the way the tests are being conducted. There are throat swabs and then there are throat swabs. "Is it a dangle or a good rub?" asks Dr MacDermott. And if the samples are not correctly stored and handled, the test may not work. There has also been some discussion about whether doctors testing the back of the throat are looking in the wrong place. This is a deep lung infection rather one in the nose and throat. However, if a patient is coughing, then some virus should be being brought up to detect. A final option is the RT-PCR test for the new coronavirus is based on flawed science. In order to develop the test, researchers must first pick a section of the virus's genetic code. This is known as the primer. It binds with the matching code in the virus and helps bulk it up. Scientists try to pick a region of the virus's code they do not think will mutate. But if there is a poor match between the primer and the virus in the patient, then an infected patient could get a negative result. At this stage, it is impossible to tell exactly what is going on so lessons for other countries are unclear. "It is not going to change that much," Dr MacDermott says. "But it flags up that you have to test people again if they continue to have symptoms."

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has called for more regulation of harmful online content, saying it was not for companies like his to decide what counts as legitimate free speech. Citing China, Mr Zuckerberg also warned excessive control risked stifling individual expression. He was speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Social media giants like Facebook are under increasing pressure to stop the spread of false information. Facebook in particular has been criticised for its policy on political advertising. The company launched new policies for political advertising in the US in 2018 and globally the following year. These rules require political ads to display who had paid for them, and a copy of the ad is kept in a publicly-searchable database for seven years. But this week Facebook said it would not include sponsored political posts by social media stars in its database. Posts by politicians are not are not always fact-checked as part of the company's free speech policy either. Facebook under fire over 'outrageous' UK tax bill At the conference he said he supported regulation. "We don't want private companies making so many decisions about how to balance social equities without any more democratic process," he said. The Facebook founder urged governments to come up with a new regulatory system for social media, suggesting it should be a mix of existing rules for telecoms and media companies. "In the absence of that kind of regulation we will continue doing our best," he said. "But I actually think on a lot of these questions that are trying to balance different social equities it is not just about coming up with the right answer, it is about coming up with an answer that society thinks is legitimate." Mr Zuckerberg also admitted Facebook had been slow to recognise the development of co-ordinated online "information campaigns" by state actors like Russia. He added that malevolent actors are also becoming better at covering their tracks by masking the IP addresses of users. To tackle this, Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook had a team of 35,000 people reviewing content and security on the platform. With assistance from AI, he said more than a million fake accounts are deleted every day. "Our budget [for content review] is bigger today than the whole revenue of the company when we went public in 2012, when we had a billion users," he said. During his time in Europe, Zuckerberg is expected to meet politicians in Munich and Brussels to discuss data practices, regulation and tax reform. Despite public backlash over issues like political advertising, Facebook says the number of users on its family of apps - Facebook, Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram - continues to grow. Earlier this month, Whatsapp announced that it is used by two billion people worldwide, more than a quarter of the world's po[CENSORED]tion.

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Lexus has been known to create some of the most stylish and trendy vehicles to ever come out of Japan. Combining luxury with fashion-forward looks has kept them at the top for many buyers, and that's not taking into account that the customer experience is top-notch, and the pricing for most of their vehicles is actually pretty attractive. For 30 years, the Nagoya based manufacturer has always had value-priced luxury in mind and being the more dapper arm of Toyota has allowed them to make use of resources and that allowed them to make big strides in the North American market in the late 90s and 2000s. It also helped that cars like the RX struck a chord with a wide array of consumers looking for a luxury SUV, and is still their number one selling product to this day.While that's all well and good, many Lexus dealers in North America are looking for a product to take the fight directly to huge, 7 or 8-seater luxury SUV contenders, such as the likes of the Cadillac Escalade. In a short interview with Automotive News, Paul LaRochelle, the chairman of the Lexus National Dealer Advisory Council, has said that profitability is a key concern for dealers in the United States, with the ratio of new and pre-owned sales almost 1:1. Dealers are also longing for major changes in the luxury SUV lineup, whether that be a new model or a significant refresh of the likes of the aging LX. "But as we look into the world we're now selling into, which is certainly an SUV-driven world and buyer, we've got a great product lineup. Now it's just a matter of changing, redesigning, coming out with different variants of those luxury utility vehicles and SUVs that we currently sell, and perhaps even a few new ones along the way."LaRochelle says that Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, had committed to them in the 2025 plan that the next five years would see at least two to three redesigns, and a few new vehicles added to the lineup each year. Could we be seeing a new LX coming soon? One that has all the bells and whistles that can take on the rest of the segment?

