this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: china defends its response to the spread of the coronavirus as people returning to beijing are ordered to put themselves in quarantine. a temporary truce and a pathway to peace: the us and the taliban move closer to an historic agreement over afghanistan. the legal limbo‘s over for a top target of the president: the usjustice department says former fbi deputy andrew mccabe will not face charges over claims he lied about leaks. the english premier league side manchester city are banned from european football for two seasons for breaking financial rules.

the authorities in the chinese capital beijing are asking people returning to the city to quarantine themselves for m days to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. state media says those who refuse will be punished. the order was issued to coincide with the end of the lunar new year holiday, which was extended to help contain the outbreak. speaking in munich, the chinese foreign minister defended beijing's management of the epidemic — and criticised what he called the "overreaction" of some other countries. translation: this is a new virus, so it takes time for people to understand more about it, and it will be a gradual process. the same has happened in other countries. if we look at the past epidemics, we will see that the government will eventually make decisions based on a series of tests,

research and development. that is responsible government. the chinese government promptly picked up clues of the emergency at the first available opportunity, as well as individual cases, and we informed the world health organization. at the same time, we took up a vigorous assessment. in a short period of time, we identified and decided that this was a new epidemic. once that decision was made, we took a strong action by setting up a nationwide mechanism, and we put in place an interagency task force to deal with that. so i can say that the measures taken by china are timely, effective and strong. the virus has, of course, spread outside china. japan has recorded its first death from the outbreak, and a cruise ship remains in quarantine in yokohama — after more than 200 of those on board were diagnosed with the virus. rupert wingfield hayes reports. for ten days now, the giant

diamond princess has been tied up at yokohama, its 3,700 passengers shut in their cabins, allowed out to exercise only once every two days. today they finally got some good news — no new infections for the last 2a hours. and this afternoon, this bus began taking some of the most elderly and frail passengers off the boat, to be quarantined elsewhere. the japanese authorities are now finally allowing some people from the diamond princess to disembark. those over the age of 80 and with underlying health conditions are being given the choice to be quarantined elsewhere. but there are still many questions about how the japanese government has handled the outbreak on board this ship, not the least of which is why have they still not tested everyone on board 7 from their cabin, phil and gay courterfrom florida tell me they are in good spirits. but they say they are extremely frustrated the japanese government is taking

so long to test everyone. we absolutely should have been tested. the test results could have been back. the people who tested immediately and were clear should have been off the boat. why couldn't we have all been tested? why couldn't we be off the boat? why couldn't we be home by now? we're the second—worst cluster, after wuhan, china, in the world, and we have people here from every country. doesn't that call for at least testing us? public health experts agree. they say the cramped conditions on board the diamond princess could be allowing the virus to continue spreading. i don't think it's the best solution, for many people on the ship are infected as a result. if it's airborne infections, they might be infected via ventilation systems. but tokyo is about to host

the olympic games, and japan is determined the virus will not be allowed to get loose onshore. it may already be too late, though. japan has now recorded its first death from the virus, and today nine new infections, including a tokyo taxi driver, all had no connection either to the diamond princess or to travel from china. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in yokohama. meanwhile, passengers on board another cruise liner, the ms westerdam, have finally been allowed to disembark in cambodia. the ship had been refused permission to dock at five ports across asia due to fears that the coronavirus could be on board. passengers were met at the quayside by cambodia's prime minister hun sen after thailand, japan and taiwan turned the ship away. we have a special section devoted to the coronavirus outbreak on our website. you can find the latest details on the spread of the disease, the efforts being taken to contain it, as well as the best medical advice on what to do

to protect yourself against it. just log on to bbc.com/news. in afghanistan, a seven—day truce agreed by the us and the taliban is expected to take effect very soon. the us defence secretary mark esper says it should lead to a fall in violence — and could lead to more far—reaching peace talks, as well as a staggered withdrawal of american troops. the deal was announced at a security conference in munich — and our chief international correspondent lyse doucet is there. well, we have known for days now that the afghan taliban and the united states are very close to a historic deal. but what we have heard here from a senior american official at the munich security conference is that they are very close to a deal, and that the first part of this agreement, which would involve a taliban commitment for a seven—day period of calm, being described as a reduction in violence, would start very soon. if the taliban keep their word, if it is a period of quiet, then there will be a signing, possibly in the gulf state of qatar, of a deal which would

involve taliban security guarantees in exchange for a phased united states troop withdrawal. after that is the third and really the most difficult and more important part of this process, and that is that talks among afghans will start about ending what is for afghans nearly four decades — more than four decades of war. with more on what this agreement could mean, here's jarret blanc from the carnegie endowment for international peace, in washington. it's potentially very significant. the united states should have negotiated the beginning of the peace process with the taliban several years ago. getting it done now is an important step to ending what has been the united states‘ longest war. what impact could this have, then? it is after alljust a week—long ceasefire. but could it go longer than that? i think the focus on the seven—day reduction in violence

