you are watching newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: more passengers leave the diamond princess cruise ship, but there's criticism of how japanese authorities have handled it — with fears the release could spread the virus. reports from germany say several people have been injured in a shooting in the town of hanau — we'll be bring you the latest. i'm lewis vaughan jones in london. also in the programme: ready for his close up. multi—billionaire michael bloomberg is to make his big tv debut in the race

for the us presidency. harry and meghan announce they'll be stepping back from their royal duties at the end of march. live from our studios in singapore and london, this is bbc world news — it's newsday. good morning. it's 8:00am in singapore, midnight in london, and 9:00am in yokohama,japan, where another 79 people on board the diamond princess cruise ship have tested positive for the coronavirus. that brings the total number of cases on board to 621. despite that, hundreds of passengers who were given the all clear have left the ship and were not put into further quarantine. it's prompted fierce international criticism of the way japanese authorities handled the outbreak on board, as rupert wingfield—hayes reports. as the news choppers hovered

overhead, the first passengers released from the diamond princess began their long walk to freedom. waving goodbye to friends still stuck on board. yesterday, these people were virtual prisoners. today, the first 500 who have tested negative were literally walking onto the street and getting onto buses. every time i heard that the number of infections had gone up, this man says, i felt really scared. even as some former passengers we re even as some former passengers were getting taxes and going home, the number continues to rise. another 79 positive cases we re rise. another 79 positive cases were reported on the ship. the japanese government says the incident on board the diamond princess is now effectively over. the virus is contained. there is nothing to worry about. but there has been a strong suspicion here, for some days, that the containment on board the ship has not been working, that the virus has continued to spread during the quarantine

period, and now we have a whistle—blower, a japanese expert who has been onboard the ship and has described conditions there as chaotic, ineffective and frightening. kentaro iwata is a professor of infectious diseases who has previously worked on the fight against ebola in africa. i felt much safer when i was in africa. because you know where the virus doesn't exist. and you know where the patient is. but inside the diamond princess, you have no idea where the virus is. we are seeing people disembarking from the ship and mixing with the general population. how concerned are you by that? very concerned. this is one reason why australia, canada, britain are now insisting their nationals must go through another 14 days' quarantine when they return home. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, yokohama. matthew smith is an american passenger still on board the ship. he hasn't been allowed to

leave because he is waiting to find out if he is clear of the virus. it explains how he is feeling after spending so long in quarantine. well, as you can imagine, it is wearying to have been confined to a small space, basically a bedroom and a living area. we've taken... it's been easierfor us because we know we have it much better than passengers in smaller caverns, than passengers in smaller caverns, particularly the interior caverns with no access to son orfresh interior caverns with no access to son or fresh air interior caverns with no access to son orfresh air —— cabins. we have a balcony so we have both of those things. even in the largest cabins on the ship, two weeks in that space is mentally wearying. mentally wearing you say. the diamond princess being described as something of a ghost ship, because so few passengers are left. you and your wife are among the last passengers on board. tell us, how does that feel and what have you seen so far of the evacuation from

where you are? well, we watch pretty much all of it. and, yeah, you do get a sense even though you are not in contact with the rest of the ship, you get a sense that it's emptying out. we noted the people across the whole had their luggage out yesterday for the first of the disembarkation. we watch the american evacuation and last night also the australian, new zealand, and that the hong kong evacuations. so you know, even if you don't see it, a lot of people have left the ship. and it is short of —— sort of strange. you offer the flight, along with your wife, but refused to take it because of fears he might catch the virus. how does it feel now that people on board the flight have indeed caught the virus?” people on board the flight have indeed caught the virus? i feel bad for everyone concerned with that and people who didn't have a choice, practical choice not to ta ke a choice, practical choice not to take the evacuation and have

now been exposed to the virus on the plane. but, frankly, for myself and my wife, we are just very thankful that we did make that decision and, in fact, last night we did finally get our notice that we will be disembarking today. so it's all the more, just thankful that we decided what we did. congratulations that you finally get to get off that cruise ship. finally, the japanese authorities, we know, have been criticised for the handling of this crisis. do you think it's justified the way they have handled it?|j think it's justified the way they have handled it? i think it was. i think there's a lot of, what we would say in america, monday morning quarterbacks who, without full knowledge the situation, without considering the whole course of this, are criticising it when, essentially, japan had a ship full of 3700 dental infected people arrive on its sure and it seems to me the most practical thing to do and