Valentine’s Day – you’re either in a loved up bubble or seething over an ex. To help scorned lovers have a moment of revenge, a US zoo has come up with the bizarre idea of letting people name cockroaches and rats after their exes and then watch them being eaten. It costs a $7.40 for a roach or $25 for a pre-frozen rodent, a fee that includes a live-stream of the creatures being fed to other animals. While the “Cry Me A Cockroach” event appears to be a great way of dealing with bitter, unresolved feelings, angry animal lovers aren’t having a bar of it. Taking to Instagram, protesters slammed a post by the San Antonio Zoo, in Texas, advertising the fundraiser, calling it “disgusting, disrespectful and cruel”. RELATED: Why strawberries are the most po[CENSORED]r gift idea RELATED: Launceston named Australia’s most romantic place “Please cancel this event,” begged one person adding: “This teaches nothing but disrespect and cruelty.” While another commenter wrote: This is absolutely disgusting. Totally appalled.” They continued: “What a hole for the poor animals to exist in – how are you educating anyone about respecting the natural environment? Rethink this approach – it is so backwards.”“How ridiculous. What a terrible marketing scheme. Caging animals and encouraging causing them harm? Shame on you,” said a third. “This is so wrong on so many levels. it’s cruel and sick. it shows you have no respect for life. cancel this event.” Another said: “There is no way of looking at this as healthy. It is offensive and cruel but also not a healthy way for people to deal with a break-up. Do better.”Information about the event explains all submissions will remain anonymous and only first names of the exes will be said on the live-stream. As part of the deal, spurned lovers will also receive a certificate which they can share to social media. The zoo tried to address concerns about animal welfare on its site, and said it wanted to reassure people it adhered to the highest standards.“All of our feeder insects were part of the audit by American Humane (the oldest animal welfare organisation in the country). “During our animal welfare audit by American Humane, the treatment of all the animals in our care, including feeders such as cockroaches, mealworms, crickets and more, were inspected. “We were proudly the first zoological facility on the planet to be accredited by both AZA and ZAA as well as Humane Certified by American Human,” they said.

More than 135,000 UK residents have been without online public services for nearly a week, as their council struggles with a cyber-attack. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's website and all computers at the authority were attacked on Saturday. One cyber-security expert told the BBC the incident had all the hallmarks of a ransomware attack, in which files are scrambled until a ransom is paid. But the council refused to confirm the nature of the hack. Online appointment bookings, planning documents, social care advice and council housing complaints systems are just some of the services knocked offline. The National Crime Agency said it was supporting the council. A team of experts from the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been on site since the cyber-attack, which took place at 11am on Saturday. The NCSC said: "We are aware of a cyber-incident affecting Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. "This is an isolated incident and we are supporting the organisation and working with partners to understand its impact." The leader of the council, Councillor Mary Lanigan, told the BBC: "Computers have been taken offline and systems are being rebuilt. "We have a massive team here - including cyber-security experts - working around the clock flat out to get it fixed. "They have to go through [IT systems] bit by bit to make sure everything is clean. A lot of our staff are not able to work without computers but they are coping quite well here. The main problem is that we have no email systems. so we have extra phone lines for residents." The website for council tax payments is still open and the council says frontline services are continuing, with staff using pen and paper. The council says it is updating taxpayers using Facebook and Twitter. Its latest update said: "We are still experiencing issues with our IT systems, which means we are working with a reduced capacity. We are able to receive and answer limited calls and emails and we will be prioritising urgent messages. There may be a slight delay in dealing with non-urgent calls and messages, and the council's website is currently down." Local resident Claire Louise Corless complained on Facebook: "Should have really sent a letter out or emailed people, not everyone has Facebook to find out. I'm still waiting for my registration to be done online for weeks now. You would soon come after me if I didn't pay my bill!" Ransomware? The council and the NCA declined to say whether hackers were holding the council to ransom with a so-called ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks are one of the most prolific and costly forms of cyber-attack, in which hackers take control of an organisation's computer system and scramble their information until a ransom is paid.Currency exchange company Travelex is still dealing with the consequences of a ransomware attack, which took its online services offline for weeks. The council said its current assessment indicated no sensitive personal data had been stolen. It would not say whether or not data had been encrypted by hackers, or whether negotiations were taking place with cyber-criminals. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont said: "It seems almost certain they have suffered a severe ransomware incident. "The serious nature of the attack and the impact it has had should raise eyebrows with UK authorities about the need to put more resources into tackling cyber-crime groups." He added: "They are being open about the cyber-attack occurring, which is welcome, although it is a shame nothing is mentioned on their websites to reassure the public. "If they plan not to pay the ransom it would be good to publicly state this, to discourage attacks on councils."

