When it comes to clay it's a question of mental attitude which he has to get right

When it comes to clay, it's a question of mental attitude, which he has to get right. But he realises he has to work hard because it's not his natural surface."Tim Henman was able to take a day off yesterday - "There's no point practising indoors for here," David Felgate, his coach, said - before preparing for his second round match against Christian Vinck, a German qualifier. Henman, the British No 1, said he knows Vinck to be a left-hander who beat him in an ATP Tour Challenger event in Hamburg five years ago and that "he's not someone to take lightly".Andre Agassi would agree with that, having lost to Vinck in straight sets in the final of a Challenger tournament in Las Vegas in November 1997 after the American's world ranking had slumped to No 141.Although beaten in his home town, Agassi gained enough confidence from the event to revive his career to the point where his triumph at the French Open last year made him only the fifth man in tennis history to complete a collection of the four Grand Slam singles titles.Agassi became Agassi again, and Vinck remained Vinck. Now 25, he is placed No 193 in the ATP Tour's entry system and his win against his compatriot Tomas Behrend, a lucky loser, in the first round was his first in a Grand Slam championship.. A mystery illness affecting heroin addicts in Glasgow has claimed another life, bringing the death toll to 12.

The outbreak is now being positively linked with a similar spate of deaths in Dublin, which has killed seven drug users. A total of 26 addicts in Glasgow and 14 drug users in Dublin have been affected by the illness. A mystery illness affecting heroin addicts in Glasgow has claimed another life, bringing the death toll to 12. The outbreak is now being positively linked with a similar spate of deaths in Dublin, which has killed seven drug users. A total of 26 addicts in Glasgow and 14 drug users in Dublin have been affected by the illness. Last week, tests at the chemical warfare research centre in Porton Down, Wiltshire, ruled out anthrax, which scientists had suggested may have caused the Glasgow outbreak.All the Glasgow cases are believed to have injected directly into muscle tissue and have suffered severe inflammation around the site of the injection, followed by shock, collapse and in some cases death.

The Irish cases followed a similar pattern except that most victims have been men, while more women were affected in Glasgow.American medical experts have been called in to helpboth cities' investigations and tissue samples from people affected by the illness have been sent to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.. More than 150 pregnant women have been given test results telling them they were at low risk of giving birth to a Down's syndrome baby when they were actually at high risk. More than 150 pregnant women have been given test results telling them they were at low risk of giving birth to a Down's syndrome baby when they were actually at high risk. A computer software error, which went undetected for four months at the Northern General Hospital NHS Trust in Sheffield, means 154 women - most of whom are aged over 35 - were wrongly advised because the principal factor in Down's cases, their age, was not correctly accounted for.Now the women, who are in the 18th to 35th week of pregnancy, must decide whether to have an amniocentesis test for Down's - incurring a slight risk of miscarriage - and even consider a termination in the event that severe handicap is detected. The hospital pointed out that termination would still be permissible in law even if the woman was more than 24 weeks pregnant - the period beyond which some consultants consider it unacceptable.Debra Royston, 32, from Sheffield, was told five weeks ago that she had a 1 in 570 risk of carrying a Down's child. The odds have now been recalculated at 1 in 150, and the miscarriage risk of amniocentesis is greater because the baby is bigger. "I got a letter at 17 weeks saying I was low risk and we thought everything was OK," she said yesterday "Now I have been told I am a high risk. I just got a note in my pre-natal book apologising for the mistake.

If I have the test now I risk losing a perfectly healthy child Having the test at this late stage is a major worry. I don't know what I am going to do." She plans to take legal advice and may sue for damages.Most of the women affected by the error were given a routine blood-screening test between the 14th and 18th weeks of their pregnancy. The hospital's department of immunology's Pathlan software system, which is not used for the same purpose by any other British hospital, factors in the blood test results - with the mother's age, body weight and length of pregnancy.John Watts, acting chief executive at the Northern General, said: "What we know at this stage is that it was the variable of age that was causing the problem. It does not follow that the women concerned will give birth to a Down's syndrome baby, but they are at a higher risk of doing so."The trust, which conducts 18,000 similar blood tests a year, said it was impossible to determine how many of the women would go on to have Down's babies, though nationally 1.3 per 1,000 women in the high-risk category do. The risk increases with age.Mr Watts said the software glitch covered the period from 4 January to 24 May, during which time 4,000 women were tested. It was detected during a routine audit and action had been taken to correct it.The trust performs the tests for a number of hospitals in the surrounding area - Barnsley District General Hospital, Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Royal Hospital, Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Grimsby Maternity Hospital, the Jessop Hospital for Women and the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, Rotherham District General Hospital, Scunthorpe General Hospital and Worksop Hospital.The trust said all 154 women should have been contacted by the end of today.. The Government is to ask Britain what its top three priorities are for improving the National Health Service in a groundbreaking census of opinion launched today.

The Government is to ask Britain what its top three priorities are for improving the National Health Service in a groundbreaking census of opinion launched today. More than twelve million questionnaires will be placed in doctors surgeries, clinics, supermarkets and libraries asking the public for their points of view."This is the first time there has ever been a national consultation of this sort." Health Secretary Alan Milburn said. "I want to hear what are the top three changes that people believe would make the NHS better."But opponents of the government immediately dismissed the survey as an expensive PR stunt, highlighting other uses for the £500,000 that it will be costing.The move has been slammed as a publicity stunt because the Government have promised to implement changes to the NHS as early as July. This, claim the projects critics, will not leave time for the views of the public to be examined properly.According to figures from the King's Fund, the money would have paid for 555 cataract operations at a time when pensioners are flying to India for surgery in a bid to bypass long hospital queues.Alternatively, the £500,000 would have paid for 83 coronary artery bypass graft operations - earlier this year a Bristol surgeon said his patients were dying while waiting for vital cardiac surgery.Or the money could have funded 14 junior doctors on a senior house officer grade could have been paid for with the money, or 33 newly-qualified nurses.The funds could also have been used to fund 125 hip replacement operations, at an average cost of around £4,000 each."The government are looking for some way out of the incompetent mess they've got themselves into." Conservative health spokesman Liam Fox told Sky television. "This, of course, is yet another publicity stunt."The Patients' Association also said the initiative was too little, too late and questioned the ability of respondents to act in time and of the government to collate results properly.The questionnaires must be completed by early June and their contents are due to be analysed by mid-month..