this is bbc news. the headlines at midday... five british people including a child have tested positive for the coronavirus at a ski resort in france. shouting. meanwhile, as the number of victims has increased in china, there's been growing anger at the handling of the crisis. six senior conservatives write to tory mps to raise concerns about the government's decision to allow huawei to help build the uk's 56 network. why would you want to build into your system an organisation that remains a threat? i don't know of anywhere else in the world that would do that. officials working on borisjohnson‘s pledge to recruit an extra 20,000

police officers say that they'll actually need to take on more than 50,000, as many are set to leave. the met office issues severe weather warnings for the weekend as storm ciara approaches from the atlantic. preparations are under way for the england—scotland and ireland—wales matches in the six nations this afternoon. and, in half an hour, click is in los angeles for the oscars, looking at technology and the movies. five britons have tested positive for coronavirus in france. the four adults and a child were diagnosed with the virus in the french alps. the newly—infected people were among a group of 11 people who had been staying in the same chalet in the les contamines montjoie ski resort in the region of savoie in eastern france. the news of the infections was announced by a french health minister.

translation: the initial case was reported to us last night. it was a british national returning from singapore, where he had stayed from the 20th to the 23rd of january. he arrived in france onjanuary 24th for a four—day trip and stayed in the town of les contamines montjoie in savoie. all the positive cases and contacts of this british national, close contacts, total 11 people. all british nationals were staying in the same chalet. they were hospitalised last night in three hospitals, in lyon, saint etienne and grenoble. a little earlier, i spoke to our correspondent, andy moore, who gave some further detail on the coronavirus cases in france. the first contact, the source of this cluster we are talking about was a man who was in singapore from

the 20th to the 23rd of january. he returned to france to this ski chalet in the resort of les contamines montjoie, not too far from mont blanc in haute—savoie. he was staying there with 11 other people. five of them have tested positive. all 11 have been taken to hospital as a precaution, as we were hearing. 0ne hospital as a precaution, as we were hearing. one of them is a child. this is another worrying example of community spread of the disease, so these are people now contaminated who haven't been to china, haven't been to asia. they are secondary contacts been to asia. they are secondary co nta cts of been to asia. they are secondary contacts of the man who had been to singapore. currently, the condition of those 11 people, they are not reported to be seriously ill, so at the moment we special because they are ok. some people have the virus showing any symptoms. we have also heard about some cases in majorca. yes, this is slightly different, a possible suspicion that a british

family have coronavirus. all four, a father, mother and two children, have been taken to hospital as a precaution. they are in quarantine. they haven't yet tested positive, but we understand one of the girls is showing symptoms of a flu—like disease. she might be ill from something completely different. we don't know if that is coronavirus. another 86 deaths have been recorded in mainland china, the largest number in a day so far. 722 people are now known to have died in the outbreak. unverified video footage has emerged from china which appears to show officials forcibly rounding up people suspected of having the coronavirus. more than 3a,000 people have been infected in the country. 0ur china correspondent, steven mcdonell, spoke to us from beijing. wuhan, where this broke out, has been really stretched. in china, things are resourced pretty well, but it just shows you how serious this problem is.

hospitals in that city have been absolutely swamped, so two separate, new coronavirus isolation facilities have been built, the first one with 1,000 beds, the second with 1,300. they will be run by the military, and that makes sense because they can arrive with their doctors, nurses and admin staff and start straightaway. but, you know, even with those new facilities in place, we are still hearing from officials in wuhan they don't have enough hospital beds, not enough equipment, and it could be that there are ten times as many people infected in hubei province as the official figures might suggest. that is because some people are presenting with less serious symptoms, they are not going to hospital, they are still coming into contact with others and passing on the virus. and we have also seen a huge level of anger and grief after the death

of the young doctor who tried to warn the public. how much is that eroding trust in the government, do you think? well, i think many people would sort of applaud the efforts of the chinese government more generally on this, and they are throwing everything at this problem right now. however, in the early stages, when dr li wenliang tried to warn others, in this case, posting on a chat with his classmates from university that there had been an influx of virus patients, he was hauled in by the police and told not to spread rumours. at the same time, the mayor of wuhan says he is sorry he didn't release crucial information about this virus earlier because he didn't have clearance from above. this must be leading people to be questioning what is going wrong in china with the communist party's command and control structure under xijinping, if people