The Conjuring house is a real-life 18th-century farmhouse of horrors in Rhode Island where seven children have died over the years.It turns out a woman named Bathsheba Sherman had actually lived on the Perron’s property in the mid-1800s. Rumor had it she practiced witchcraft and there was some evidence of her involvement in a local infant’s death. Many believed that Bathsheba killed the child in a Satanic ritual with a large sewing needle to the brain, but she was never convicted of the crime. Bathsheba is consequently buried not far from The Conjuring house. The Perron’s called on paranormal experts Ed and Lorraine Warren to investigate the farmhouse and to hopefully eradicate the evil spirits within. The couple, probably the most well-known paranormal detectives in history, reported that they have investigated over 10,000 cases. Lorraine Warren, who claimed to be a clairvoyant, held a seance at the Perron’s farmhouse. The goal was to make contact with the ghosts tormenting the family. Well, goal achieved, so to speak. It may seem like any other peaceful, historic farmhouse in the quaint Rhode Island suburbs. But this is actually the notorious house of horrors from The Conjuring franchise — and it has a new set of owners who insist that this home is far from peaceful. Cory and Jennifer Heinzen bought the farmhouse formerly known as the Old Arnold estate in June of 2019 and have already documented several instances of paranormal activity.Luckily, the couple is well-equipped to handle such happenings as they are paranormal investigators. Cory Heinzen told the Sun Journal that they witnessed “doors opening, footsteps and knocks.”In the middle of the seance, Carolyn Perron seemed to become possessed; speaking in tongues and rising chair and all into the air. Oldest daughter Andrea Perron watched in secret, and would later describe the incident. “I thought I was going to pass out,” she said. “My mother began to speak a language not of this world in a voice not her own. Her chair levitated and she was thrown across the room.” Afterward, Carolyn Perron seemed to return to normal, and Roger Perron told the Warrens to leave. According to Andrea, the family actually stayed in the house until 1980 when they could finally afford a new home. When they left, they said the spirits stopped contacting them. The family was finally at peace. He added that he had “a hard time staying there by myself. I don’t have the feeling of anything evil, (but) it’s very busy. You can tell there’s a lot of things going on …” The Conjuring house’s storied past spans eight generations during which residents allegedly died by drowning, murder, and hanging.The horror franchise surrounding The Conjuring house is based around the accounts of the Perron family. Carolyn and Roger Perron together with their five daughters moved into the house during the 1970s and almost immediately reported small yet inexplicable events within the home. It wasn’t long before those events escalated.“When Insidious came out and was successful, the story about the Warrens came to me and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is really cool.'[…] One thing I had never explored was the chance to tell a story that’s based on real-life characters, real-life people. So those were the things that led me to The Conjuring.” Wan explained. Carolyn Perron claimed to have noticed how the broom would move from place to place or disappear altogether. Then she’d notice small piles of dirt in the center of a freshly-swept kitchen floor. The children also said that they witnessed spirits — at first, most of them harmless. Then the family said they began to experience horrendous smells. Smells that stank of rotting flesh. They said their beds shook at 5:15 each morning. Roger Perron would enter the basement and feel a “cold, stinking presence behind him.” The family typically stayed away from the dirt-floored cellar, but the heating equipment would often fail mysteriously causing Roger Perron to venture down.The main spirit as shown in The Conjuring, Bathsheba, was allegedly every bit as angry in real life as she was in the movie — according to the Perrons.“Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position,” said Andrea Perron, the oldest daughter. Objects were inexplicably launched across rooms and smashed into walls. Doors slammed. Glass shattered. One night, as Carolyn Perron was sitting in the living room, she felt a piercing pain in her leg. Looking down, she said she saw blood trickling from a small, open wound — like from a large needle. It’s even harder to understand how they can disregard the home’s past when they’ve reportedly experienced such strange incidents for themselves. “Footsteps, knocks, we’ve had lights flashing in rooms … And when I say lights flashing in rooms, it’s rooms that don’t have light in there to begin with.” Heinzen told the New York Post. “We’ve had a few moments in here that have made us jump a bit,” he adds. “We’ve had doors open on their own, footsteps, disembodied voices, electronic voice phenomena, and some awesome spirit-box sessions.” However, the Heinzen’s have big plans for The Conjuring house. They want to repair and preserve it, perhaps shoot a documentary, and open the home up for paranormal tours.

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Ford is readying an ST performance version of its new Puma SUV, and our spy photographers have caught it completely undisguised for the first time. The new images confirm that the Hyundai Kona N rival will feature a trapezoidal lower grille design, large, performance-inspired alloy wheels shod in low-profile tyres and the same wing-mounted headlight clusters as the standard model.The big clue as to this prototype's performance ambitions is a prominent lower bodykit that extends around the car from the splitter-style front bumper to a new rear bumper designed around twin tailpipes - the same as those fitted to the Fiesta ST. Official details of the model's drivetrain and chassis set-up are still yet to be confirmed, but previous images of the prototype raising a rear wheel under hard cornering show it will feature a stiffer suspension set-up in the same vein as the Fiesta ST. The big wheels appear to hide larger-diameter front brakes, too, while the car seems lower to the ground than the regular Puma. Ford global development boss Hau Thai-Tang told Autocar last year that the Puma “would be a good place for us to look” in expanding the ST range beyond the Fiesta and Focus in Europe. The Puma ST is expected to share its key running gear, including a 197bhp 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, with the Fiesta ST. As confirmed by the latest photos, the ST version of the Puma will not vary drastically from the ST-Line version of the car, which was revealed last April. But we can expect a bespoke chassis set-up, possibly including an optional limited-slip differential, selectable driving modes and a launch control function.Thai-Tang said Ford is keen to continue leveraging its Ford Performance arm for road car development but that the company wouldn't simply look to create an ST version of each car. In addition to its two European hot hatches, Ford also makes ST versions of its Edge and Explorer large SUVs. “We look at creating STs by very objective measures to make sure it is credible as an ST,” said Thai-Tang. “Do we have the right building blocks [on which to base it]?” A new Focus RS is also understood to be in development, but hinges on its engineers creating a high-output hybrid powertrain that fits in with the new EU regime for average fleet CO2 emissions “We have nothing to announce, but we recognise the importance of that car,” said Thai-Tang. “We’ll see where we go,” Ford’s automotive president Joe Hinrichs said. “The world is changing on powertrain and propulsion. No hints, but there’s a lot to talk through.”

