welcome to bbc news. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: the first coronavirus death in europe. a chinese tourist in his 80s dies after being diagnosed in france. canada leads renewed calls for iran to hand over the black boxes from the ukrainian airliner brought down over tehran in january. hello and welcome to bbc news. health officials in china have reported that the total number of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic has now passed 1,600 — with 139 new deaths and more than 1,800 new cases confirmed in the last couple of hours. in france, an 80—year—old

chinese tourist has died from the virus after visiting hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak. it's the first fatality from the disease in europe. it comes as the head of the world health organization has said that it's too early to know if the outbreak will become a global pandemic. nick bea ke reports from hong kong. china has declared war on an invisible killer. sending more doctors as well as soldiers into the worst affected area. but now the new coronavirus has claimed its first victim outside asia — an elderly chinese man who had travelled to france. translation: last night, i was informed of the death of an 80—year—old patient who had been hospitalised at the bichat hospital since the 25th of january and who was suffering from a coronavirus lung infection. back in china, all those

returning to the capital beijing after what's been an extended holiday have been told they must quarantine themselves for two weeks. passengers of many nationalities are still stuck aboard the diamond princess off the coast of japan. 285 people have now tested positive for the virus on the ship and america says it will remove all of its citizens tomorrow and fly them home. there is no such escape from wuhan, the chinese city where the outbreak began. officials have reported more than 2&00 new cases there and 139 new deaths. in the rest of the world we only have 505 cases and two deaths while in china we have more than 66,000 cases. let me be clear. it is impossible to predict which direction this epidemic will take.

beijing claims it's acted quickly and decisively to try to stop the spread, but few are willing to predict what the global impact of this crisis will be. nick beake, bbc news, hong kong. and for more details on the outbreak, go to our website. you can find information on the spread of the disease, as well as in depth articles like this one, about how effective it is to wear a mask. just go to bbc.com/news to find all of that. canada hosted has meeting at the munich security conference along with the four other countries, which lost citizens when iran's military shot down a ukrainian passenger plane five weeks ago, killing all 176 people on board. canada is pushing iran to release the black boxes from the crash so their data can be properly analysed by facilities in france. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet sat down with the canadian foreign minister after the meeting in munich and asked him whether any progress had been made. after 30 days of trying, we have to come to the conclusion that you need to look

at another alternative, and we know at that point that the french have offered that they have the latest technology, they have the expertise, to read the content of the black box, to download the content, and to do that in a transparent fashion. but would you consider iran's request from the foreign minister, saying, give us the technical support to examine the black boxes in iran? couldn't you do that? well, the experts have spoken. the experts have said it's not the type of equipment you can transport. it looks more like a lab. for those who are watching at home. it is not like a piece of equipment you can put in your luggage. it is the software and the hardware you need to have to do that, especially when the black boxes have been damaged. so what we are saying is we saw that you requested that, the answer has come back to say that on the equipment side

there is no way that we can do that in iran. so the only remaining alternative is to send it to a third country which would be in this case france, which has offered to assist, because i think france understands the international community has a lot of questions. and i always say that the best antidote to conspiracy is transparency. have you made any other progress here on the other big issue, which is compensation? you say, many say, that 57 of the passengers out of 176 were canadian. iran says they were iranians. they of course have the two passports. so the compensation you are asking for, iran says, they cannot accept. is this something where compromise can be found? are you finding it? well, what we have hopefully established by now is that the compensation to be paid to the heirs of the victims will be the same to everyone. and we also said that this process of negotiation, on a global settlement, should start quickly. i remember meeting this young girl who lost both parents, i mean, this is a tragedy. you know, let me bring it

back to, for canada, this has been a national tragedy. families have lost their loved ones. i was there with prime minister trudeau, we went to meet families, grieving families, who said, stand up for us. stand up to the regime. make sure that they are accountable. we want closure, we want accountability, we want justice, we want transparency. that is what animates me every time i meet them. and that is why prime minister trudeau said he went to attend the meeting you had with the foreign minister of iran, some of the families are expressing concern about the look of that, the photos of a smiling encounter, holding hands, was that a mistake? well, the prime minister came with one purpose. it was to make sure that the iranians counterpart understood how serious the issue was. not only for the grieving families in canada, not only for the government of canada,

