welcome to newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. the headlines: an exclusive report. how a prisoner and her guard fled north korea. they tell us about their remarkable escape. donald trump's former advisor gets a 3—year sentence for lying to congress, but the president is already talking about a pardon. i'm lewis vaughan jones in london. also in the programme: tens of thousands of germans attend vigils for the nine victims murdered by a far—right extremist. and a life sentence in new zealand for the man who murdered british backpacker grace millane.

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 we start our programme with a rare insight into one of the most secretive countries on earth. every year, over 1,000 people flee north korea. we spoke to an unusual pair of defectors — one of them was a prison guard who escaped with one of his detainees. bbc korean‘s hyung eun kim has their story. rare pictures smuggled out of north korea. footage kim jong—un‘s government doesn't want you to see. troops tend to cornfields, trying to feed the population. more soldiers browse

government approved dvds. 0thers patrol the border with china. it's here where most of those who want to escape make the desperate dash for safety. now two people who made it out want to tell their story. we're on our way to a safe house, where the defectors are being kept. everything about their movements has to be kept secret for their safety. this man was a prison guard at a detention centre near the chinese border. kim, whose name we have changed, was in prison for arranging phone calls between north korea and the outside world.

kim was eventually caught and brought to the man's prison. they drew closer and talked of a potential life outside north korea. then, one night, they decided to make a break. they say they ran about 200 metres from the prison to the tumen river, which marks the border with china. they began to swim across in total darkness. but they finally reached the other side — their first steps outside their homeland.

the manner of their escape has put the north korean authorities on high alert. how do you feel about being one of north korea's most wanted men? their hope is that by speaking out more north koreans will be encouraged to defect, but the control of information is still so tight that only a few will be able to hear their story. hyung eun kim, bbc news. a remarkable escape there. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. president trump's former advisor, roger stone, has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for obstructing an investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. he's maintained the case against him was politically motivated. mr trump accused the jury's foreperson of being tainted, and has hinted he may

pardon his ally. he's become a big part of the news over the last little while stop and i'm following this very closely and i want to see it lay out to its fullest, because roger has a very good chance of exoneration, in my opinion. i've known... applause . a applause .anew applause . a new people understand are probably better than anybody in the room. i've known roger stone and his wife, who's really a terrific woman, for a long time and roger is definitely a character. everybody thought of nose roger. everybody knows him. and most people like him. some people probably don't. but i do andi people probably don't. but i do and i always have. also in the news today: irish prime minister leo varadkar has resigned. but he is staying on as interim leader of fine gael while the country's three main parties battle out deadlocked coalition talks after an inconclusive election. attempts to elect a new prime minister in the irish parliament today

ended without agreement. a man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a stabbing at london central mosque. an elderly man in his 70s, has been taken to hospital. his injuries are not thought to be life—threatening. scotland yard says it is not treating the incident as terror related. australia is mourning the deaths of a woman and her three children who died after their car was set alight in brisbane. police are yet to confirm reports that the father, ex—rugby player rowan baxter, doused the family in petrol before stabbing himself to death. but they say there was a history of domestic violence — and the prime minister scott morrison has said the victims were "senselessly murdered". the women's t20 cricket world cup, hosted by defending champions australia, begins on friday. the ten team tournament features the top nations in limited overs cricket, and also newcomers thailand.

australia and india are playing in the opening match in sydney. the final is scheduled to take place at melbourne on march 8, which is international women's day. the head of the world health organization has warned against complacency in the struggle to contain the new coronavirus after the emergence of new clusters of infection outside china. singapore has one of the highest number of cases and one institution trying to contain the outbreak is the national centre for infectious diseases which only officially opened in september. its executive director, professor leo yee—sin, told me more about the centre and how the staff are coping. well, first of all, it's a very new building. we moved in about a year ago, officially opened a thing slightly less than half a