is misplaced. it is not a ceasefire, it is a reduction in violence. supposedly there are details hammered out between the united states and the taliban, as to what that means, but we do not know what they are. both sides have been careful not to use the term ‘ceasefire‘ which would suggest something comprehensive than i think it is. the core of the deal is what comes next, which is that the united states agreed to a phased withdrawal of its troops. the taliban agrees to begin negotiations with the other afghan political forces. that could lead to the end of what has been for the united states a one generation, and for the afghans has been a two—generation—long war. it is really the important part. the seven days is the beginning, but it is not the essential element. there are going to be challenges to implement something like this, a de—escalation, ceasefire, whatever you want to call it. everybody needs to be on board and involved for this

to work right? the reduction of violence itself is come together. ——complicated. it depends on what are the still secret details between the united states and the taliban. if they are specific enough to monitor progress, it is possible. if it is too specific it may be impossible to implement. so that's complicated. what is more complicated is what comes next. i don't think that either the taliban or the other political forces in afghanistan have really thought through what their realistic agenda for peace talks is. so when they get together, whether that is in oslo or anywhere else, and start meeting with each other and trying to work out what the future governance arrangements in afghanistan will look like, it's going to be the kick—off of a long and extremely difficult, and probably still, for some time, violent process. in terms of the us, back home, what sort of impact will this have in terms of public opinion? do you think bringing troops home, if or when that might happen, will be seen

as a positive? i think the american people have been looking to end this warfor a long time. and so, if the remainder of this process is managed well, i think it's a positive for all involved. if the remainder of the process is not managed well, if united states does not do a good job shaping the conditions for the taliban and the afghan government to agree on a peace process, if it doesn't do a good reducing tensions with other actors in the region, especially iran, and you end up with anarchy or severe continued civil war in afghanistan, it probably does not look so positive. jarret blanc there. the us department ofjustice has dropped its criminal investigation into the former fbi deputy director, andrew mccabe, without bringing any charges. mr mccabe was accused of lying about leaks to the media during an investigation into the clinton foundation. he has consistently denied the allegations. our north america correspondent, david willis, told us more. of all the people that have attracted the displeasure of president trump over the years, none has

attracted quite the criticism of andrew mccabe. he has become a punch—bag for the president, if you like, initially over his wife's decision to run for a seat in the virginia state senate as a democrat, and then over the russia investigation, which mr mccabe took charge of during the dismissal by donald trump of the former fbi director, james comey. donald trump has long believed that he has been politically attacked by people in law enforcement, such as james comey, and andrew mccabe. he's called andrew mccabe everything from a leaker and a dirty cop to somebody who might have committed treason. and, indeed, on the day that andrew mccabe was dismissed by the fbi, only hours short of his entitlement to a full government pension, donald trump tweeted that this was "a good day for democracy," as he put it.

mr mccabe had been under investigation for allegedly misleading fbi investigators about the disclosure of information to a wall streetjournal reporter. he has consistently claimed that that investigation and his dismissal were politically motivated, and now the us justice department has decided there is no case to answer for andrew mccabe. charges have been dismissed and that is bound to incense president trump, i think. andrew mccabe has been very candid about the toll it has taken on his life in the last two years. he is clearly very angry about how long this decision took to be reached. absolutely. he says he has been living under a cloud, as you say, for nearly ten years. ——for nearly two years. what i think

is interesting about this is the timing. it comes just a day after the us attorney general, william barr, went public on abc news, basically calling on the president to stop tweeting his opinions about criminal cases. he said, mr barr, this was making his life at the us justice department more difficult. no criminal investigation, you would have thought, has been more tweeted about by the president than that of mccabe. in a separate development, it was announced by william barr that he had ordered an outside review of the case of michael flynn, the former national security advisor in the trump administration, who is facing charges of concealing information about his dealings with russia's ambassador to the united states. but nothing is likely to incense donald trump more, i think, than the fact that his his bete noire, andrew mccabe, is not

going to be facing charges. new research has shown that smoke from wildfires may have long—term health effects that can be passed on to the next generation. scientists at the university of california exposed rhesus monkeys to smoke from a wildfire more than 300 kilometres away in 2008. they discovered that thejuvenile monkeys had stiffer lungs and weaker immune systems, which were also passed down to the offspring of the females. the findings have prompted an investigation into the impact of wildfires on the health of children in the area. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: swarms the size of cities — how a locust boom a new cumber at 90 million yea rs a new cumber at 90 million years old. how scientists are still discovering unknown types of dinosaurs. —— newcomer. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform.

malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morale of the people. i am terrified of the repercussions on the streets. one wonders who is next. as the airlift got under way, there was no let—up in the eruption itself. lava streams from an event low in the crater flow into the sea on the east of the island, away from the town for the time being, but could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded a new—generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they called it mir, the russian for peace. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: china has defended its response to the spread of coronavirus as people returning to beijing

are ordered to put themselves in quarantine for 14 days. a top us official says a seven day truce between the us and the taliban in afghanistan will begin soon, and could lead to american troop withdrawals. manchester city football club says it will appeal against a two—year ban from the champions league, for breaching uefa's financial fair play rules. the club has been banned from the continent's biggest competition from next season. manchester city is also facing a fine of more than $30 million from european football's governing body. in a statement, the club said: olly foster has this update from city's home ground. for all their triumphs on the pitch, the stakes have never been higher for manchester city.

the champions of england stand accused of cheating the system, breaching uefa's very strict financial fair play regulations. their main accusation is that they overinflated just how much money they're making from their title sponsor, etihad airlines, that's emblazoned all around this club, on their shirts, on the stadium. the complication, the grey area that uefa have been looking at, is the fact that etihad are owned by the club's owner, the billionaires, the ruling family from abu dhabi. now, a fine of over $30 million, they won't worry about that, the club. but what is really going to hurt is exclusion from european football, the very, very lucrative champions league. that is the one trophy in this abu dhabi revolution that they have failed to secure, and getting kicked out of the champions league for two seasons from the start of next season, that is really going to hurt. there's been a really strong, belligerent response from the club themselves.

they say they're disappointed but not surprised. why not surprised? because, well, they say there have been so many leaks coming out of uefa saying they were going to get banned, even before the investigation had been concluded. they say it's been a flawed process. what they want is an impartial, independent body to carry out such financial checks, not have uefa be thejudge, thejuror, and carry out the investigation as well. they are going to appeal this. first up, go to the court of arbitration for sport. they say they're going to overturn this ruling by uefa. but you just know that this army of lawyers, the legal team that they're now going to throw at this, with all their might, for the future of this club, that is now so much more important in the coming months than any team they actually put on the pitch. the united nations says much of east africa could face a food crisis if huge swarms

of locusts devouring crops and pasture are not brought under control. for weeks, the insects have destroyed crops across several countries. the un has warned of a possible famine. rich preston has this report. the locusts — billions of them — have devoured hundreds of hectares of crops across the region, hitting countries with already delicate food situations. ethiopia, somalia, kenya, tanzania and uganda have so far been affected by the swarms. it's the worst infestation in kenya for 70 years, and the worst somalia and ethiopia have seen for 25 years. aerial pesticide spraying is the most effective way to stop the insects, but that's expensive and these countries simply don't have the resources. the united nations director of emergencies has warned of a dire situation.

we are talking of 13 million people in acute food insecurity and another 20 on the verge, so it means the situation of the 13 million could further deteriorate, so it means if their situation deteriorates badly, then, you know, we are going even towards catastrophe, what may even be famine in some countries. kenya is upping its response, training its national youth service with experts on the desert locust brought in from morocco, teaching the young men and women how to support farmers and rural communities to stop the locusts in their tracks. kenya neighbours five for other countries, so if you deal with the desert locust situation in kenya, you're likely to minimise the effects of them crossing over into other countries. but experts say this won't be enough. the insects are breeding so fast, their numbers could multiply by 500 in just a few months. the un is calling on the international community to help, saying it needs more

than $70 million to fund what it calls a rapid response to stop the bugs. rich preston, bbc news. the us military involvement in iraq dates back three decades. it's now become the subject of a controversial exhibition in the moma psi gallery in new york. we've been to take a look at ‘theatre of operations'. the show‘s really a historic exhibition. really wanted to look at this period of 1991 to understand where we are today. it's really a time capsule in a way to understand how artists were responding differently to events that were happening to them directly, events that they were viewing on tv perhaps or reading about on the internet. the conditions of war and sanctions actually physically affected what artists were making and how they were working. this piece by hanaa malallah is memorialising the victims

of the amiriyah bomb shelter bombing. in 1991, us and coalition forces bombed a civillian shelter in the amiriyah neighbourhood of baghdad, and all 408 people seeking refuge inside were killed, and so she's finding the photographs of those victims and reproducing their likeness by burning pieces of canvas and collaging them together. not everyone who was killed in this bombing had a photograph, so for those who are missing an image, she's writing out their names through a numerical system that is speaking to the abstraction of these kinds of casualties. there's also these brass plates that she's produced that say in arabic, in different instances, "he has no picture," "she has no picture," and viewers can see their reflection in those plates. within the exhibition, we're really interested in how media representation is so key in how these conflicts

