this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: china says deaths from the coronavirus epidemic have now passed 1,600, and in france, an 80—year—old chinese tourist becomes the first european covid—19 fatality. at least eight people are killed as a bus carrying football fans from ecuador plunges into a ravine in peru. canada leads renewed calls for iran to hand over the black boxes from the ukrainian airliner brought down over tehran in january. the popular british tv presenter caroline flack, has been found dead at her london home. her family say she took her own life. troops are deployed in the north of england, as storm dennis hits the uk

and northern europe. health officials in china have reported the total number of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic has now passed 1,600, with 142 new deaths and more than 2,000 new cases confirmed. in france, an 80—year—old chinese tourist has died from the virus after visiting hubei province. it's the first fatality from the disease in europe. it comes as the head of the world health organisation 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 and soldiers into the worst affected areas. now, the new coronavirus has

claimed its first victim outside of asia. an elderly chinese man who 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 that 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 and fly them home. there's no such escape from wuhan — the chinese city where the outbreak began. for the rest of the world, we only have 500 cases and two deaths. while in china, there

are 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 as china announces a drop in new cases how the quarantine is enforced depends on where you live and where you work. in my compound, we are not allowed to have any visitors. and the guards live in the compound so they can enforce that. they say this is an orderfrom enforce that. they say this is an order from the local government authority for our area. but i know that in other

areas, where my friends are in beijing, their property managers or their guards may not be enforcing the same rules, or their local government authority might even have different rules regarding guests. so thisjust have different rules regarding guests. so this just goes to show that there is a lot of patchy enforcement in beijing and also that in order to enforce these laws, what we have seen happen is the kickstarting of this network, the system of surveillance, which has always existed in beijing and across major cities in china, where the district is divided up into these compounds, which have lots of flats, where lots of people live in chinese cities, and the rules are enforced on the level of the block of flats. if you have not been to hubei province, where the outbreak started, i think the restrictions are generally much less and you can go out on your own wearing a facemask to get groceries and so on. but i think the general rule is not to allow lots of visitors or even one visitor. if you have

been to hubei province, i hear that things can get a lot more severe. for example, a journalist i know was visited several times a day by guards who would check up on her and see if she was having people over. and how often she was leaving the flat and whether she was wearing a mask when she left the flat. in beijing it is still possible to survive without venturing too far from your flat thanks to the ubiquity of online delivery and grocery delivery and so on. but for somebody in that situation it is still obviously not a great situation. and as china announces a drop in new cases from the coronavirus outbreak for a third consecutive day, you can 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 bb.com/news to find all of that. let's get some of the day's other news. mark zuckerberg has expressed concern over excessive or authoritarian internet regulations, as they could compromise the internet‘s ability to spread information freely. facebook‘s chief executive

urged governments to come up with something stricter than phone companies‘ regulation, which are not held responsible for customers‘ conversations, but less strict than newspapers‘ regulation. 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." 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. canada has hosted a 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 progess had been made. after 30 days of trying, you 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‘s 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‘s no way that we can send 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 a 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, of 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‘re accountable. we want closure, we want accountability, we want justice, we want transparency. that‘s 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, even though it was at a foreign minister level. but 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 iranian 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 state that, it just reinforced the message. that was the canadian foreign minister speaking to a international correspondent, elise doucet. 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 7—day reduction in violence by taliban forces. jarrett blanc, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, told us what the risk of such a deal might be.