but i think for the world. i think having a prime minister come into the room and states that, itjust reinforced the message. that was the canadian foreign minister speaking a little earlier. let's get some of the day's other news. the british television presenter, caroline flack, has been found dead at her home in london. a lawyer for her family said she had taken her own life. the ao—year—old had hosted one of the uk's top tv shows, love island. but in december she stood down as the host of the show ahead of a trial next month for allegedly assaulting her partner. she denied the charge. at least eight ecuadorean football fans have died when their bus plunged into a ravine in peru. they were supporters of barcelona de guayaquil and were celebrating their team's win in lima. police in paris have arrested a russian performance artist who posted a sex tape online which ended the election campaign of president macron‘s candidate for mayor of paris. petr pavlensky, who has previously set fire to a door at russia's state security headquarters, said he had wanted to expose what he said was benjamin griveaux‘s "hypocrisy". prosecutors said mr pavlensky was being questioned about an alleged fight.

the us secretary of state mike pompeo is in senegalfor talks with president macky sall about security ties and economic cooperation. his visit is taking place as the united states seeks to reduce its military presence in africa. as we've been hearing, the television presenter caroline flack, host of some of the uk's biggest reality tv shows has been found dead at her home in east london. her family says she took her own life. ms flack who was 40, was on bail awaiting trial next month, accused of assaulting her partner, an allegation she denied. she fronted programmes that garnered many millions of viewers, including itv‘s the x factor and love island. she won strictly come dancing in 2014. here's our media correspondent, david sillito. it's the return of the flack!

love island, x factor, i'm a celebrity, caroline flack was a presenter on some of the biggest programmes on british television. she was, until a few weeks ago, the face of love island — the glamorous, escapist fun. let's talk love. who's looking for the real thing? but everything unravelled after she was arrested and charged with the assault of her boyfriend. in court in december it was clear that she was deeply distressed. today, she was found dead at her flat. her lawyer said she had ta ken her own life. friends and colleagues have spoken of their shock and heartbreak at the news. love island is a show that thrives on its impact on social media and tonight thousands were expressing their grief and sympathy. but her court appearance was proof enough that she was also facing intense scrutiny. both in the press and online. on its best days, social media is a very powerful tool for these presenters because they can effortlessly and immediately communicate with so many different fans

and really bring their own personality to the fore. the problem is that on the bad days, that scrutiny and attention does not go away. it stays with them. the macdonut brothers! her tv career went back nearly 20 years. this, tmi on children's bbc, and in 2014 she won strictly come dancing. the night she won, elation. but she spoke afterwards of her struggles with depression and then came the assault charge. she was accused of hitting her boyfriend while she slept. he stood by her, but they were not allowed to communicate before her forthcoming trial. she was also advised to stay off social media — but she did post this on instagram. she thanked those who had been kind to her and added, "this kind of scrutiny and speculation is a lot to take for one person." another post read simply: "in a world where you can be anything, be kind." caroline flack — who has

died at the age of 40. homes have been evacuated in the scottish borders, where rivers swollen by the weekend's storms are expected to cause extensive flooding. two people were rescued from a car which was swept off a road in newcastleton, when a river burst its banks. in west yorkshire, the army has been drafted in to shore up flood defences, with river levels expected to peak overnight. helena wilkinson reports. amongst the first evidence of damage by storm dennis was here in south wales. this village is where people's homes are under serious threat. a similar picture tonight in harberton in devon. dozens of flood warnings are still in place across the country as the rain continues to fall. in ilkley and calderdale in west yorkshire — areas still recovering from last week's storm — the army has been called in to strengthen the flood defences. there are a number of places where the local resilience

authorities thought they had a problem with the flood defences that are currently in place so we have been asked to support them by putting some more makeshift flood defences in in both places. some of the worst affected parts could see up to 140 millimetres of rainfall and gusts of up to 80 miles an hour. certainly with the amount of rain that is forecast, 100mm or a months worth of rainfall on top of what is incredibly saturated ground, we are worried about the risk and that's why we are warning people to take action and that's why we are doing the kind of things we're doing here. not far away, in hebden bridge, there's no respite from the persistent rain. the scottish environment protection agency has issued flood warnings and advice for residents here in dumfries and galloway plus elsewhere in the borders, south lanarkshire and south ayrshire. for many, the half term getaway has ended up with a lesson in travel disruption. easyjet have cancelled around 350 flights over the weekend. almost 100 from here at gatwick.