are afraid to release crucial, important information into the community in a timely mannerforfear they will get into trouble. so something has gone wrong there. party officials know that this is a problem, and so they are somehow trying to spin it. they have sent in a team to investigate what went wrong with the li wenliang, who now, apart from trying to blow the whistle, has died himself in treating patients with the virus, but the investigators who have gone in there to look at this, many would see them as part of the problem, because the communist party's discipline and inspection structure is one of the reasons people are afraid of speaking out, and why you get the police, for example, trying to silence a whistle—blower. so, you know, i think critics of the chinese government would say this is not the way to be going about it. really, the questions that should be asked are, how is this country run, and how can you change things

so that, when important information has to be released like this, it can be done quickly so those early days and weeks will not be lost, like they have been in this case. a group of senior conservatives is urging fellow tory mps to challenge borisjohnson‘s decision to give the chinese technology firm huawei a role in building the uk's 56 mobile networks. in a letter, severalformer cabinet ministers say there are alternative options which would not compromise national security. the government insists the decision was taken following a "rigorous" review, and huawei's involvement in 56 would be limited. earlier, i spoke to sir iain duncan smith, one of the signatories of the letter. i asked him if it was too late to change the government's mind. government has made a decision, and i have to say i have sympathy for

the prime minister, because this is aofa the prime minister, because this is a of a hospital pass. it was given to him to civil servants had driven this process hard, because huawei are already in the earlier symptoms, and bear in mind that the civil service work very heavily criticised by the security select committee backin by the security select committee back in 2013, who said they should have looked very much more carefully at that security. we are at a point where we need to make a decision, and it's a long—term decision, not just on 5g on 6g, which is the big breakthrough, as to whether or not you have an organisation from a country that is an aggressor in terms of cyber warfare, and a company that is clearly, totally and utterly in the hands of the chinese government, who demand absolute obedience on these matters stop so the answer is, are they manageable? and nobody that i have spoken to in the security apparatus, outside or inside technology companies, they all say they are simply not manageable to have an organisation

like that inside your important network, and therefore we now need to drive to zero, zero involvement, as soon as we can, one 01’ two years, as soon as we can, one or two years, and as soon as we can, one or two years, and therefore open up to many more other providers. isn't it a bit unfairjust to other providers. isn't it a bit unfair just to blame other providers. isn't it a bit unfairjust to blame civil servants when the prime minister makes the final decision? he will have had the top security advice. what do you think motivated is reasoning?” top security advice. what do you think motivated is reasoning? i am not blaming the civil service, simply pointing out that, since 2003, a series of bad decisions were made, and even ministers were criticised in the 2013 report, they we re criticised in the 2013 report, they were not told that huawei and some of the networks were now given the right to be there. the key thing here is that we are completely alone in this. the australians, new zealanders, canadians, americans, the vietnamese, for goodness' sake, refused huawei. the indians have said no, the japanese are angry about this, and even the french have now said they were not there with

any solution with huawei in it. all of our allies and friends, the sort of our allies and friends, the sort of people we normally respect, we share intelligence with, they all tell us we have made the wrong decision. we need to get warren out of our systems. it takes a year or so, year—and—a—half to two years, 0k, so, year—and—a—half to two years, ok, but the government needs to have a plan not to 35% involved, zero involvement, and i think that fits with all the others around the world who know a great deal about the threat. china has set up to dominate these markets, they subsidise this organisation, this company goes in and under beds, often loss leaders, to undercut companies, and if you try and bid into china, one company told me, it's a nightmare, they restrict you, you can't get into any of their security stuff. they won't let us in and yet we let chinese companies like huawei in. i think the reality is that most people know that the security of the british public, of this realm, isn'tjust about land or sea, it's also about