well, let‘s look at the short term and longer term. in the short term, the risk associated with the reduction of violence and conditioning the beginning of taliban—afghan talks on a successful reduction of violence is that there will be problems. spoilers will commit acts of violence that will throw off the most important part of this agreement, which is the beginning of intra—afg han talks. over the longer term, you know, the risk is the peace talks don‘t work and either the taliban demand too 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 have fewer and a declining number of american troops and an ongoing civil war. what is the timeline for this? there‘s this joint statement expected soon. and 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 that it‘s very soon, maybe in the couple of days. 0ne speculation is that 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? well, the immediate effect of going from let‘s say 13,000 troops now to 8,000 troops in a few months is really minimal. there will still be more troops in afghanistan at the end of that initial drawdown down than there where at the end of the 0bama administration. so it‘s really not that important. as you go from that number, 8,000, down potentially to potentially zero, either you‘re going to have a peace deal which all parties adhere to, or you‘re going to end up in a situation where there‘s still an ongoing civil war. and if that‘s the case then the drawdown will have to be measured very carefully to allow the government forces to sustain themselves and not suffer a psychological blow that would be devastating

in the ongoing conflict. stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: the 3—day—long race across a frozen lake. we‘ll hear from participants in one of sport‘s more extreme events. 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: chinese authorities say deaths from the coronavirus epidemic have now passed 1,600, and in france, an 80—year—old chinese tourist becomes the first european covid—19 fatality. at least eight people are killed as a bus carrying football fans from ecuador plunges into a ravine in peru.

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‘s 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. step back! 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 then in 2014, she won strictly come dancing. the night she won, elation. but she spoke afterwards of her struggle with depression.

then came the assault charge. she was accused of hitting her boyfriend while he slept. he stood by her, but they weren‘t 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: another post read simply: caroline flack, who has died at the age of 40. storm dennis is continuing to bring heavy rain and strong winds to many parts of the uk. rivers in yorkshire are expected to peak around now. the army was brought in to shore up flood defences. in scotland, there are three severe flood warnings in place. and across england, scotland and wales, there are a total of 205 flood warnings. 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 140mm of rainfall and gusts of up to 80mph. certainly, with the amount of rain that is forecast, 100mm or a month‘s worth of rainfall on top of what is incredibly saturated ground, we are worried about the risk

and that‘s why we‘re warning people to take action and that‘s why we‘re 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.

the venezuelan government says a huge numbers of soldiers and civilians have begun a 2—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. earlier, the bbc‘s americas editor, leonardo rocha, explained why president maduro had decided to hold the military exercises now. he is, in a way, making a statement and giving — 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 militia who support him, are prepared for anything. his advisers — his military advisors are cuban, many of them trained in cuba and they learned from the cuban example. if you arm the population, if you have well—organised neighbourhood committees, anyone that tries to get into venezuela knows that there‘ll

be a bloodbath. so, he‘s pitching himself and the people against america? against america and now — i mean, there are — the two biggest neighbours of venezuela — colombia and brazil — have hostile governments. jair bolsonaro in brazil and ivan duque, right—wing governments, which one of the reasons of why these exercises — nicolas maduro said those two countries are harbouring terrorist groups, they are training in their territory to prepare possible invasion if things — if the opportunity‘s ripe, they might launch attacks and invade venezuela. so, his strategy here 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 the fact that venezuela has the highest inflation in the world. violence, more than — almost 5 million venezuelans have left the country in the last few years. so, the economy is in a mess.

the political situation is in a stalemate, you have a very difficult situation. and what the opposition says is he‘s creating a diversion. you create the threat of an enemy, while nicolas maduro says the empire — the american empire is trying to invade venezuela, it has the biggest known oil reserves in the world. so there is all that playing on his side. in the meantime, he hopes that the economy recovers. it has recovered somehow, so he will regain the support of the majority of venezuelan people. what is juan guaido‘s strategy here? this time last year, he was big news every day in terms of would he be taking the presidency, but he seems to have pushed back. he seems to have lost the momentum. i thinkjuan guaido‘s strategy is to keep pushing and be there if the opportunity comes. if the government deteriorates, he‘s there. but he lost the momentum somehow.

it‘s been one year since the united states recognised him as the legitimate leader of venezuela, but nothing has happened in real terms since then. early voting has begun in the us state of nevada as the democrats continue their campaign to chose a candidate to stand against donald trump in november. the week—long process in the state finishes next saturday. it‘s seen as an important test forjoe biden, who lost heavily in iowa and in new hampshire. his team argues nevada, with its more diverse population, could help to improve mr biden‘s fortunes. senator bernie sanders, though, is the current front—runner in the democratic party race. now to a race with a difference — the track is the surface of a frozen lake. it‘s the ice storm contest, held annually in the far east of russia, and it could just be the toughest race in the world. take a look at this.

