this is bbc world news. 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.

hello and welcome to bbc news. the us government says it sending two aircraft to japan on sunday to evacuate american citizens quarantined on board a giant cruise ship in the japanese port of yokohama. there are now 355 cases of coronavirus infection from the ship. meanwhile, 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. aaron safir reports. hubei province, where the coronavirus first emerged in december, remains the epicentre of what is a national epidemic and a global outbreak. another drop in the number of new cases

is, china says, more proof that the virus is being managed effectively. at that management means ever more stringent measures. china now says banknotes will be disinfected and stored for m days before being put back into circulation. and beijing has ordered everyone returning to the city to go into quarantine for m days. the city to go into quarantine for 14 days. the quarantine depends on where you live and where you work. for example, the guard at the gate has told me we are not allowed to have any visitors and, of course, he knows everybody who lives in the compound, so he can enforce that very much himself stop by the virus has claimed its first life outside of asia, with the death of a chinese tourist in france, and africa has seen its first case to, in egypt. but the largest coronavirus outbreak outside china remains ona outbreak outside china remains on a cruise liner docter of yokohama in japan. there on a cruise liner docter of yokohama injapan. there are nearly 4000 people on board the

diamond princess, and despite strict quarantine conditions, the number of cases continues to rise. more than 350 people have the illness and more than two—thirds of those on board have not even been tested. 0n sunday, canada and hong kong joined the united states in making arrangements to pick up their citizens from the liner and bring them home. meanwhile, and bring them home. meanwhile, a passenger who been on board another cruise ship, now docked in cambodia, has tested positive for the virus. the westerda m positive for the virus. the westerdam had been barred from several asian ports before passengers were allowed off. now an 83—year—old american woman has tested positive after arriving by air in malaysia. backin arriving by air in malaysia. back in china, the world health 0rganization back in china, the world health organization is conducting an investigation into the outbreak. and while another drop in new cases will be welcomed, is insisting it's still too early to predict whether the coronavirus outbreak will become a global

epidemic. aaron safir, bbc news. 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 bbc.com/news to find all of that. let's get some of the day's other news. mark zuckerberg has warned the internet risks losing its ability to spread information freely if it's subjected to excessive regulation. the chief executive of facebook acknowledged that the company should accept some form of state regulation, but that currently it sits somewhere between a phone company and a newspaper. 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. 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 the copa libertadores — south america's biggest club tournament. richard forrest reports. a fall of 15 metres and a crash so violent it pulled the roof from this bus. at least 40 people were injured, the driver seems to have lost control in the early hours of the morning. translation: i was asleep at the time of the accident. i couldn't tell you what happened. i just felt the impact, the blow. it happened near mancora on a notoriously dangerous stretch of the pan—american highway in northern peru.

supporters of the ecuadorian team barcelona sc were celebrating their team's qualification for the next stage of the copa libertadores. dangerous curves, poor maintenance, and scant enforcements make driving on peru's roads dangerous. they claim nine lives a day according to the government. ecuador‘s president has expressed his condolences and pledged help for the families of the victims whose loved ones celebrations turned to tragedy. richard forrest, bbc news. 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 progress 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 canada's foreign minister speaking a little early. also at the munich security conference, senioramerican 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. jarrett blanc, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace, told us what the risk of such a deal might be. let's look at the and the longer term. in the short term, the risk associated with the reduction in violence and conditioning the beginning of taliban—afghan talks on a successful reduction of violence is that there will be problems. there will be spoilers who commit acts of violence that will throw off the first part of the agreement which are the beginning intra—afg han talks. the longer term, the risk is that the peace talks don't work.

that the taliban demand too much or the government and the 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's the timeline for this? there is a joint statement expected soon and a reduction of violence... when is that expected to start? the americans have been a little bit cagey about that so far. my understanding is that it is very soon, maybe in the next couple of days. 0ne speculation is that they are trying to get it done in time for president trump to somehow be involved in the formal conclusion of the deal on his trip to india. what are the headlines involved here, as would probably be expected, is us troops potentially leaving afghanistan. what would the effect of that be? 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 than there were at the end of the 0bama administration. it's really not that important. as you go from that number, 8,000, down 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. if that is the case, then the drawdown will have to be managed very carefully to allow the government forces to sustain themselves and not to suffer a psychological blow that would be devastating in the ongoing conflict. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the three 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 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. 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 0ur 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 — 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 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. and 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:

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. the army has been 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 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. 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 venezuelan 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 is one of the reasons of why these exercises — nicolas maduro said that 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

the economy will recover. it has recovered somehow, so he will regain the support of the majority of venezuelans. 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. juan guaido's strategy is to keep pushing and be there if the opportunity comes. if the government deteriorates, he's there. but he's lost the momentum somehow. it's been one year since the us 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 new hampshire. his team argues nevada, with its more diverse population, could help to improve mr biden's fortunes. senator bernie sanders 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. 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 succesful 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. you can get in touch with some of the team there. and also our website has all the stories we have covered and much more. by now, thanks for watching and

stay tuned here on bbc world news. 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 qualification for the next stage of south america's biggest club tournament, the copa libertadores. forty 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.