the internet now, these broadband areas, and we need now to protect that as much as anything else. that's our priority. i would urge the government to think very carefully, not 35% involvement, zero involvement, that's what we think needs to happen. police believe the sudden death of a woman whose body was found in a house in staffordshire may have involved hazardous materials. emergency services were called to a property in northwood in stoke—on—trent last night. residents in neighbouring properties were evacuated and five emergency responders were taken to hospital for precautionary checks for possible effects of the suspected materials. to recruit 20,000 extra police officers within three years. concerns have been raised about the prime minister's pledge to recruit 20,000 extra police officers within three years. police and home office officials working on the move believe more than 50,000 recruits will be needed to cover the number leaving the service. earlier, i spoke tojohn apter from the police federation — the staff association for police

in england and wales. he told me they welcomed the increase in numbers, but that more needed to be done to reward staff. compared to what we've had in the last ten years, from previous prime ministers, this is a good problem, so ministers, this is a good problem, so i'm not going to throw it back in the face of the prime minister, who wa nts to the face of the prime minister, who wants to get more police officers on the streets. let's not forget, we can't ignore the fact that this will not even cover the number of officers we have lost in the last ten years, about 92,000. it will be a massive task, and we have changed the way we recruit officers. it's a lot more complicated now, so we need to ta ke lot more complicated now, so we need to take that into account. it will bea to take that into account. it will be a real struggle. i know you've talked about pay stub give me an idea of what the starting salary is, and if the government means business what do you think they need to do? currently we are in the process of submitting evidence to the pei body, an independent body which looks at

setting police pay. this comes on the back of ten years of austerity measures, which has seen police officers' pay frozen or capped, like many other public sector workers, at 196. many other public sector workers, at 1%. if we recruit like now at £18,500, if that stays as it is, that means that police officers, the bravest in the world, but that means that those officers are on 15p per hour more. that is completely unacceptable for its worth calling foran unacceptable for its worth calling for an increase in starting pay, which would take us to around £24,000, to recognise the role that they carry out and the dangers they face, but also an overall pay rise of 5%. it doesn't even fill the gap of, in real terms, of 5%. it doesn't even fill the gap of, in realterms, an 18% of 5%. it doesn't even fill the gap of, in real terms, an 18% cut in pay police officers have seen in the last ten years, but our submission

is based on evidence, and we think it's realistic, and the government must listen. if they want to recruit police officers, if they want to retain them, they have to pay them fairly. it's no good standing on the steps of parliament proclaiming how fantastic police officers are when they don't give them the right pay. police are investigating an alleged assault of an elderly patient with alzheimer's by nhs staff at a hospital in kent. an investigation by the independent newspaper found that nurses and carers at the william harvey hospital in ashford were suspended after allegedly holding down the elderly man's arms, legs and face while they inserted a catheter. the headlines on bbc news... five british people, including a child, have tested positive for the coronavirus at a ski resort in france. six senior conservatives write to tory mps to raise concerns about the government's decision to allow huawei to help build the uk's 5g network. officials working on borisjohnson's pledge to recruit an extra 20,000

police officers say that they'll actually need to take on more than 50,000 as many are set to leave. let's return to our top story. five british people have tested positive for the coronavirus in france. the group, who are not in a serious condition, had been staying at a ski resort in the alps. well, our correspondent hugh schofield is in paris. what more do we know about what's happened? this news broke overnight. a health ministry statement this morning revealed there are 11 people in all who are hospitalised, all british, and of them five have shown positive, tested positive for coronavirus. all 11 were staying at a place called les contamines montjoie, a ski resort in the haute—savoie department near mont blanc, and they came into contact with another person, an adult, male

orfemale we don't with another person, an adult, male or female we don't know, who is not among the 11. this person had been in singapore, came to the resort two weeks ago, spent four days there, left on the 28th and went back to britain. it's not clear to me whether he infected the place somehow or somebody else and then this group of 11 arrived, who were contaminated via a third person, or whether he was in content himself with this group. in any case, the people who were hospitalised have been taken to hospitals in the area. five had the virus and six have been just taken in as a precaution. obviously, i would just taken in as a precaution. obviously, iwould imagine just taken in as a precaution. obviously, i would imagine efforts are being made in britain to contact this person who was the origin of the infection. it seems that, like others, he was at a conference in singapore over the 20th, 22nd of last month, where we know that was a

