this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at two: five british people, including a child, have tested positive for the coronavirus at a ski resort in france. at least 12 people have died and several others have been wounded in a mass shooting in thailand. 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 that would do that. officials working on boris johnson'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. ireland take on wales in the six

nations this afternoon, kick off is in 15 minutes. and in half an hour, talking movies reports from hollywood, previewing the 92nd annual academy awards. good afternoon. welcome to bbc news. five british people — including a child — have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus while on holiday in the french alps. they were all staying in the same chalet in a ski resort in the savoir region. elsewhere, a british family are in hospital in majorca as a precaution, after they reportedly came in to contact with a coronavirus patient. more than 700 people have died from the virus in china since the outbreak started. andy moore reports. a picturesque ski resort

in the french alps the unlikely setting for this new cluster of coronavirus cases. french officials said a british man came to a chalet in contamines montjoie after visiting singapore. he then infected at least five other people, including a child. a total of 11 people are in hospital, but they're not said to be in a serious condition. translation: there are five new cases in a group, all catching it from one infected person. in a separate case in mallorca, a british family of four, including two girls, is in hospital as a precaution after one of them came in contact with a coronavirus case in france. translation: this morning, we took samples. we have to prepare and protect them under secure biological conditions in the lab, to be sent to the centre in madrid. on a cruise liner quarantined off the coast of japan, 64 people have now tested positive for coronavirus.

they have been taken off the ship to hospital. one of them is british. alan steele from walsall was celebrating his honeymoon. he's said to be doing well, according to his friends, who are still on board the cruise liner. he was taken off the ship yesterday, late afternoon. he's in a hospital near tokyo. wendy is missing him a great deal, obviously, but they're in regular touch, and alan has been in touch with me a couple of times today. tomorrow, the last of 150 british citizens are expected to arrive back in the uk on the final repatriation flights from wuhan. they will be taken to a training and conference venue on the outskirts of milton keynes. andy moore, bbc news. well our correspondent hugh schofield is in paris. this is a developing story. what more do we know about the

circumstances in which the family we re circumstances in which the family were identified as having the virus? there has been a press conference the departmental capital in the alps, they have given us some detail. the source of this infection is the british man who we know has already been identified, he self identified, he is from brighton and he is now in hospital in london. he had been at a conference in singapore which we know is the source of several cases in asia as well. he had come back to europe ten days or so ago and stayed first in a chalet in the alps and then got on to brighton where he developed these symptoms. he had gone to the authorities and they asked him, where have you been? the information emerged that he went to the alps so the british authorities passed on

that information to the french authorities who went to the chalet and confirmed that of the ii authorities who went to the chalet and confirmed that of the 11 people living in the chalet, five have been contaminated with the virus. at this conference they said the chalet consists of two apartments. in one of those apartments is a family of british people who are resident in france and that is a family, a mother, father and three children, the mother wasn't in france at the time but it is the father and the nine—year—old boy in this family who have the virus. in the other palm that were seven tourists, of that group, three have the virus. all 11 are under observation in hospital, have been kept in isolation but there were quite clear, no officials we re there were quite clear, no officials were worried about them. there have not been any symptoms displayed by them, but of course they tested

positive to the virus and the others we re positive to the virus and the others were in close contact with them, so they are being kept in strict isolation from others and meanwhile, the investigations continue in the town to find other possible cases. the boy attended the local school. the boy attended the local school. the nine—year—old boy who has the virus attended the local school so there is a certain amount of attention being paid on his classmates. some reports that two local schools would not open on monday because of concerns. exactly. we are talking about mountain communities, not huge populations. both these schools will be shot. the boy because he is british or english and has taken up residence with his family, his french is not great so he is having remedial french lessons to get his french up to speed so

both schools are concerned. the french health minister has become rather a familiarface french health minister has become rather a familiar face in french health minister has become rather a familiarface in recent days on french television. what is the kind of public reaction? are people relatively calm about this? there are six cases already, one serious and this cluster in the alps. people are following this closely. i don't detect any particular signs of panic. there are reports of people from the chinese and asian community seeing a certain amount of derogatory comments. there we re amount of derogatory comments. there were reports that the chinese quarter, restaurants are not receiving the same amount of clients they would normally have but i don't detect a sense of panic across the population. we are talking about five or six cases, it has been covered extensively in the media. one does see more people in masks on