and wars are framed. the gulf war was the first war that was televised all around the world. people were watching what was taking place. in 2003, once the iraq war started, this is really the rise of digital technology. for our visitors, it's really important that we understand these events are not happening in a vacuum, that there's connections between them, and just to also understand the impacts of human lives, on culture and what impact on culture means for a society, for a country. scientists in argentina say they've discovered the remains of a dinosaur distantly related to the tyrannosaurus rex. the tralkasaurus lived around 90 million years ago. and although it was quite a bit smaller than many other

carnivorous dinosaurs — it was still pretty formidable — as the bbc‘s tim allman reports. in the dry, arid lands of northern patagonia, there are secrets that have been buried for millions of years. this team of palaeontologists carefully, delicately uncovering the remains of a previously—unknown dinosaur. a skull, teeth, ribs and other bones of something new and something fierce. this, an artist's impression of the tralkasaurus, or thunder lizard, a carnivore part of the abelisaurid family. a distant cousin of the tyrannosaurus rex, no less. short—necked, muscular with razor—sharp claws. but unlike the t—rex, the tralkasaurus was a bit on the short side. translation: this tralkasaurus

would probably have reached about am, a size much smaller than what is known about other dinosaurs. the importance of this finding is we're getting to know the diversity and above all the size of these animals. from their research, the scientists believe the tralkasaurus probably lived on smaller plant—eating dinosaurs called iguanodons. its discovery sheds new light on the different types of dinosaur that lived in this region. the thunder lizard may have been a little bit diminutive, but it can certainly look after itself. tim allman, bbc news. there are sporting prodigies — and then there are sporting prodigies. meet mio — who's two years old — and loves ice hockey. he's from norway — and was a natural on the rink. he's so crazy about the sport he sleeps every night with his hockey stick and gloves. mio has been described as remarkable — and is so precocious he trains

with six year olds. amazing, that it from me. do stay tuned right here on bbc news. hello. storm dennis is fast sending its wind and rain towards us. it is going to be a weekend of very messy and, at times, dangerous weather. dennis, a very deep area of low pressure. the winds are going to be strong and disruptive at times but also several spells of heavy rain coming through, particularly affecting parts of england and wales. not clearing the south—east until later on sunday, and even behind the rain, further heavy and blustery showers in the north—west with squally winds. in terms of the rain, the met office has a few amber warnings in force where we're going to see flooding, particularly in parts of southern, western and northern england, wales and rain and snow melt in southern scotland could bring some flooding.

head online to find out all the details and what they mean for your area. now, saturday starts actually with some dry weather around, some outbreaks of rain for the south. it will turn wetter, though, quite quickly. rain pushing east as we go on through the morning. in the afternoon, though, eastern areas may still see some dry interludes, and northern ireland may brighten up a bit but there will be further heavy showers. the more persistent rain sitting through northern and western england, some spots to the south as well, and certainly into wales. all the while, the winds are strengthening. inland, gusts — 50—60mph. southern and western coasts could be 70mph in places. mild but then again for many of us, it's going to be wet and windy. into sunday, clear spells and heavy showers for scotland and northern ireland, but this area of heavy and perhaps even at times torrential rain sits through these parts of england and wales. when the rain is at its heaviest, the winds will be particularly gusty and squally. and all of that during sunday is going to gradually move its way south, though it will clear for some of us on sunday, last to clear from the far south—east. it'll brighten up behind, the rain turning it a bit colder, but look at all these shower packing in in the north—west, hail, thunder and wintry on hills

in scotland and with gusty, squally winds. it will again be very windy on sunday. the winds may ease a bit when you see the back of the rain to the south but could well strengthen further to end the day on sunday, and particularly in scotland. there's an indication behind the rain the temperatures are coming down, it will feel colder. again, to reinforce the point, while for some the end of sunday the wind is easing. scotland, northern ireland, northern england, north—west wales, staying very windy with further disruptive winds that could still be around first thing on monday. met office amber warnings for rain, as i mentioned. within some of these areas, you could see a month or more worth of rain in a short space of time. rain and snowmelt in southern scotland. get across the warnings. even if you're staying in with your feet up all weekend, better to be in the know.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: chinese authorites say they are not overreacting by ordering everybody returning to beijing after the extended lunar new year holiday to quarantine themselves for two weeks. people who ignore the advice have been told they will be punished. a top us official says a seven—day truce between the us and the taliban in afghanistan will begin soon, and could lead to american troop withdrawals. the official said an initial agreement on reducing violence would be followed by all—afg han peace talks. manchester city football club says it will appeal against a two—year ban from the champions league for breaching uefa's financial fair play rules. the club has been banned from europe's biggest football competition from next season and is facing a fine of more than $30 million. you can get more news on our website. there were more than 5,000 cases of mumps last year in england.