And more news from around the world.
Happy Friday, this is Anna breaking today's top stories down into digestible chunks.
Breakthrough - Scientists have made a major advance towards developing a blood test for cancer that could identify tumours long before a person becomes aware of symptoms. The new test, which is sensitive to both mutated DNA that floats freely in the blood and cancer-related proteins, gave a positive result approximately 70% of the time across eight of the most common cancers when tested in more than 1,000 patients.
Rio mourns - A speeding car ploughed through pedestrians on a crowded promenade at Copacabana beach in Rio on Thursday in an apparent accident, killing an eight-month-old baby and injuring 15 people, police say.
Baby PM - New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has announced she is pregnant with her first child. Ardern, who was sworn in to office in October, said in a Facebook post that she and her partner, Clarke Gayford, are expecting in June. The deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, will take over to allow Ardern to take six weeks of maternity leave after the baby is born.
Channel connection - Boris Johnson has put forward the idea of new crossing between the UK and France, tweeting that the Channel Tunnel could be ‘just a first step’. The UK foreign secretary reportedly raised the idea of a new ‘fixed link’ between the two countries during a summit with the French President. He said good connections were vital to the economic success of both countries.
Show of might - Invitations sent to diplomats and satellite imagery suggest Pyongyang is preparing for a major military parade on the eve of the Pyeongchang Olympic games in South Korea, which begin February 9 and will feature North Korean athletes and cheering squads. This will assumedly be a way to show the international community that while peace talks are on the table, North Korea’s nuclear and military capacity has not lessened.
Forever young - Adolescence now lasts from the ages of 10 to 24, even though it used to be thought to end at 19, scientists say. Young people continuing their education for longer, as well as delayed marriage and parenthood, has pushed back popular perceptions of when adulthood begins.