the streets than one does normally, but i don't think any undue feeling that people are under threat. thank you very much. chris smith is a consultant virologist at cambridge university — and a presenter on the naked scientist podcast. hejoins me now via webcam. good to speak to you today. what sort of message have been putting out on the pod cast over the last week or so? an interesting story this one, this emerging infection. we were one of the first groups to cover this because i noticed at the beginning of january that it appeared lightning may be striking twice with wuhan because of its close correspondence with what had happened with sars back in 2002—3. we took this seriously. the story is beginning to clarify in terms of the origin. we have now seen information pointing towards it possibly being a trade in pangolins in the markets

which is an intermediate host. we think the virus originates in bats, transferred it to pangolins. britain has had its third case in mainland britain and that person caught the virus outside china and that spoke quite a lot to us because what that is saying is that previously where oui’ is saying is that previously where our case definition, what we were using to decide whether to test someone using to decide whether to test someone for this, was whether they had been in china, now we have had to widen that to nine territories, including singapore. that tells us the virus is notjust outside china but is spreading person to person outside china and we are seeing evidence of onward spread from the ski resort in france. this is what we anticipated that it is beginning to confirm what we suspected was probably going to be the trajectory of this thing. as it stands we have

official figures from china saying the death trial in the chinese mainland is 722. it looks like the pace of facilities, very soon it will exceed the number of people who died because of sars. but in terms of building up capacity to deal with this and treat this as perhaps a longer term problem that might be with us for a few months, our people looking to that? we have looked to sars to try to understand and predict the trajectory of this thing and as you say, it has surpassed that but then the data we have is from china. and china was notoriously closed about what they did and didn't share in terms of what happened with sars, so we don't know what the inside china story was there. we know 8000 people got sars, about a 10% mortality rate. this time there are documented more than 30,000 people with this virus at the

moment, the death rate is at north of 700 people so the mortality rate sitting at a couple of percent, sars was close to ten but what we are seeing with this virus is unlike sars, this virus appears to be relatively easy to transmit. what it is not necessarily as lethal as sars, because it is capable of spreading more vigorously and probably more rapidly, the overall number of people who could succumb could be higher, but this is speculation. we will find out a clearer picture in the next week or so because countries like this one are going to begin to reel out tests at local level so we will be able to test more rapidly and more people in laboratory networks across the country. this will give us a clearer picture as to what the invisible hitherto burden of disease is because what we have seen at the tip of that iceberg is stuff we could

test for, documented. i suspect this is all over the place, all over the world and there are a large number of cases hidden below the water line because we are looking. if you turned up with the symptoms to a hospital at the moment, and you didn't fit the case definition, i haven't been to a certain geography or had contact with someone who has, you wouldn't necessarily be tested for this. so if you did have it, you wouldn't be documented as a case. that may change and it will be interesting to see. you mentioned rolling out testing facilities. i was talking to the who in africa and they were saying it was surprising there haven't been any reported cases yet. at that point they had only two countries to test for it. by only two countries to test for it. by the end of this week they were hoping to have 30 countries test for it and that pattern is true in other parts of the developing world as well. you might conclude that africa

is one of the safest places to be at the moment because they haven't got any cases. actually it is because they haven't been able to look because these are resource poor settings and many of the population don't live within reach of the hospital. in the same way that the early era of hiv, the reason it spread so far and for so long without being detected was no window to look for it, no one could look for it and if you go back to all samples from the 1950s and before, you can find evidence in africa, hiv is there. it is probably the same with theirs. we have spread, but until we go looking for it we will not know it is there. it is critical we focus on the third world because we focus on the third world because we can direct all these ways of testing, mitigation strategies in this country but it will continuously cede into this country from places like africa if we don't help them control their disease as

well. it is important we have a global solution to a mounting global problem. reports from thailand say an armed officer has killed seventeen people, north—east of the capital bangkok. more than a dozen others have been injured. the gunman is said to be holed up in a shopping mall in the city of korat. the thai defence ministry said the attacker shot his boss and a relative and stole weapons from a military camp. he opened fire at a buddhist temple and later at the shopping centre, where police continue to hunt him. the thai ministry of defence says the attacker is a low ranking officer named jakraphanth thomma. these pictures were taken from his facebook page, on which he posted updates on the rampage as it happened. it has since been taken down.