year. it is a purpose—built facility where we have at least 200 single isolation rooms with attached bathrooms, specifically built for singapore to be able to cope with situations like that. so we are very fortunate. that's right. 0ver we are very fortunate. that's right. over 200 rooms, this is an extraordinary number, as you say, it has been purpose—built for it. at the moment, it's actually fitting the most number of patients, the majority of the cases of the 85 here in singapore. the centre, as we know, only opened officially in september, it has been running for over a year though stop it is a state—of—the—art. actually got to see it with you last year. so tell us how much better equipped is it versus a regular hospital, for instance? because it's purpose—built, so we have the size and number of isolation rooms with attached bathroom, and that is the very specific infrastructure of a vertical building, so we did put ina vertical building, so we did put in a lot of design issues in terms of how the movement of the individual, how the

material moves within the building, as well as particularly paying a lot of attention in terms of the air movement. so we have, altogether, close to 150 what we call negative press isolation facilities. those are the state—of—the—art, top—class kind of isolation facilities within the building. theyjust wa nt to within the building. theyjust want to mention the building is just one element in terms of how we put together the response effort. in cid, we have the whole string of the expertise within that organisation is, that included the clinical provisions, we have a team of medical doctors, nurses, and all support staff, and in addition to that we have the national laboratory, where the national laboratory, where the lab provides all the support to the clinicians in terms of laboratory technology and confirmations. they must be incredibly busy dealing with the many patients they have at the many patients they have at the moment. tell us about what singapore has learned from sars, because as you say it is a new building, took overfrom

the communicable disease centre, which was at the forefront of the sales outbreak 17 years ago. what lessons have we learned? i think first of all the biggest lesson is that sars really hit us hard and we we re sars really hit us hard and we were relatively unprepared, our infrastructure was not up to par at that point in time. and many of us will remember within five weeks we built a makeshift isolation facility. think we learned from that. and one of the important things is be ready. professor leo yee-sin there. a man from new zealand who strangled a british backpacker and hid her body inside a suitcase has been jailed for at least 17 years. the 28—year—old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty last year. he had met ms millane via a dating app in december 2018 — on the night before her 22nd birthday. grace's mother, gillian millane, appeared at the hearing at auckland's high court via videolink and addressed the defendant directly, this isjust some of what she said.

you walked into our lives and destroyed race in the pursuit of your own sexual gratification —— grace. now my family will never be the same. so many other innocent people, including your own family, have had their world destroyed. i wa nt had their world destroyed. i want you to know i don't think you do, because if i did, that means they care about you and i simply don't. 0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil described what happened in court today. it was a very emotional day in court. indeed, three of grace millane's family members, her sister—in—law, brother, and her

mother, gillian, all made statements, all in tears at some point as they were reading. gillian, her mother, address the killer directly in that video link and told him "you had ripped a hole in my hea rt". "you had ripped a hole in my heart". she also said "i'm absolutely heartbroken that you have taken away my daughter's future and robbed us of any chances of creating memories with grace". she also went on to tell him that the tears i have said a never ending that the thought never kiss my grace, goodbye. at this stage i was a most of the people in in the room were emotional. the killer bowed his head and appeared to be wiping a tear. after that, the prosecution and the defence both made their arguments and the judge passed that sentence. a life imprisonment with 17 years in prison without parole. with that ending a case that has shocked and gripped new zealand, but devastated the millane family. we have referred to the killer there not by his name. can you

explain to us why that is? that's right. the court order, it remains of suppressing his identity and the reasons why the identity are suppressed also cannot be revealed by court order, which means that the media, we cannot explain the media, we cannot explain the reasons why we cannot name him. this actually has been quite controversial. it has sparked a debate online, for example, with many asking why grace, the victim, has had her name, her picture, her identity, very intimate details about her private life shared publicly across the world with the man remaining anonymous. but as it stands, he is sentenced to life imprisonment but his identity remains anonymous until a further court order. that was shaimaa khalil at the high court in auckland. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: vigils in germany for the nine immigrants killed by a far right gunman. also on the programme: we speak to actor daniel radcliffe about his new film — based on a true story

of political prisoners in apartheid south africa. 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 vaughn jones, in london. our top stories: the bbc has heard from two people — a prisoner and a guard — who managed to escape from a jail in north korea. president trump has said he'd love to see his former advisor, roger stone, exonerated, after he was sentenced to a0 months in prison for lying to congress. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world: the french publication le figaro looks at germany reaction to last night's