at heathrow, 60 flights were grounded — most of them british airways. and on the roads, driving conditions were tricky. tonight, there are amber warnings for rain for most of the country, meaning flooding could cause a danger to life. communities are waiting and hoping that their preparations will be enough to protect them. helena wilkinson, bbc news. 0ur correspondent phil bodmer is in mytholmroyd in west yorkshire which took a heavy hit during storm ciara last week. tonight, the rain is falling under the rivers are still rising. this is the calder and you can see how quickly it is now moving. you can maybe see these big bags of ballast which have been brought into bolster the flood defences. earlier today we saw the arrival of about 100 soldiers from the north scots, they have been helping to install temporary

flood barriers. they are being supported by around another 100 part—time soldiers from the yorkshire regiment who have been dispersed between here, the calder valley, and up in ilkley, where there is great concern about the falling rain tonight. the environment agency say they are expecting peak river levels here on the calder in the early hours of this morning sometime between 2am and 4am, but that rain is still coming down tonight stop in the meantime, people living all along this valley, all they can do is watch, wait and hope that we do not see a repeat of what we saw here last weekend. and for the latest information on storm dennis in your area, you can find out more, on your local bbc 0nline pages, or tune in to your local radio station. more from the munich security conference. senior american and afghan sources say the first phase of a us deal with the afghan taliban is set to begin shortly with the start of what is known as a seven—day reduction in violence by taliban forces. a joint statement is expected from afghan and us—led nato forces, and the taliban are also expected to make an announcement.

we're joined by jarrett blanc who is a senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. it's good to speak to you again. what is the risk involved in this? we spoke yesterday, obviously, but what do you think both sides have to lose from this? 0bviously do you think both sides have to lose from this? obviously there are things to win in terms of peace, there always is, but what are the risks involved? let's look at the short term and longer term. in the short term, the risk associated with a reduction of violence and conditioning the beginning of taliban— afghan swords on a recess full does make a successful reduction of violence is that spoilers wither of the most important pa rt wither of the most important part of this agreement, which is the beginning of inter— afg ha n is the beginning of inter— afghan swords. 0ver is the beginning of inter— afghan swords. over the longer term, the risk is the peace talks don't work and either the

taliban want to much in the government and legitimate opposition don't get their act together to make a reasonable set of proposals and demands to the taliban and you end up in a situation where you are and a declining number of american troops and ongoing civil war. what is the timeline for this? there is thisjoint what is the timeline for this? there is this joint statement expected soon. a reduction in violence, when is that expected to start? well, the americans have been a little bit cagey about that so far. my understanding is it is very soon, maybe in the couple of days. one speculation is they are trying to get that in time for president trump to somehow be involved in the formal conclusion of the deal on his trip to india. and one of the headlines involved here as would be expected is, us troops potentially leaving afghanistan. what with the effects of that be? the immediate effect of going from 13,000 troops now to 8000 troops in a few months is

really minimal. there will still be more troops in afghanistan at the end of that initial drawdown down there where in the 0bama administration, so it really is not that important. as you go from that number, 8000, down to potentially zero, either you are going to have a peace deal which all parties adhere to, or you are going to end up in a situation where there is still an ongoing civil war. and if thatis an ongoing civil war. and if that is the case then the drawdown will have to be measured very carefully to allow the government forces to sustain themselves and not suffered the psychological blow that would be devastating in the ongoing conflict. quite a few parties involved. it is going to be interesting to see how they align this agreement, if it does end up happening. jarrett blanc, that is all we have time for, but jarrett blanc, thank you. live for us in washington. this is bbc news. the headlines: a chinese tourist in his 80s has died in france

after contracting coronavirus — it's the first fatality from the disease outside asia. the love island presenter caroline flack has been found dead at her london flat. the 40—year—old had been due to stand trial next month for assault, a charge she denied. her family say she took her own life. let's stay with that story now, and earlier my colleague martine croxall spoke to the tv critic scott bryan and to the entertainment journalist, caroline frost who said caroline flack was integral to the successful reboot of love island. she personified the charm, on that programme's best days, it's about glamour and fun and romance and the promise of a glittering future. and she seemed to personify all of that, she seemed to be on the side of the contestants, she seemed to effortlessly handle the show and within the format of it, really make the contestants feel as though she was rooting for them. and as all presenters talk about it, it's much, much harder than it looks.