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A cruise ship that was stranded at sea, because ports were worried about passengers bringing coronavirus, has been allowed to dock in Cambodia. The MS Westerdam had been turned away by five places in Asia in recent days. Another cruise ship in quarantine in Japan has more than 200 infections - but the Westerdam, with more than 2,000 crew and passengers, has none. Only on Tuesday, the cruise liner attempted to dock in Bangkok but was denied permission. Are cruise ships really 'floating petri dishes'? Sharp increase in coronavirus deaths and cases A Thai Navy ship escorted her out of the Gulf of Thailand, from where she set course for Cambodia. On Thursday morning, the ship finally arrived at an anchoring point in the port city of Sihanoukville. "This morning, just seeing land was such a breathtaking moment," passenger Angela Jones from the US told Reuters. "I thought: is this real?" The Westerdam, run by the US-based Holland America Line, departed Hong Kong on 1 February with 1,455 passengers and 802 crew on board. The cruise had been scheduled to run for two weeks - and with those 14 days running out, there were worries about fuel and food supplies. As well as Thailand, it was also turned away by Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, and Japan. "We've had so many near moments - we thought we were going home only to be turned away," Ms Jones said. The ship's captain Vincent Smit said the ship would anchor outside Sihanoukville to allow authorities to conduct health checks on board. Passengers will then be able to leave the ship and return to their home countries from the country's capital Phnom Penh. The US embassy in Cambodia said it had sent a team to assist its citizens with planning their journey. Cambodia's decision to welcome the MS Westerdam was praised by the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO). It was "an example of the international solidarity we have consistently been calling for", Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said. There have been regular health checks for all passengers on board the Westerdam, and there have been no cases so far. Super-spreaders: Why are they important? How worried should we be? Why a global city is so vulnerable to virus spread The ship in Japan, quarantined in the port of Yokohama, currently has more than 200 confirmed cases - making the Diamond Princess the largest coronavirus cluster outside China. Not all passengers have been tested, and the number of cases may continue to rise. Another 44 were added to the tally on Thursday. Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said elderly passengers who test negative for the virus would be allowed to leave on Friday, five days before the scheduled end of the quarantine. About 80% of the ship's passengers are aged 60 or over. Japanese media reports that 215 passengers are in their 80s, and 11 are in their 90s. Another cruise ship was quarantined for several days off Hong Kong, because a previous guest had been diagnosed with the virus. All passengers have now been allowed off.

A new study found that a mysterious compound could have protected the brain from being attacked by destructive enzymes. In 2008, archaeologists dug up a man’s skull at an excavation site in the U.K. The man who the skull belonged to most likely died thousands of years ago — possibly by hanging, judging by the damage to the neck vertebrae. The decapitated skull was at least 2,600 years old. Naturally, most of the remains had deteriorated, but the researchers found something peculiar. A small piece of the brain remained intact.Dubbed the “Heslington brain” after it was found in the British village of Heslington, the exceptionally well-preserved piece of brain is the oldest brain specimen that has ever been discovered in the U.K. But how did this brain last for so long without completely deteriorating like most of the other body parts? Researchers may finally have an answer. According to Science Alert, researchers involved in a recent study examining the well-preserved brain believe the key lies in a mysterious compound that spread from the outside of the organ. “Combined, the data suggest that the proteases of the ancient brain might have been inhibited by an unknown compound which had diffused from the outside of the brain to the deeper structures,” they wrote in the report. Researchers noted the putrefaction of the human body after death usually starts within 36 to 72 hours, and complete skeletonization is typically expected within five to 10 years. Therefore, “the preservation of human brain proteins at ambient temperature should not be possible for millennia in free nature.” But results suggest that a Heslington brain situation could be possible if an unidentified compound acted as a “blocker” to protect the organic material from destructive enzymes called proteases in the months after death. Researchers believe this unknown “blocker” prevented the proteases from attacking the Heslington brain, allowing the organ’s proteins to form stabilized aggregates that made it harder for the material to break down — even in warm temperatures.Over the course of a year, the team closely monitored the progressive breakdown of proteins in another modern brain specimen, which they then compared with the degradation of the Heslington brain. Our brains are able to function through a network of intermediate filaments (IFs) inside our brains, which maintain the connection between our neurons and their long bodies. In the study’s experiment, the Heslington brain appeared to possess shorter and narrower weaves of IFs, mimicking those of a living brain. While much of the body had deteriorated, the Heslington brain was well-preserved in the skull.