mass shooting in hanau. showing the vigil held in the city this evening, it says germans are shocked and alarmed by the increase of far—right violence in the country. a picture of the first spacecraft from the united arab emirates features on the front page of the international new york times. it is undergoing advanced tests and simulations in a laboratory in the university of colarado. it willjoin probes from more established space powers travelling the 300 million miles to mars this summer. the front page of the philippine star has quite an unusual wedding snap. some 220 couples have tied the knot in a joint ceremony in the filipino city of ba—colod, but all the couples wore face masks amid fears of contracting novel coronavirus. so how did they manage

to kiss the bride? i have no idea about that but a striking image. let's get more now on the coronavirus outbreak. the world health organization has spoken repeatedly about an "infodemic" — a flood of false information about the virus, causing unnecessary fear and panic. residents of a central ukrainian town clashed with police on thursday as they tried to prevent more than 70 evacuees from china from being quarantined there. they feared they could become infected, despite official assurances and a special appeal to humanity from president volodymyr zelenskiy. jonah fisher has this update from the scene. you can see on board, these are some of the poor people who have spent the last 2a hours

being brought out of china, here to ukraine and, as you can see here, it is a very... strong security presence alongside them. hundreds of riot police have had to be deployed to this village in central ukraine because there has been such an angry response from the villages here. they have located the road for much of the day and have not accepted of the day and have not a cce pted by of the day and have not accepted by the ukrainian authorities have been saying namely that all the people from the plane in china were tested several times for the coronavirus and people here simply do not trust what they have been told by the government and if they keep on saying, why does it have to be here? and many are very worried that this will lead to

infection spreading here. these people on these buses are a mix of ukrainians and other nationalities who will spend the next 1a days in this government medical facility while they serve their quarantine. on wednesday, a gunman in germany killed nine people in the western town of hanau. the authorities are treating the incident as a terror attack, and believe the shooter was motivated by far—right racist ideas. many of his victims were members of the city's turkish community, who were at two local smoking cafes. it is also believed he killed his mother, before taking his own life. 0ur europe correspondent gavin lee is in hanau. the aftermath of what now looks to have been a premeditated racist attack in the quiet german town of hanau, filmed by those watching

on in flats above. the suspected gunman's target, to shisha bars, cafes for smoking scented tobacco and popular germany's turkish and kurdish community. eyewitnesses have described the panic during the attacks that killed nine people, five of them of turkish origin. one of those wounded, muhammad, described what happened from his hospital bed. translation: he shot straight to the head of everyone he saw. and he fired at us, i hid behind the wall and as i moved, he shot me in my arm. police say the government, named as 43—year—old german national returned

to his home, killed his mother and himself. forensic teams have been searching his property and car. investigators are also scrutinising his website which contained a written manifesto reporting to espouse deeply xenophobic views and painting a picture of a man with deep mental health issues. there are big questions now how german authorities can stop right—wing extremism and the rise in the number of attacks. in the past year there has been an assassination of a german politician and an attack on a synagogue in the east of the country and three days ago authority say they dismantled an extremist right—wing cell, and now this incident. the local mp told me of existing tensions in the town and said extremism was an issue which she claimed could be linked to the growth in populism. you really have to put signs, stop signs there and really set red lines. and be far more strict on hate speech. this evening, some of the ethnic minority families living here have told me they are too afraid to go out tonight, worried that a threat may still exist but many people of hanau are gathering, laying flowers and tributes

to those who have lost their lives. gavin lee, bbc news, hanau. a new film called escape from pretoria tells the true story of two political prisoners who managed to break out of a notorius south africanjail in 1979. timjenkin and stephen lee had been imprisoned on charges of producing and distributing pamphlets on behalf of banned organisations — including the african national congress. the role of tim jenkin is played by daniel radcliffe who's been speaking to the bbc‘s kasia madera. defendant number one and chief bomb maker, timothyjenkin, you we re bomb maker, timothyjenkin, you were sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 12 years. as soon as i read the story and found out about the escape and the nature of the escape, i just thought it is so genius and so brilliant, how has this story not already been told, how do normal people know about