may be the only practical thing to do is what they did, which was keep us on here. that is the latest on the coronavirus. let's have some breaking news now. several people have been injured in the german town of hanau. hanau is 25 kilometres east of frankfurt. 0ur correspondent damien mcguinness joins on the line now from berlin. damien, can you clear up for us exactly what has happened that we know so far? well, we just had confirmation from police, actually, that eight people have been killed, having sustained injuries from the shooting. that's now confirmed from police reports. at least five people were also injured. it's not clear if they were among the fatalities stop it seems that the shooting took place about two hours ago. and there were at least two separate shooting incidents in

the town. police say that the gunman are still on the run. a large operation is carried out to track them down. it's not clear what is behind the shooting and what the target, if any target there was. there are reports that the shootings took place in two shisha bars and those are also the bars that you can see on pictures that you can see on pictures that are circulating on social media here and videos, showing the police acting just after the police acting just after the shooting incidents. but so far we haven't got any clarification from police as to what might be behind the attacks or whether this is any terror motivation or territory later the incident. so we do have to be careful here. we've had a number of incidents over the past few years where there have been rumours flying around about what was behind the attack and it turned out to be something very different to what was originally thought. what we do know, though, is

eight people have been killed, so this is obviously a serious incident. a serious incident indeed. damien, thank you for that update. damien mcguinness there. we will bring you the latest from that incident in germany, with a people now confirmed dead. let's see what else is hitting headlines around the world. it's been announced that the duke and duchess of sussex will step back as senior members of the british royal family from the end of march. the change of role for prince harry and his wife, meghan, follows their decision to become financially independent, and their hope to avoid some of the intense media spotlight focused on them and their son archie. here's our royal correspondentjonny diamond. well, one last burst of royal engagements in march and then at the end of march it will be all over for their public royal role. we are told they will visit the uk regularly after that but that'll be in a private capacity. they won't be working on behalf of the queen. that means their office here in

buckingham palace were close. the duke will hold onto the titles and military ranks that he owned when he was in the forces, but his honorary commands, like the captain general see of the marines will be suspended, they will both still be known as the duke and duchess of sussex. they will hang onto the title of ‘s or her royal highness, but they won't use it. as for the question as to whether they will be able to call themselves royal, we don't know, think it is likely they won't be able to. we will find out later in the year. britain's government has announced proposals for a new immigration system that will make it much more difficult for low—paid workers to come into the uk. under the scheme, applicants will receive a score based on specific skills, qualifications, salaries or professions. critics are already predicting problems recruiting care workers and seasonal farm workers. the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan has threatened to launch a new military offensive in north—western syria. he wants to stop the syrian government's advance, which has displaced nearly a million people. mr erdogan's latest warning came as talks between turkey

and russia, which backs the syrian government, failed to reach agreement on how to calm the situation in idlib. it's been claimed that president trump offered the wikilea ks founder julian assange a pardon if he agreed to say russia was not involved in leaking democratic party e—mails. the claim comes from mr assange's lawyer, who's fighting attempts to get him extradited to the us. the white house has denied the reports. manchester city's chief executive zas the team's alleged breaches of uefa's financial fairplay regulations or simply not true. the club says it will appeal against the ban from club competitions and a $30 million fine. now listen to this. haunting music plays

you can hear it faintly there. this haunting music comes from an operation theatre at king's college hospital in london. the patient is playing her violin while surgeons operate on her brain to remove a tumour. it was done to ensure parts of the brain which control delicate hand movements weren't damaged during the surgery. in about two hours' time, the ninth us democratic debate will take place in nevada, ahead of the caucus in the state this weekend. it's the latest stage in a long process todecide who'll be the democratic party nominee to take on donald trump in november's presidential election. 0ur reporter in las vegas, sophie long, says there'll be something new for viewers and voters in the debate. just when voters might have been starting to get a little bit weary we have a new

contender. now, michael bloomberg has of course been on the sidelines of this race for the sidelines of this race for the past few months. millions of americans see his face every day. he has pumped hundreds of millions of pounds into television advertising campaign to ensure that. but tonight is the first time we will see him ta ke ce ntre the first time we will see him take centre stage, a live television debate stage alongside the five other main contenders tonight. now, they of course have been in this race since the beginning. for nine months they have watched their bowls go up and down. they've defended themselves in the press, that campaigned in the press, that campaigned in the bitter cold in places like iowa and new hampshire, and then, suddenly, halfway through in swansa then, suddenly, halfway through in swans a multibillionaire and assumes his position as second in the national polls. so you can imagine why that might smart a bit. and tonight, i imagine, the knives will be out. there will be a lot of blows coming michael bloomberg's weigh. that is interesting, because normally you would expect the knives to be out for the frontrunner,