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The 2020 Formula 1 season will begin on 15 March in Melbourne, and the ten teams that compete in the pinnacle of motorsport have begun revealing their new cars. Here, we round them up as they're made public and tell you what to look out for from each in the coming year.After yet another squandered opportunity at a first F1 championship victory since 2008, the pressure must be reaching an all-time high at Ferrari. The fabled Italian scuderia's new racer is named for its 1000th F1 grand prix start, which is due to come in France at the end of June. Bright young thing Leclerc is perhaps best placed to finally put the brakes on the Mercedes/Hamilton steamroller, following a superb first season at Ferrari in which he consistently outshone four-time champion Vettel and by rights should have won more than two races. This will also be a crucial season for the German veteran, who appears past his best and is possibly in line for replacement by Hamilton next year.American outfit Haas suffered a torrid time last year, finishing a distant ninth, despite having been the 'best of the rest' in 2018. The VF-20 will have to be a whole lot better than the VF-19, which team boss Günther Steiner described as "the strangest machine I've ever worked with", as neither driver was able to generate sufficient heat in the tyres during races. Both Grosjean and Magnussen are retained, primarily due to their experience with chassis development. This might well be to the private annoyance of some other racers, given their reputation for overly tough defending and a propensity for incidents, which even led to a number of clashes with one another last season. Very hard to predict, this one. Red Bull Honda RB16 Drivers: Max Verstappen (Dutch) and Alexander Albon (Thai) Car revealed: 12 Feb. The second-best car last year was the Adrian Newey-penned Red Bull, particularly in the hands of Flying Dutchman Verstappen. The other car was initially filled by Gasly, but he struggled and was replaced by the promising Anglo-Thai Albon. The latter will have to step up his game a notch after being granted the drive full-time for 2020. The Honda hybrid powerplant has finally come good in the Milton Keynes cars after years of chugging around at the back and breaking down with McLaren. Hamilton versus Leclerc versus Verstappen would be a fantastic title battle to witness if it happens.Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (British) and Valtteri Bottas (Finnish) Car revealed: 14 Feb Neutrals will be glad that the current era is in its final year, because it has been utterly dominated by Mercedes-AMG. Winning every team and driver championship since 2014, the squad is the most dominant in F1 history.Its future is now secure as an Aston Martin works effort from 2021, thanks to a new investment by billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll. His mercurial son continues alongside midfield maestro Pérez, who has long had a knack of sneaking unexpected podium finishes.Since returning with a works team, Renault has invested a lot of money in F1 already but received very limited dividends. Everything is surely riding on it stealing a march when the new rules come in for 2021, so this year its target is simply "to regain confidence". The return of young Ocon to the grid after a year out is more than welcome, and everyone will be hoping that Ricciardo – surely the most likeable man on the grid, as well as one of the most talented – can recapture the sparkling form that won him races at Red Bull. Williams Mercedes FW43 Drivers: Nicholas Latifi (Canadian) and George Russell (British) Car revealed: 17 Feb Oh, what to do with Williams? For decades among the strongest forces in the sport, the small British team once again found itself miles off the pace last year, despite using arguably the best powerplant. The best hope for 2020 will probably be just a first points finish for Russell, while the heroic but ultimately underwhelming return of Robert Kubica lasted just one year. In steps 24-year-old Latifi, who was (a distant) runner-up in Formula 2 last season and brings a considerable sponsorship package. It would be a fool who bets against yet another title for Hamilton, given how comfortably ahead the team was last season, although nothing is a given. Reports – denied by team boss Toto Wolff – suggest that Daimler may withdraw its works support rather than invest heavily in the new formula for 2021, which could make this one spectacular last hurrah for the Silver Arrows. Alfa Romeo Ferrari C39 Drivers: Kimi Räikkönen (Finnish) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Italian) Car revealed: 19 Feb The team formerly known as Sauber, now running as a works Alfa Romeo effort, will look to consolidate its strong showing from 2019 before going big on the new rules for 2021. Expect the Iceman, now 40 years old, to be as cool as ever – a podium might be within reach this season – while his young team-mate needs to do better if he's to retain his seat. Alpha Tauri Honda AT01 Drivers: Pierre Gasly (French) and Daniil Kvyat (Russian) Car revealed: 14 Feb Red Bull has changed the name of its junior F1 team – which traces its root back to 1985 as Minardi - from Toro Rosso to Alpha Tauri, after its fashion brand. It's a move likely to cause confustion with another Italian Alfa team... Toro Rosso had the best of its 14 seasons in 2019, finishing sixth in the rankings and scoring two podiums, one each for Kvyat and Gasly – a feelgood story for two drivers both dumped from the senior squad. Alpha Tauri will look to build on that unexpected success this year with the same pairing. McLaren Renault MCL35 Drivers: Lando Norris (British) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spanish) Car revealed: 13 Feb McLaren is at long last on an upward curve, following four highly embarassing seasons at the back of the grid. There might well be regrets about ditching Honda for Renault just as the Japanese powerplant hit form, but the chassis looked good in 2019, and the driver pairing is very strong. Sainz scored his first career podium - McLaren's first since the opening round of 2014 – at the tail end of last year, and his young British team-mate looks on course to emulate that sooner rather than later. Racing Point BWT Mercedes RP20 Drivers: Sergio Pérez (Mexican) and Lance Stroll (Canadian) Car revealed: 17 Feb Racing Point – just the latest name for the team that started as Jordan – has continued to provide the best 'bang for buck' in Formula 1 since it emerged from the ashes of Force India partway through the 2018 season.

A study of 2,000 adults found a fast pace of life combined with rising work pressures and a phone that never stops means few people "switch off". Other factors include the stress of being a parent, longer commuting times and financial pressures amid rising costs of living. Two thirds of those polled believe a lifestyle that leaves no time to decompress is taking its toll on health and emotional wellbeing. The research found those who do find the time, only do so for an average of 54 minutes a day. The research also found the difficulties we have switching off mean we’re left feeling "mentally frazzled" twice a week on average.A study of 2,000 adults found a fast pace of life combined with rising work pressures and a phone that never stops means few people “switch off”. Other factors include the stress of being a parent, longer commuting times and financial pressures amid rising costs of living. Two thirds of those polled believe a lifestyle that leaves no time to decompress is taking its toll on health and emotional wellbeing. The research found those who do find the time, only do so for an average of 54 minutes a day. The research also found the difficulties we have switching off mean we’re left feeling “mentally frazzled” twice a week on average. Four in 10 admit their difficulty in unwinding has had a negative impact on their home life. More than half are so busy they have no time to take a tea break. However, six in 10 feel said they feel apprehensive about straying from their daily routine. Despite this, the Twinings research carried out through OnePoll, found many of those polled have made changes to their daily routine to help them better relax. These include taking longer tea breaks during their working day, not looking at their mobile devices in the evening and reading a book before going to bed. Other methods include taking more tea breaks, doing exercise and enforcing a ‘no talking about work’ rule when at home.Four in 10 admit their difficulty in unwinding has had a negative impact on their home life. More than half are so busy they have no time to take a tea break. However, six in 10 feel said they feel apprehensive about straying from their daily routine.Despite this, the Twinings research carried out through OnePoll, found many of those polled have made changes to their daily routine to help them better relax.These include taking longer tea breaks during their working day, not looking at their mobile devices in the evening and reading a book before going to bed.Other methods include taking more tea breaks, doing exercise and enforcing a ‘no talking about work’ rule when at home.