this is the man said to be responsible and disturbingly appearing to report his activities on facebook. the bbc‘s thanyarat doksone joins me live from bangkok. what do we know about this individual? any more details emerged about him? is he still in the army or had he left? he is still in the army. according to the defence ministry spokesman, he said this man, this government is a lower ranking, very junior officer who is based in the city of korat and about six hours ago, he started killing his commander and also a relative who lives in the same house before he went on to a military base and

stole some guns and ammunition before he continued his rampage at a buddhist temple and at a very busy shopping mall. this is a saturday evening, a very popular shopping mall in the city and there were a lot of people there and the attacker sent everybody in a panic. you said about their efforts to tame this man... the authorities have been sentin man... the authorities have been sent in to the mall to try to control the situation. they are already inside the mall. as far as we know the government has not been caught and according to the defence ministry spokesman, he has been hiding in the basement of this more. in terms of the number of fatalities and those injured, apart from the relative and somebody he knew, do we think most of the others were random

attacks? it looks like it was a random attack because as he posted on his facebook page, he said three people were for his personal revenge and out of the people, he claimed that was for self protection. it looks like these people who just met on the street and started shooting at were random people. now, as far as we know, he is still in the mall, trying to make direct contact with him and trying to persuade him to give up. his facebook page has been taken down so i'm not sure how they can make contact with him at this point. the authorities say the top priority right now is the safety of the people in the area. they have sealed off the chopping more although there are people locked

inside who are sending tweets and updates about their locations. —— shopping mall. thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news: 5 british people including a child have tested positive for the coronavirus at a ski resort in france. at least 12 people have died and several others have been wounded in a mass shooting in thailand. 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. a group of senior conservatives is urging fellow tory mps to challenge borisjohnson's decision to give the chinese technology firm a role in building the uk's 5g 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 5g would be limited. sir iain duncan smith explained why he's concerned about the decision. the government has made a decision, and i have to say i have sympathy for the prime minister, because this is a bit of a hospital pass. it was given to him after civil servants who had driven this process hard, because huawei are already in the earlier systems, and bear in mind that the civil service were very heavily criticised 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, notjust on 5g but 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. 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 it's simply not manageable to have an organisation like that inside your important network, and therefore we now need to drive that to zero, zero involvement, as soon as we can, one or two years, and therefore open up to many more other providers. the foreign secretary says he is seeking an ambitious trade deal with japan as britain begins free trade talks with major economies. dominic raab met with his japanese counterpart on his first overseas trip following britain's departure from the eu last month. mr raab said he wanted a trade agreement at least as good as the eu's. voters in ireland are voting in a general election today.

the country has been governed by coalitions for the past 30 years and there are likely to be fresh coalition negotiations between parties after the result is declared. counting takes place tomorrow. several hospital staff have been suspended and a police investigation is under way after the alleged assault of a patient with alzheimer's by nhs staff in kent. staff at the william harvey hospital in ashford allegedly held down an elderly man's arms, legs and face while they inserted a catheter. the incident came to light after a member of staff handed a video to the independent newspaper. 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. democratic candidates hoping to take on president trump in november's election have moved on to new hampshire before tuesday's primary vote. all eyes are on pete buttigieg and senator bernie sanders, who came out ahead in iowa. the candidates have been taking part in the latest televised debate — as jane o'brien reports from new hampshire. ladies and gentlemen, tonight's democratic candidates