bernie sanders. bernie sanders goes into this debaty frontrunner. they've already had an exchange, a debate exchange, he has a use michael bloomberg of trying to buy the nomination. 0ther bloomberg of trying to buy the nomination. other things we might see him accused of tonight, they will probably bring up some recent press articles that talk about his past sexist behaviour, an allegation he completely denies. his campaigns as he simply doesn't tolerate any type of discrimination or intolerance. we also might see, he bowls not very well at the moment with african—american voters. a lot of that his duties same as new york mayor when he employed the policy of stop and frisk, what we know a stop—and—search in the uk. he has already answered that as well. is said his intention at the time was to reduce gun violence and he now understands that that cause pain for african—american families. we might also see some questions about his censorship of the press stop he owns, of course, one of the biggest media companies in the world, but his journalists are ordered not to

report on him or his personal wealth. so there's a lot ammunition there waiting to be had. and we will see who delivers the main blows. that could be bernie sanders, of course, byjoe biden also got a lot to win and hallucinate. he has been lagging in the polls and will want to make an impact ahead of the caucuses here on saturday in nevada full dot that was sophie long in las vegas. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: eerie streets and empty metro stations. we pay a visit to beijing — deserted because of the coronavirus. also on the programme: pictures of a fantasy wedding. a fantasy because it's a gay wedding in singapore, where homosexuality is illegal. 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 a vent low in the crater flow down to the sea on the east of the island, away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new—generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they called it mir, the russian for peace. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm lewis vaughan jones in london. our top stories: more passengers leave the diamond princess cruise ship, but there's criticism of how japanese authorities have handled it — with fears the release could spread the virus. police in germany say eight people have been killed after two shootings in the town of hanau. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world, which are once again dominated by the coronavirus. the international edition of the straits times leads with 20 new cases of the coronavirus in south korea. that brings the total number of cases to 51. the paper reports 14 of the new cases all attend the same church, raising fears about a so—called super spreader there. the times of india reports on the death of two people in iran from the coronavirus. it says the country had confirmed its first two cases

of the virus just hours earlier. reports suggest they were both iranian nationals. and in business news, the business standard reports that hopes of an imminent us—india trade pact have been dashed. president trump will visit india for the first time next week. but the paper quotes him as saying he doesn't know if a trade deal will be done before the election. now to the stories are sparking discussions online? yes, let's looks at what is trending right now. tributes to the rapper pop smoke are pouring in across social media after he was shot dead in his home during an apparent armed robbery. 20—year—old pop smoke — whose real name was bashar jackson — was a rising star from new york and this week got his first us top 10 album.

let's return to our main story — and the outbreak of coronavirus in china. the country's entire population — that's1.4 billion people — is now caught up in the attempt to slow the virus‘s spread. there's a strict lockdown in hubei province, where the outbreak began. but far beyond that, businesses are closed and life is anything but normal. 0ur china correspondent stephen mcdonell has been out and about in beijing. this is what's keeping china going at the moment, these delivery guys because even though the coronavirus fears are everywhere, they are keeping everybody fed, still delivering stuff to people's houses. the party, you can't into the compound. —— they are

parked here. you've got to show your id here. the other guy showed his id. this is a delivery, the guys at the gate or even hanging onto people's food. someone has come with the delivery. beijing's underground train system. it only has —— normally has to deal with millions of commuters. the problem, no problem getting a seat today i

think. anyone who has been to beijing and has had a look around this area of the city would not recognise this intersection.

you can imagine that the close confines of a bus is the type of place people would be worried in terms of coming into contact with somebody who has the coronavirus was not hands—on services and the like. everybody coming and has the temperature checked. and most people we talk to, they don't seem to mind to this. they know that it's part of trying to control this emergency. and, they are covered, cutting the government quite a bit of slack. stephen mcdonald there in the streets of beijing. photographer lenne chai's latest new york exhibition features herfantasy wedding — but it wouldn't be allowed

in her native singapore. that's because it's a gay wedding, and homosexuality is illegal in the city state. the photographs may depict a retro marriage banquet, with all the fun and celebration of a typical singaporean wedding — but as she told me, there is a serious message behind them. so basically this project was actually inspired by my own pa rents, actually inspired by my own parents, their wedding photos. it's basically based on the 19805, it's basically based on the 1980s, chinese, traditional chinese wedding banquets. the idea is that, i think a lot of the time when singaporeans talk about homosexuality, as you mentioned, it's criminalised in singapore, a lot of the time, we use very religious standpoints like whether it is morally right or wrong. but i wa nted morally right or wrong. but i wanted to approach it from a very personal viewpoint. hopefully, with a bit more empathy. and were seeing some of the photos now and i must say they do look very colourful