this? laying out this ideology that all races are equal and all this sort of thing... that all races are equal and all this sort of thing. .. in the run—up to this thing, i read his book and actually that was really interesting in terms about what apartheid was and by the day—to—day life of people resisting apartheid was like. they properly would not have been able to do this escape had they been a black because even down to the way that black and white prisoners were searched going into prison, there was still more dignity afforded to the white prisoners in terms of how they were searched. this is an extremely tense film, how do you convey that across? a huge amount of that is down to the direct. you felt the sense of tension in the script but a pa rt

tension in the script but a part of me was saying you will just be watching and so much of the tension is dependent on the shots, the music, the editing. we do not get to see what they do not see it until they see it but we do get to hear it so sound was an important element. these techniques meant that you are over their shoulder the whole time and keeping the camera in their perspective was one way to make sure you felt now they are here, now they are there. will they make it. what responsibility is it to get team's story right? for someone to object against injustice is a very important thing. someone then to suffer as a result of that injustice showed they stick their neck out but to go

beyond those things and try to fight a version, fight back, breaking out was a political act. you have been watching newsday. i'm lewis vaughan jones in london. i'm sharanjit leyl singapore. why baby yoda is big business — we take a look at the merchandise spawned by disney's latest delivery. do you have any favourite quotes? you are not going to ta ke quotes? you are not going to take me into a yoda impression! what about you ? take me into a yoda impression! what about you? i do like the one i mentioned the last hour but also the other classic one, fear is the path to the dark

side. no-one wants to go anywhere near the dark side in fa ct anywhere near the dark side in fact you at home should state right here on bbc. thank you for your company. the weather is staying u nsettled the weather is staying unsettled to and the week and into the weekend we have more rains at times also some strong winds thanks to an active jetstrea m winds thanks to an active jetstream bringing areas of low pressure in. friday are very windy day and most of the rain would be across western hills in the northern half of the country. you can see lots of isobars across the country so it will be windy with these weather front bringing outbreaks of rain particularly western northern ireland, western northern ireland, western scotland, north—west england and at times to northern and western wales. further south and east it should be drier and brighter but must read day for all.

30-40 but must read day for all. 30—110 miles per hour to many. east of the pennines 60 miles per hour so there is good because some transport issues. temperature wise, milder than what it was on a thursday. temperatures 10— and 12 degrees. as we head through friday night, it stays wet across western hills in the north and some of that rain will start to push further south was affecting south—west england and wales. anymore rainfall here is extremely unwelcome. love to show piling into scotland. winter on the hills. milder across the south. that weather front pushing southwards and eastwards into saturday, bringing an unwelcome band of rain but further north, it stays very windy indeed. a squeeze in the isobars with lots of showers. piling into much of scotland, some heavy and thundery, snow on the hills and thundery, snow on the hills and maybe lizard conditions as well with the strength of the

wind. —— blizzard conditions. another mild day in the south but colder further north. as we move through saturday night, this next feature runs into england and wales which could bring a spell of unwelcome rain. further north, windy and further showers but at least the good news, through sunday, the good news, through sunday, the rain should clear away quite quickly and the skies brighten up with plenty of sunshine so a welcome date of drier and brighter weather but it will feel a bit colder. that settled spell of weather will be short—lived because across the atlantic we will see the next deep area of low pressure moving in on monday. pushing towards the north of you going towards the north of you going to bring a spread of severe gales and a further rain. with more rain in the forecast, flooding could be further issue so head on line to the bbc weather website to check out the weather and warnings.

i'm lewis vaughan—jones with bbc world news. our top story: in an exclusive interview, the bbc has spoken to two people — a prisoner and her guard — who managed to flee north korea. they described inmates serving long sentences for watching foreign films or taking drugs — and others jailed for arranging phone calls between north korea and the outside world. president trump has raised the possibility that he could pardon his former advisor roger stone, who's been sentenced to three years in jail for lying to congress. and this story is trending on bbc.com. britain is a country with a reputation for soaring property prices, but this is a real bargain. this flat sold for just over a dollar. there is a catch — it's on an upper floor and there's no access to it. that's all. stay with bbc world news.