source of other clusters which have appeared in malaysia and south korea, so that's the likely route of it all. i say, there are 11 cases, all brits, but none shall in particular signs of a for concern. it's the ski season, half term is coming up, people might be travelling. how well set up is france to deal with more cases if they happen? in general, france is a country with a very efficient health system, very centralised form of coping with emergencies. if any country is going to be well placed to deal with it, it is france. yes, the holiday season is about to open in the ski resorts. lots of people will be driving up to this place and others this weekend, even, so i imagine there is some concern there about the impact on public feeling and so on. they are insistent that they have taken all measures, that there have been no cancellations, that they have decontaminated chalets or shallows where the 11

we re chalets or shallows where the 11 were staying. but, given the state of the public mind, it wouldn't surprise me if some people decide they don't want to go there. tonga given we don't know the movements of any of those people, you can't decontaminate a whole area, we don't know if the virus is spread from services or what, so i guess public concern everywhere. absolutely, but there are procedures in place in france, more than anywhere, for coping with emergencies of this kind, so they will have been put in train, and we are told there is a press co nfe re nce train, and we are told there is a press conference coming up soon by the local government representatives in the haute—savoie department, who i have no doubt will be outlining the measures that have been taken and giving a message of reassurance to holiday—makers who are coming to the region there is no need to panic. at the same time, of course, there is this effort to trace anyone who has been in contact with this group of 11 and with the individual

who is back in britain, and again obviously there is a british entry to this story now, because a p pa re ntly to this story now, because apparently that person went back to the uk, and i presume they have been traced, there doesn't seem to be any doubt about who the individual is, they must know, so i guess there is a british angle to this at the moment. thank you very much. president trump has dismissed two senior officials who testified against him at his impeachment trial. the us envoy to the eu, gordon sondland, said he'd been recalled just hours after colonel alexander vindman was escorted from the white house. peter bowes reports. two days after president trump's acquittal, two prominant witnesses during the impeachment inquiry have lost theirjobs. they both gave evidence that cast doubt on the president's claimed that he'd done nothing wrong. gordon sondland told the enquiry he believed that mr trump was politically motivated when he withheld aid from the ukraine. he said there were strings attached to a possible visit to the white house by the ukrainian president.

was there a quid pro quo? as i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. i say to the ambassador — i want nothing, i want nothing, i want no quid pro quo, tell president zelensky to do the right thing. so here's my answer — i want nothing. but ambassador sondland's testimony had raised doubts whether trump was telling the truth. now he's out of a job. it follows the sacking of lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, who was listening in on the president'sjuly phone call with his ukrainian counterpart. he told investigators he was concerned about what he heard, and that the conversation had been improper. his lawyer said colonel vindman was asked to leave for telling the truth, and that the most powerful person in the world had decided to exact revenge.

a day after being acquitted by the senate, president trump vented his fury at those who'd pursued the impeachment charges against him. his press secretary said he had been treated horribly and that maybe people should pay for that. it looks like the recriminations have started. peter bowes, bbc news. we are getting reports from thailand that a soldier has killed a number of people in a mass shooting rampage in the north—east. that's being reported to afp, the news agency. they are saying the gunman used a machine gun and shot innocent victims, resulting in many injured and dead. local media says there are 12 fatalities. it is thought the gunman is still on release, but we are trying to confirm those details. women now hold a third of the board positions in the uk's 100 biggest public companies. the figure is up from

just 12% a decade ago. but a government—backed hampton—alexander review, which had set this target, highlighted a lack of women in senior and executive roles. katy austin reports. my name is francesca ecsery. i sit on the boards of several companies, including air france, f&c investment trust. even with francesca's background as a successful business leader, getting her first boardroom position was tough. it's an area where often men still hugely outnumber women. change is painful. there's a huge value attributed to "chemistry" on the board, and, of course, "chemistry", you have mainly with people like you. she says boards who don't have enough women are putting themselves at a disadvantage. basically, it doesn't reflect your customer base, it doesn't reflect the society at large, it doesn't reflect your staff. the government has backed voluntary targets to increase the representation of women on the boards of the biggest listed