for president of the united states. the same faces, the same arguments, but a new dynamic on display in the last debate before the new hampshire primary. pete buttigieg no longer an upstart and a real contender following his messy win in iowa. once again, he defended his age and inexperience, this time with greater confidence. ijust bring a different perspective. look, i freely admit that if you are looking for the person with the most years of washington establishment experience under their belt, you've got your candidate and of course it's not me. the perspective i'm bringing is that of somebody whose life has been shaped by the decisions that are made in those big white buildings in washington dc. clashes with his opponents were inevitable. boy did pete buttigieg have a target on his back tonight. biden went after him, bernie went after him, klobuchar went after him, bernie feels threatened, biden and klobuchar feel like they are losing votes to him.

is he ready for this? is he ready for the scrutiny? is he ready for the challenge? and that is something new hampshire voters always pay attention to. did former vice presidentjoe biden do enough to elevate his campaign? his bad performances and his good performances haven't helped him or hurt him in a debate, butjoe biden is in a tough, tough spot and we may be looking at the end of his campaign. from the start, mr biden conceded he might lose new hampshire but gave a defiant defence of his record. we have to be held accountable for the things we did. i am the guy that set up drug courts, i set them up, i wrote it into law and it never got funded and also on opioids, i'm the guy who has already begun to make a down payment. in the cure ‘s act i've approaching $1 billion to fight opioid addiction. voters say they want to connect with the candidates and there was more energy and some passionate performances, but the central question remains, it is not

about who has the best health care plan, all the health care plans are better, a million times better. the question is who can go toe to toe with mr prom, —— trump. who can take down mr trump because he is the real threat to the country and let me say, you have to have experience to take him down. this is not a question of he's a nice guy who will listen. we need people with experience, that is why i am worried about mayor pete. you need to be able to go toe to toe with this guy and take him down on the debate stage or we're going to lose and that's actually the issue in front of democratic voters. i have heard this debate so many darn times and i love all these people and they are all right. if we win, we can get the right thing, bernie. whether voters saw anybody on stage capable of beating donald trump will be determined on the ballot box next tuesday, but this is a volatile race with no clear favourite and this time, the new hampshire primary may not narrow the field.

some breaking news on the coronavirus. the british government reporting that three of the british children being examined following coronavirus cases in france attended local schools, including the child who tested positive. so three of the british children being examined attended local schools and that explains why those schools are going to remain closed when the pupils are due to return on monday. from the department of health and social care here, as of two o'clock this afternoon, a total of 686 cases have been concluded, 683 people were found not to have coronaviruses and three tested positive.

some connections made with singapore but they need to follow each individual case and where they might be infected and potentially by who. a third of people serving on the boards of the uk's biggest public companies are now women — up from just i2% a decade ago. that means one voluntary target to boost the number by the end of 2020 has been hit early. but campaigners and business groups say there's a long way to go before enough senior leadership roles are held by women. here's our business correspondent katy austin . my name is francesca ecsery. i sit on the boards of several companies, including air france, and 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 is a huge value attributed to chemistry on the board,

and of course, chemistry you have mainly with people like you. she says boards that don't have enough women are putting themselves at a disadvantage. basically it doesn't reflect your customer base, it doesn't reflect society at large, it doesn't reflect your staff. effectively the discussions are not enriched by new and diverse experiences and if you have better discussions, you get better decisions, and if you have better decisions, and if you have better decisions, you have better outcomes. 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. unconscious bias is alive and kicking in the workplace as is

elsewhere. there are some unhealthful myths surrounding women and their ambition and a lot of gender stereotyping around what a leader looks like, how a leader should behave. and some say issues like that are preventing further progress. the picture across the uk is very poor. if you look at our small companies, even in the listed sector, on average we have only about 15% of women on board. and the business secretary says a lack of women in powerful executive roles needs addressing. we have a lack of female finance directors and i would encourage women who have an interest and a background perhaps in banking or in accounting to take that route onto the board, but not to go for what might be seen as softer routes whereby you might be shut out of some of the core business decisions. existing board members like francesca welcome the latest target being hit, but they worry getting

enough women at