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Facebook boss faces 'blow-dried armpit' jibes

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has faced jibes on social media over claims he has staff blow-dry his armpits before public appearances.
The claim is from a new book, Facebook: The Inside Story by Steven Levy, that will be released later this month. A Bloomberg review included the anecdote about Mr Zuckerberg having a member of his communication team dry his "anxiety sweat" before a speech. A Facebook spokesperson said she doubted the story's accuracy. "I doubt this is true, and if so, it would have been at our communications team's request, but surely anyone who has ever worn a grey T-shirt can relate," said Liz Bourgeois, a Facebook spokesperson. The anecdote was first reported in a review of the book by Bloomberg News.

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Hanau shooting: Eight dead after two attacks in Germany

Eight people are dead following two shootings at shisha bars in the western German city of Hanau.
At least five people were injured after gunmen opened fire at about 22:00 local time (21:00 GMT), police told the BBC. Police added that they are searching for the suspects, who fled the scene and are currently at large. The first shooting was at a bar in the city centre, while the second was in Hanau's Kesselstadt neighbourhood, according to local reports. Police officers and helicopters are patrolling both areas.

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Ring doorbell makes two-factor verification mandatory

Ring, Amazon's video doorbell system, has introduced additional steps to the way users log in to their accounts.
Users will need to enter a password and unique six-digit code when they first log in to view their security footage or access the Neighbors app. On Tuesday, Ring also said it would pause its data-sharing with third-party firms. The change comes as Ring and Amazon face increasing scrutiny about privacy protection and data sharing. A BBC report on Amazon - which owns Ring - showed the company's extensive level of data collection. In a blog post Ring's president Leila Rouhi said the company takes "digital security and privacy seriously" and would look at additional ways to improve security.

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Coronavirus: Passengers leave Diamond Princess amid criticism of Japan

Hundreds of passengers who tested negative for the new coronavirus have begun leaving a quarantined cruise ship in Japan amid heavy criticism over the country's handling of the outbreak.
One Japanese health expert who visited the Diamond Princess at the port in Yokohama said the situation on board was "completely chaotic". US officials said moves to contain the virus "may not have been sufficient". Passengers have described the difficult quarantine situation on the vessel. At least 542 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess have so far been infected by the Covid-19 virus - the biggest cluster outside mainland China. The ship was carrying 3,700 people in total.

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Apple warns coronavirus will hurt iPhone supplies

Apple has warned that disruption in China from the coronavirus will mean revenues falling short of forecasts.
The tech giant said production and sales were affected, and that "worldwide iPhone supply would be temporarily constrained". The iPhone maker is the first major US company to say that the epidemic will hit its finances. Apple, which had forecast record revenues of up to $67bn in the current quarter, did not reveal the likely hit. "We do not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter," the company said in a statement, adding that it was "experiencing a slower return to normal conditions" than expected. With most stores in China either closed or operating at reduced hours, sales of Apple products would be lower, the company said.

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Coronavirus: Largest study suggests elderly and sick are most at risk

Health officials in China have published the first details of more than 44,000 cases of Covid-19, in the biggest study since the outbreak began.
Data from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) finds that more than 80% of the cases have been mild, with the sick and elderly most at risk. The research also points to the high risk to medical staff. A hospital director in the city of Wuhan died from the virus on Tuesday. Liu Zhiming, 51, was the director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan - one of the leading hospitals in the virus epicentre. He is one of the most senior health officials to die so far. Hubei, the province Wuhan is in, is the worst affected province in the country.

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Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook boss urges tighter regulation

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.

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Coronavirus: Americans from quarantined cruise ship flown from Japan

Two planes carrying hundreds of US citizens from a coronavirus-hit cruise ship have left Japan, officials say.
One plane has landed at a US Air Force air base in California, and its passengers will be isolated at military facilities for 14 days. There were some 400 Americans on board the Diamond Princess. The ship with some 3,700 passengers and crew has been in quarantine since 3 February. Meanwhile, China reported a total of 2,048 new cases on Monday. Of those new cases, 1,933 were from Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. More than 70,500 people across China have been infected by the virus. In Hubei alone, the official number of cases stands at 58,182, with 1,692 deaths. Most new cases and deaths have been reported in Wuhan, Hubei's largest city.

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Facebook boss 'happy to pay more tax in Europe'

The boss of Facebook says he accepts tech giants may have to pay more tax in Europe in future and recognises people's "frustration" over the issue.
Mark Zuckerberg also said he backed plans by think tank the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to find a global solution. Facebook and others have been accused of not paying their fair share of tax in countries where they operate. But some say the OECD is moving too slowly towards its goal of a 2020 deal. In the UK, Facebook paid just £28.5m in corporation tax in 2018 despite generating a record £1.65bn in British sales. At the time tax campaigner and MP Margaret Hodge said such a low bill was "outrageous", but Facebook said it pays what it owes.

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Antarctic island hits record temperature of 20.75C

Antarctica has exceeded 20C for the first time, after researchers logged a temperature of 20.75C on an island off the coast of the continent.
Brazilian scientist Carlos Schaefer told AFP they had "never seen a temperature this high in Antarctica". But he warned the temperature, logged on 9 February, was just one reading and not part of a long-term data set. The continent also hit a record last week, with a temperature reading of 18.3C on the Antarctic Peninsula. This latest reading was taken at a monitoring station on Seymour Island, part of a chain of islands off the same peninsula, at the northernmost point of the continent. Although the temperature is a record high, Mr Schaefer emphasized that the reading was not part of a wider study and so, in itself, could not be used to predict a trend. "We can't use this to anticipate climatic changes in the future. It's a data point," he said. "It's simply a signal that something different is happening in that area."