companies in the country to 33%, or one in three, by the end of this year. it's february and that target has now been achieved for the top 100 companies, but not yet for the next 250, and it's far from job done. i think 33% is a very good start, but, as we can see, and we know there are still many issues in the workplace to address, and we have a lot farther to go before we see really good gender balance in the leadership of business. francesca welcomes the latest boardroom target being hit, but she worries getting enough women at the top table remains a long way off. katy austin, bbc news. hollywood is gearing up for its biggest night of the year tomorrow, the academy awards. but, if you need an antidote to all that back—slapping, the nominations for the razzies have just been announced. they're the "anti—oscars" for the worst movies and the films cats and rambo: last blood are the films leading the way

for this dubious honour. earlier, i spoke to samdro monetti, editor in chief of hollywood international filmmaker magazine, who had little sympathy cats was a load of old hairballs. the problem is that it was never going to work from the first second we saw the trailer. now, judi dench has won so many awards in her career, but the razzie is certainly one she doesn't want to win. she is nominated for worst supporting actress, where her competition includes cats co—star rebel wilson. so, could judi dench, queen of the oscars, be taking home a golden raspberry award ? i think so. what a low point. i love it. how are these decided? are they necessarily by film experts? do people even have to watch the movie to vote for these? well, we are not exactly film experts. to get membership of the academy, which votes for the oscars, you need to have a significant body

of acclaimed work over a number of years. to join the golden raspberry academy, you need to send a cheque for $40, no questions asked, and you get a voting form. so that is the great decision making process. do some of the winners actually enjoy the attention on the grounds of any attention is good? no. they avoid it like the plague, although halle berry was a good sport, she actually turned up when she won, i think in 2004, worst actress for catwoman. and sandra bullock, when she won worst actress for all about steve, remember that one? no. she turned up. but i don't thinkjudi dench will be making her way to the ceremony to pick up the award for cats somehow. cats was a total disaster. it cost $95 million to make, it didn't come close to making that back and in a week

where we celebrate the best of films there is little argument that cats is the worst and i'm sure the golden raspberries will crown it, or dump it, as the very worst of a bad bunch. what do the lucky winners get? oh, they get a trophy, which is a plastic raspberry on a wooden plinth and it's said to have a value of £4.50. it's time for a look at the weather with sarah keith lucas. some disruptive weather on the cards as storm ciara approaches, so the met office have issued an amber warning for severe gales in south—east england, but widely across the country we are likely to see disruption on sunday due to the strength of the wind. for the rest of today, a lot of dry weather in england, wales and eastern scotland,

but rain moving in and gales developing across scotland and northern ireland through the afternoon. further east you are, you are more likely to stay driest for longest, it will turn blustery later. the winds continued to strengthen this evening at overnight. during the early hours of sunday, storm ciara arrives from the west, bringing heavy rain, mountain snow in scotland, and strong, gusty winds moving across the country on sunday, with gusts up to 80 mph, particularly around hills and coasts. severe gales likely on sunday and we can see disruption to transport as well as the potential for power cuts and large waves. hello this is bbc news. five british people, including a child, have tested positive for the coronavirus at a ski resort in france. meanwhile, as the number of victims has increased in china, there's been growing anger

at the handling of the crisis. six senior conservatives write to tory mps to raise concerns about the government's decision to allow huawei to help build the uk's 5g network. why would you want to build into your system and organisation that remains a threat? i don't know of anywhere else in the world that would do that. officials working on boris johnson's pledge to recruit an extra 20 thousand police officers say that they'll actually need to take on more than fifty thousand as many are set to leave. the met office issues severe weather warnings for the weekend as storm ciara approaches from the atlantic. sport and a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. holly is with us. that is right, a huge day in rugby today and all donations are in

action and against each other as well. both wales and ireland have new coaches and after winning their opening games last weekend grand slam is still on for both sides, but ireland know they will have to improve on their performance last weekend when theyjust got over the line with scotland. it has been a trademark of the irish team over the la st trademark of the irish team over the last few years, to be physically dominant, and our thoughts were last week we had it in part but we were not as consistent as we usually are in that aspect of the game. we know we have to step that up a little bit this week, find that consistency, so we don't let teams off the hook and we don't let teams off the hook and we just keep putting pressure on in terms of dominance. they're a very, very physical team and if you let them get on the front foot, they're very, very dangerous so we've got to be very careful about the areas we play in and make sure that we match that physicality