it takes huge professionalism and a massive does of authenticity. i think it would have been very apparent if she was to have faked that kind of appeal. as scott has said, it wasn't a one—off. she'd in other shows, she won strictly come dancing in 2014, she was on the extra factor and then on the x—factor and her career was on the rise and culminating now. she can almost single—handedly take a lot of the credit for that incredible reboot. love island, it can't be overestimated, the surprise hit factor of it. every other tv show in the demographic

is falling by the wayside, people going to youtube and other platforms. love island has kept that young, crucial audience in its millions tuning in year after year and i think if nothing else, her legacy will show that she really was up there with the very, very best of prime—time presenters. it's easy to dismiss programmes like that but if you've got the right programme with the right host, it can make all the difference. and you will soon be shown up if you're not really, if you don't have the skills or talent to cope. tv is a powerful medium with that authenticity, you are able to have a relationship as if that person is a friend or somebody close to them, even if it's through a different lens. and it's also the fact that they are able to really guide through people when being on tv is a difficult thing. i think we're going to have a discussion, as we have had many times before, that even though someone taking their own life, there are many complex issues, what we will be having a discussion about is the care of people in the public eye who get scrutiny because of our

personal lives, who have tabloid stories written about them, who have social media with instant reaction from the public on what they're saying and what they're doing. about what they are saying and what they are doing and i think people are going to be thinking very carefully about their own conduct and we are going to have a discussion in terms of reality tv shows and their role in their lives and i think this is an important discussion to have as well. and if you've been affected by any of the issues raised, information and support is available from bbc action line, and there's the number for you there on your screen. the venezuelan government says huge numbers of soldiers and civilians have begun a two—day military drill to prepare for what it describes as the "threat of invasion" by us—led forces. the opposition leader, juan guaido, dismissed the manoeuvres as a "propaganda exercise by a dictatorship." with me is our americas editor, leonardo rocha. the another, thank you for joining us. why is nicolas

maduro doing this? is in a way making a statement and sending out a message to the united states that the venezuelan people, or at least more than 2 million people who are part of this melissa will support him, i prepared for anything. his advisers, his military advisors, r cuban, many of them are trained in cuba and they learned from the cuban example. if you arm the population, if you have a well—organised neighbourhood committees, anyone who tries to get into venezuelan knows that there would be a bloodbath. so he is pitching himself and the people against america? against america and now there are two big neighbours of venezuela, colombia and brazil, having hostile governments. so this right—wing government, one of the reason of these exercises is nicolas maduro said those

two countries are harbouring terrorist groups, training in their territory to prepare a possible invasion if the opportunity is right. his strategy at the moment is to align a nationalistic hope and get that up against what he would say are his enemies in surrounding countries? yes. we have to bear in mind that venezuela has behaved inflation in the world. violence more than 5 million venezuelans have left the country in the last few years. the economy is in a mess. the police are in a stalemate, you have a very difficult situation. what the opposition says is he is creating a diversion. you create the threat of an enemy, nicolas maduro says the american empire is trying to invade venezuela, it has the biggest known oil reserves in the world. so there is all that

on his side was that he is hoping the economy will recover, it has recovered somewhat in the meantime, so he could gain the confidence of the majority of venezuelans. what is one guaido's plan here? ——juan guaido? what is one guaido's plan here? -- juan guaido? he seems to have lost momentum. his strategy is to keep pushing and be there if the opportunity comes. if the government deteriorates he is there but he lost the momentum somehow. it has been one year since the us recognised him as the legitimate leader of venezuela but nothing has happened in real terms since then. it will be interesting to see how this mobilisation of millions of people and is and whether they will ever use them. leonardo rocha, thank you for the update. the venezuelan government says huge numbers of soldiers the duchess of cambridge has been speaking about one