translation: it's like meditation. at the start, there are lots of people but after two minutes, you are alone.

translation: anything can happen. we've already stepped in a lot of cracks. amazing scenes. the swedish pole vaulter armand duplantis has set a new world record for the second week in a row. the 20—year—old easily cleared 6.18 metres in glasgow on saturday. dupla ntis is coached by his father greg, also a successful pole vaulter. a reminder of our top story: china has insisted the outbreak of the new coronavirus is gradually coming under control after the latest figures showed a drop in the number of new cases for the third consecutive day. however, the world health 0rganization says it may yet become a global epidemic. they‘ve also asked china to elaborate on how it‘s diagnosing the disease. don‘t forget, you can get in touch with me and some

of my team on twitter. i‘m @sipusey. for now, that is it from us. do stay tuned. hello. storm dennis continues to batter britain. looking back at saturday, well, it was windy everywhere, wasn‘t it, but the strongest gust of wind was at aberdaron in the llyn peninsula, 91mph gusts recorded here. we‘ve all seen lots of rain as well, but the rain has been causing problems, particularly across parts of northern england, wales, the west midlands and south—west england. now, there are lots of flood warnings in force and the number of flood warnings continues to rise hour by hour. and with more heavy rain in the forecast, that‘s clearly not a good thing. now, looking at the satellite picture, this is storm dennis. the centre actually near iceland. but it‘s this trailing weather front stretching for a couple of thousand miles out into the atlantic that‘s causing problems, because

the winds are blowing parallel to the front rather than across it, and that means the front gets stuck and what that means is we‘ve got a lot more heavy rain to come as we head into the first part of sunday. now, some of the heaviest falls of rain will be across wales, the west midlands and south—west england. if anything, the rain 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 already have a number of flood warnings out in force, things could get really quite nasty for a time here as we head into the first part of sunday morning. cooler air across the north—west with blustery showers. now, looking at the weather picture through the rest of sunday, our weather front tracks its way towards the south—east. now, there is a risk that this front could be slower to clear southern and eastern areas of england. in other words, there could still be quite a bit of rain left over even into the afternoon here, but it‘s going to be a windy day everywhere. gusts of wind inland again 50—60mph. 70 around some of our coasts, and those winds still strong enough to bring down an odd tree or two. so there is the risk

of transport disruption whether from the flooding rain or from those very powerful gusts of wind. showers continue to feed in across the north and western. as we go on into sunday night, if anything, the winds are going to get stronger for a time across the far north of england and scotland as the centre of dennis passes close to the north of scotland. so the winds picking up could cause some problems here for transport as we head into monday morning for scotland. as we head through the rest of monday, it‘s a day broadly speaking of sunny spells and showers. the winds staying strong, takin ga while to ease gradually, and will continue to make it feel quite chilly across these northern areas. beyond that, it stays unsettled through the rest of the week ahead. rain or showers in the forecast for most days and it will stay quite windy. but for most of us, it will also stay on the mild side. temperatures up to 14 degrees for london 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 almost 150 new deaths and more than 2,000 new cases confirmed. in france, an 80—year—old chinese tourist has died, the first covid—19 fatality in europe. at least eight football fans from ecuador have died after their bus plunged into a ravine in peru. they were on their way home from celebrating their club‘s qualifaction for the next stage of south america‘s biggest club tournament, the copa libertadores. 40 other supporters were injured. canada is leading a renewed call for iran to hand over the black boxes from the ukrainian airliner, brought down over tehran injanuary. all 176 people on board were killed. canadian authorities say they need the contents so the data can be analysed properly by facilities in france.

now on bbc news, it‘s time for click.