Around 300 employees have been evacuated from Singapore's biggest bank, DBS, after one person fell ill with the new coronavirus. All 300 had been working on the same floor, the 43rd, and were sent home on Wednesday. Singapore had previously reported 47 cases of the new virus, one of the highest tallies outside China. Meanwhile, Formula 1's Chinese Grand Prix, due to take place in Shanghai on 19 April, has been postponed. Motorsport governing body FIA said the measure had been taken "in order to ensure the health and safety of the travelling staff, championship participants and fans". It said it hoped to find an alternative date later in the year "should the situation improve". Read more: Chinese Grand Prix is postponed And Vodafone and Nokia became the latest big tech firms to pull out of the Mobile World Congress later this month in Barcelona because of the coronavirus. On Tuesday Facebook and Intel said they would not take part. The event is the mobile industry's biggest and draws more than 100,000 people. Organisers GSMA said they were continuing to "monitor closely" the changing situation and had already implemented "additional health measures" for the event. Read more: Facebook and Intel ditch MWC tech show The overall number of infections is more than 44,000 on mainland China, with cases in more than 20 countries. The DBS employee was tested on Tuesday and his infection was confirmed on Wednesday. "As a precautionary measure, all employees on the affected floor vacated the premises to work from home," the firm said in a statement. DBS said "during this difficult time, the bank will be providing this employee and his family with every support and guidance". Contact tracing is being done to verify who had been exposed to the affected employee. The common areas of the building in the Marina Bay Financial Centre - such as lifts and toilets - are being deep cleaned and disinfected. Care packs with thermometers, masks and hand sanitisers were given to the evacuated employees and the bank said a medical helpline was in place. Are cruise ships really 'floating petri dishes'? Super-spreaders: Why are they important? How worried should we be? China and the virus that threatens everything Singapore raised its "Disease Outbreak Response System Condition" to orange last week - which means the disease is severe and spreads easily from person to person. As a consequence, all companies and many public spaces have started scanning employees and visitors for temperature. The Covid-19, as the disease is officially called, has killed more than 1,100 people in China, where it emerged. On Wednesday though, the country reported its lowest number of new cases in almost two weeks, with 2,015 new confirmed cases on Tuesday. In its latest measure to try to halt the spread, China has said it will stagger the return of children to school. Several provinces have closed schools until the end of February. In Japan, the number of infections on a cruise ship quarantined off Yokohama has risen by 39. With 174 confirmed cases, the Diamond Princess is the largest single cluster of the virus outside China. A&E doctor one of UK coronavirus cases Coronavirus disease named Covid-19 From a total of more than 3,700 passengers and crew on board, almost 500 have been tested so far, but there are plans to step up testing in the next days. While those infected are brought on land and taken into medical care, the remaining passengers have to stay in quarantine on the ship. Another cruise ship that had been turned away from several ports including in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand - despite having no sick passengers on board - has finally got permission to dock in Cambodia. The Westerdam, which is carrying more than 1,450 people, is now sailing for Sihanoukville where passengers will be able to disembark, owners Holland America confirmed.

Citroen has given its global bestseller, the C3 supermini, a mid-life refresh for 2020. It goes on sale in April with deliveries tipped for June. The Ford Fiesta rival receives a mild exterior design in the form of a new front-end look, said to be inspired by the Cxperience concept of 2016. Reprofiled headlights (now with LED tech as standard) also feature, while new designs for the ‘Airbumps’ along the side of the car can be optioned. Revised wheelarch extensions and rear three-quarter panels are also brought in.by Lawrence Allan 11 February 2020 Citroen has given its global bestseller, the C3 supermini, a mid-life refresh for 2020. It goes on sale in April with deliveries tipped for June.The Citroen C3 supermini gains a new look and new options, but no new engines to go with 2020 refresh This is the facelifted Citroen C3, which is aiming to add further customisation options to the range in a bid to stay competitive against the likes of the Ford Fiesta and brand new Renault Clio. The exterior design has been tweaked, the level of on-board technology improved and the interior updated with Citroen’s latest seating technology to keep the C3 competitive in its fourth year on sale. The Ford Fiesta rival receives a mild exterior design in the form of a new front-end look, said to be inspired by the Cxperience concept of 2016. Reprofiled headlights (now with LED tech as standard) also feature, while new designs for the ‘Airbumps’ along the side of the car can be optioned. Revised wheelarch extensions and rear three-quarter panels are also brought in. New 17-inch alloy wheel designs combine with a comprehensively extended customisation programme - up from 36 colour and trim combinations to 97 - aimed at making it one of the most customisable cars in its class. Inside, efforts to improve comfort and ambience include new armchair-style ’Advanced Comfort’ seats, taken from the updated C4 Cactus, Combined with a new centre armrest. A ‘techwood’ finish brings new soft-touch materials and wood-effect trim, too. Although there is not significant changes to the on-board technology and infotainment, the C3’s list of driver aids has increased with the addition of Front Parking assist. Engine are unchanged, too, meaning the C3 is still powered by a choice of 82bhp or 108bhp 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engines, or a 99bhp diesel.From the outside the updates bestowed upon the brand’s supermini are fairly minor. The front detailing above the grille has been changed to mimic the X-shaped front profile of the Cxperience concept car from 2016, and the newly fit chrome LED detailing leads to new LED headlights, found on every version of the car.