of the most personal moments of her life, dealing with the birth of herfirst child. appearing on the ‘happy mum, happy ba by‘ podcast, she talks about the pregnancy, and the crippling morning sickness that forced her into hospital. here's our royal correspondent, daniela relph. the podcast was recorded during a visit to this south london nursery. improving the lives of families with young children is now the priority for the duchess of cambridge and dominates her royal work. with podcast host giovanna fletcher, the duchess spoke personally about everything from the value of her own stable upbringing to the guilt that can come with motherhood. here leaving hospital after being admitted with severe morning sickness while pregnant with prince george, she also described the terrible strain of the condition. lots of people have it far, far worse, but it was definitely a challenge, notjust for me but also for your loved ones around you and william did not feel he could do much to help. and it is hard for everyone to see suffering without actually being able to do anything about it. catherine revealed she

used hypno—birthing — a breathing and relaxation technique — when pregnant. and she was asked about that very public hospital departure. what is it like? it was slightly terrifying, i'm not going to lie! and for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, ifelt, that was really important. but equally, it was coupled with a newborn baby and sort of inexperienced parents and the uncertainty about what that held. these insights tie in with the duchess' campaign to get more help earlierfor vulnerable families. she said billions of pounds were spent fixing the problems in later life — a cost she described as crazy. daniela relph, bbc news. now the weather with chris fawkes. hello. storm dennis continues to but have written. this was at abbott aaron. we have all seen at abbott aaron. we have all seen lots of rain as well. the

rain has been causing problems, particularly across parts of northern england, wales, the west midlands and south—west england. there are lots of flood warnings in force and a number of flawed warnings continue does make flood warnings continue to rise hour by hour. with more heavy rain in the forecast, that is clearly not a good thing. looking at the satellite picture, this is storm dennis because of the centre is near iceland but this trailing weather front stretching for a couple of,000 miles into the atla ntic couple of,000 miles into the atlantic is causing problems because the winds are blowing parallel to the front, rather than across it. that means the front get stuck. what that means is we have more heavy rain to come as we head into the first part of sunday. some of the heaviest bowls of rain will be across wales, the west midlands and south—west england. if anything, the rain is much heavier than we saw on saturday, for example. and there will be some heavy falls as well in northern england at times. given that we are ready have a number flood warnings at invoice, things could get really quite nasty for a time here as we head into the first pa rt here as we head into the first part of sunday morning. colder

air across the north with blustery showers. looking through the picture for the rest of sunday, our weather front tracks its way to the south—east. there is a risk this front could be slower to clear in southern and is in areas of england. in other words, there could be quite a bit of rain left over even into the afternoon here. it's going to bea the afternoon here. it's going to be a windy day everywhere, gusts in than 50—60 miles an hour, 70 on some ghosts and those winds strong enough to bring down and old tree or two —— gusts was not whether from the flooding rain or from those very powerful gusts of wind. showers continue to feed inland across the north and west as we go on into sunday night. if anything, the winds are going to get strongerfor a anything, the winds are going to get stronger for a time across the far north of england and scotland as storm dennis passes the far north of scotland. the wind is picking up scotland. the wind is picking up could cause problems here for transport as we head into monday morning for scotland. for the rest of monday, the days broadly and showery. the winds taking a while before they eased down gradually to

they eased down gradually to the afternoon. the winds will continue to make it feel quite chilly across the eastern and northern areas. beyond that it feels unsettled for the rest of the week ahead. the rain cells in the forecast for most days and it will stay quite 20. for most of us it will also stay on the mild side. in london, temperatures up to 14 next weekend. that's your weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines: health officials in china say the total number of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic has now passed 1,600 — with 139 new deaths and more than 1,800 new cases confirmed. in france, an 80—year—old chinese tourist has died, the first covid—19 death in europe. the british tv presenter, caroline flack, has been found dead at her london flat. the 40—year—old had been due to stand trial next month for assault, an allegation she denied. her family say she took her own life. flack stood down from the dating show love island