indeed. first off, we know that singapore is an incredibly conservative country. 0bviously, homosexuality is criminalised here will stop and it is punishable by two years in prison. how have attitudes changed? in prison. how have attitudes changed ? what was in prison. how have attitudes changed? what was your reaction, for instance, to this exhibition when it was held in singapore late last year? yes, actually we got a really great response. a lot of people, queer people in singapore, said their stories. a lot of people who were curious about how we managed to show something that is so controversial back home. i think it also pinned up a lot of conversations about civil rights pertaining to gay rights in singapore and also, just, how the difference of attitudes in young singaporeans as well. 0lder singaporeans, such as my pa rents, 0lder singaporeans, such as my parents, who are very staunch catholics for example. we know that a gay rally takes place here every year. it is called the pink dog and i remember covering it more than a decade

ago in 2009 for the bbc. 0ur attitude is changing around homosexuality here? attitude is changing around homosexuality here ?|j attitude is changing around homosexuality here? i think thanks to pink dog, there is a lot more disability for the lg btqi lot more disability for the lgbtqi community in singapore. in the past, you couldn't find parties and bars and clubs but it was very hush—hush. i think it was very hush—hush. i think it is much easier now where queer people feel like they can belong. thanks to the internet and social media, it is easier to find other people from your community unlike the past. a really interesting idea isn't it. i just want to quickly a really interesting idea isn't it. ijust want to quickly ring you back to what is happening in germany and reports from their say at least eight people had been shot dead in an incident in the town of hanau. that shooting took place at two issue shahbaz and detail is about 25, says the frankfurt. lesson helicopter at the scene. the gunman is still believed to

be at large at this early stage and the motive is still unclear. you have been watching newsday. we have a number of severe flood warning still in force across parts of the country and particularly in england and we have more rain in the forecast which is going to exacerbate this issue. the met office has yellow warnings for rain in parts of wales, north—west england and south—west scotland. these areas are seen quite a lot of rain at the time away and thursday. this is the pressure chart. you can see this weather front responsible for bringing the rain to the north and west of the country. a slow—moving feature but as we had very first day, it will start to move stuff eastwards quite quickly. skies will be brightening up across scotland and northern ireland during the morning. this band of rain will be pushing across england and wales and summit will be quite happy. we could see a short lived, very heavy smell of rain

as it moves its way south eastwards, accompanied by hale's, very squally winds and wondering lighting as well. will be on the mild side behind it as it moves through, the less guys will brighten up, assumptions will fairly dramatically. some sun shining behind this further north in the afternoon with lots of showers. these will be following a snow on the mountains of scotland and maybe even to the lower levels. and if you add on the strong and gusty winds, could see some blizzard conditions on the mountain tops. the rain clearly south—east on thursday evening and during thursday night is going to be a breezy ones. windy in the north with or longer spells of rain donna crane and the damages will rise. further south, crane and the damages will rise. furthersouth, could be quite chilly for a time to start friday morning. this is the picture than for friday. another sister moving in, lots of isobars on the charts. but even windy day and it will be quite wet across the north. it is looking like a north—south divide, tending to stay drier

in the south with some sunshine and being very windy. not wales, northern england and scotla nd wales, northern england and scotland and northern ireland will see outbreaks of rain, particularly across the western hills and a lot of weight about two. a windy day, widespread gales could cause issues to the east of the pan highs there and stronger to bring meeting on sunday to bring parts of england and wales for more prolonged periods of rain. an unsettled weekend to come. saturday, sunshine and showers. wintry in the north and very strong in the northern areas and some areas getting prolonged rain on sunday.

i'm lewis vaughan jones with bbc news. our top story: more passengers leave the diamond princess cruise ship, but there's criticism of how japanese authorities have handled it. there are fears the release could spread the virus. the us centers for disease control has described japan's quarantine procedures as inadequate. police have confirmed that eight people have been killed in shootings in the german town of hanau — near frankfurt. the suspect is said to still be at large. and this story is trending on bbc.com. tributes to the rapper pop smoke are pouring in across social media after he was shot dead in his home during an apparent armed robbery. the 20—year—old was a rising star from new york and this week got his first us top 10 album. that's all. stay with bbc news.