Frank Lentini, the "Three-Legged Man," went on to have a successful career thanks to his parasitic twin. The vintage fascination with American “freak shows” has fortunately been left in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Carnival goers marveled at the bizarre results of procreation in bearded-ladies, strong-men, sword-swallowers, and little people like Tom Thumb. But how exactly these performers fared as the morbid fascination for paying customers is hard to understand, particularly when there is so little honest information on them. Such is the case for Franceso “Frank” Lentini, the so-called Three-Legged Man who made a living off his rare condition of having been born with a parasitic twin.Frank Lentini’s Early Years Born in May of 1889 in Sicily, Italy, as either an only child or the fifth of 12, Frank Lentini was born with three legs, four feet, 16 fingers, and two sets of genitals. His extra leg sprouted from the side of his right hip with a fourth foot protruding from his knee. His condition was the result of a second embryo that began to develop in the womb but ultimately could not separate from its twin. Thus one twin came to dominate the other.At four months old, Lentini was taken to a specialist about the possibility of amputating his additional leg, but the threat of paralysis or even death kept the doctor from carrying out the procedure. He became known as “u maravigghiusu” or “the marvel” in Corsican, or even more cruelly as “little monster” around his hometown. Lentini’s family consequently sent him to live with an aunt to avoid further disgrace.In 1898, at just nine years old, Lentini made the long and arduous journey to America with his father where they met with a man named Guiseppe Magnano in Boston. A professional showman, Magnano had been in America for three years by the time he met with Lentini about potentially adding him to his shows.

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Cottage cheese began life in America as an easy, economical way for colonial cooks to make use of milk left over after they skimmed off the cream. By the 1970s, its amicable presence in recipes and on diet plates had made it a star. Fame is fickle, and so are the nation’s eaters. Cottage cheese fell out of favour, and now spends its days hanging out in stodgy pint containers near the sour cream, while yoghurt sprawls out across acres of the dairy case, dressed up in cute little tubes, flip tops and French glass jars. America loves a comeback though, and there are plenty of people who are betting that cottage cheese is primed for one.“Every seven years or so another wave comes through where we try to reposition cottage cheese,” says Dave Potter, president of Dairy Connection in Madison, Wisconsin, which sells custom cultures and enzymes to cheesemakers. “That’s about where we are now.” This time, with help from both big food companies and small-batch cheesemakers, it might actually work. On the mass-market side of the equation, the nation’s largest dairy producers are targeting younger people looking for a protein-rich, natural snack they can eat instead of a meal. (Cottage cheese can have twice the protein of some yoghurts, though it has a lot more sodium.) A couple new players have jumped in, including Muuna, the first product from Israel’s largest food manufacturer to be sold in the United States. American companies like Dean Foods, the nation’s largest dairy company, have given their cottage cheeses makeovers, packing them into smaller, sexier packages and asking retailers to move them away from the sour cream and closer to the yoghurt.New lines have interesting mixes of fruit and nuts, and some producers are experimenting with millennial-friendly additions like probiotics and chia seeds. Flavours are expanding beyond dusty stalwarts like pineapple to include Kalamata olive, habanero chile or cumin. The goal, according to industry analysts, is to “uncottage” cottage cheese – or, as one dairy executive put it, “Chobani it”. But the road back is not going to be easy. Yoghurt outsells cottage cheese by roughly 8 to 1, says John Owen, a senior food and drink analyst who prepared the annual cheese report for Mintel, a market research company. Even though yoghurt sales have started to flatten, American shoppers still bought $8.5bn (£7.6bn) worth in 2017. “Yoghurt got adopted by big food in the way cottage cheese never did,” he says. To use the terminology of food marketers, yoghurt wears a “health halo”. Cottage cheese, long linked to the drudgery of dieting, instead is fighting a punishment halo. “Yoghurt always had a better back story than cottage cheese,” says Jonathan Kauffman, author of Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat. Kauffman, like many people, has let cottage cheese fall out of rotation: “It’s one of those foods I don’t eat, but I feel like I should.”It wasn’t always this way. Cottage cheese was once a reliable character actor, standing in for meat during two world wars, filling in for ricotta and starring on diet plates. It gave heft to salad bars and made a regular appearance (with fruit) on Richard Nixon’s lunch tray. By the mid-1970s, the golden era of cottage cheese, producers in every state were pumping out more than £1bn a year. Yoghurt was considered a weird, sour interloper reserved for European expatriates and health nuts. But then came the 1980s. Fruity, sweetened and sometimes frozen yoghurt had caught on and cottage cheese was going nowhere but down. The rise of Greek yoghurt in the early 2000s knocked it to the mat. Potter thinks salvation won’t come at the hands of Big Cottage Cheese. Mass production, he says, is part of what killed it in the first place. By the 1980s, large corporations had absorbed most regional dairies, and much of the nation’s cottage cheese had become a flat-tasting, low-fat commodity with rubbery curds stabilised with starches and gums. “Really good cottage cheese is a hard product to make that doesn’t take well to automation,” Potter says. Unlike yoghurt, which is a matter of adding a culture to milk and waiting for it to thicken up, cottage cheese is one of those foods that is deceptively simple to produce but difficult to do well. It’s like making really good scrambled eggs, but takes hours. You have to take it low and slow. “Good cottage cheese takes a little craftsmanship,” says Potter, of the Dairy Connection. That’s where cheesemakers like Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, founders of Cowgirl Creamery in Marin County, California, come in. In the 1990s, Conley learned to make cottage cheese from Potter. It was one of the first cheeses she and Smith produced when they opened their original creamery in Point Reyes Station, California, in 1997. The key is very fresh skim milk from a well-run local dairy, Conley says (they get theirs from nearby Bivalve Dairy, which is certified organic and grazes its 200 Holsteins on pasture). Next comes a simple starter culture that feeds on milk sugars to create lactic acid. Overnight, luscious, tender curds slowly form. In the morning, cheesemakers cut them into pieces no bigger than peas. They cook and stir the curds for about one and a half hours to release some of their acidity. Then, the cheesemakers drain the whey and wash the curds three times. The last step is the dressing, which is the term for milk or cream that is added to the curds to make them creamy. The dressing determines the fat content of the cottage cheese, and is where most of the flavour lies. Cowgirl Creamery uses creme fraîche, and calls its pleasantly tart product “clabbered cottage cheese”. The cheese will be sold in Northern California and online, with plans to expand distribution on the west coast in the fall. It’s not inexpensive. A 5.3 ounce container will cost a little less than $3. Conley suggests eating it the way cheesemakers do after they finish a batch: rip open a bag of barbecue-flavoured potato chips and use it like a dip. Cowgirl Creamery interrupted production in 2012 because the process requires a lot of water and California was in a terrible drought. But this month, the creamery has started making the cottage cheese again at its Petaluma, California, facility to the joy of people like Janet Fletcher, a cheese writer who published a love letter to it in The San Francisco Chronicle. “I abandoned cottage cheese when I left home,” she wrote. “Tasting Cowgirl Creamery’s superb product made me want to welcome cottage cheese back into my life.” When cottage cheese is good, it’s delicious, something the cheesemonger Kate Arding found when she tasted Cowgirl Creamery’s version before production stopped. Arding, who grew up eating (and not really liking) cottage cheese in Britain, began a quest to persuade sceptical customers. “They’d taste it and get this glassy-eyed look,” she says. “You could see their faces just change.” The cheese has been entered in the American Cheese Society’s annual competition, held each summer, where cottage cheeses are just beginning to get noticed. Last year, Traderspoint Creamery in Indiana and Cabot Creamery in Vermont entered. Cabot took second place in one of the society’s fresh, unripened cheese categories. Cottage cheese is also nudging its way into the winners’ circle at the World Cheese Awards, the largest cheese event in the world. At the 2017 competition in London in November, cottage cheeses from Spain and Luxembourg took silver awards, and two others from Spain and Austria won bronze awards. To be sure, cottage cheese and its pressed cousins like paneer and queso fresco remain more po[CENSORED]r in other countries. And in March, Tablet Magazine included cottage cheese on its list of the 100 most Jewish foods. Rekindling the love affair may be wishful thinking. There are a lot people who just are never going to like cottage cheese. One is Kevin Pang, a food writer in Chicago who recently wrote of his revulsion for The Takeout, a food website affiliated with The Onion. “There’s something about its connotation with cellulite,” he says in an interview. And then there’s the texture. “Us Chinese, we love the slippery and the slimy, like tendon and jelly fish,” he says. “But cottage cheese, man. I just can’t do it. And I’ve eaten horse.” Even Ed Townley, chief executive officer of Cabot, isn’t convinced that cottage cheese is poised for a comeback, even though his company makes about £5m a year.

The number of US troops suffering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI) after an Iranian attack on a US base in Iraq in January has risen to 109, according to US officials. The figure is a significant increase from the 64 injured service members previously reported by the Pentagon. President Donald Trump initially said no Americans were injured in the raid. The attack on 8 January came amid tensions over the US killing of an Iranian general. Nearly 70% of the injured service members have returned to their duties, the Pentagon added in its statement. What is the future of US troops in Iraq? Huge rally as Iraqis demand US troops pull out Mr Trump originally cited the supposed lack of injuries in his decision not to strike back against Iran. The rising number of reported cases results from the mild form of injury which means symptoms take time to manifest, the Pentagon said in a news conference in January. US Republican lawmaker Joni Ernst called for more answers on Monday."It's vital we have a plan to treat these injured service members. "I've called on the Pentagon to ensure the safety and care of our deployed forces who may be exposed to blast injuries in Iraq," she tweeted. Last month President Trump downplayed the significance of traumatic brain injuries when asked about the impact of the attack. "I heard that they had headaches, and a couple of other things, but I would say, and I can report, it's not very serious," he said. When asked about possible TBIs he said: "I don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries I have seen." TBIs are common in warzones, according to the US military. The most common cause of a TBI for deployed soldiers is an explosive blast, writes the US Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. They are classified as mild, moderate, severe or penetrating. A mild TBI is also known as a concussion, and can be caused by a blast's "atmospheric over-pressure followed by under-pressure or vacuum". The air vacuum is capable of penetrating solid objects, making it possible for soldiers to avoid blunt force trauma but still receive an invisible brain injury. More than 400,000 troops have been diagnosed with TBI's since 2000, according to the US government.