south korea has raised its disease alert to the highest possible level as the coronavirus outbreak claims a sixth life. italy has cut short its carnival in venice and imposed quarantine restrictions. and four more britons have tested positive after returning from a cruise ship injapan. the united nations says the greatest exodus of civilians in the syrian civil war is taking place in idlib province. the fighting in the last major rebel stronghold has left about a million people trapped. turkey says it will french, german and russian leaders in march to discuss the crisis. president trump is starting a 2—day state visit to india. he will attend a rally alongside prime minister narendra modi in modi's home city. the two leaders will consider ways of lifting trade barriers and developing strategic ties in the region. the president will also visit the world's largest cricket stadium. now on bbc news:

we investigate the true state of fatal failures by the we investigate the true state of fatalfailures by the uk we investigate the true state of fatal failures by the uk ministry of defence. reads: "hope this postcard finds you well. "i am in a monastery at the moment in a place called taize. "it has been fascinating talking to people about their different views "and opinions on god and life in general. "looking forward to seeing you again and telling you all about it." "love, craig."

it was getting late, but i was waiting because i knew he'd ring because it was his first day of selection. then at 11:30, there was a knock on the door. and as soon as he said mod, i knew craig was dead. he came in and explained how craig was going up a hill and he'd had a heart attack. craig roberts from penrhyn bay, near llandudno, signed up as a reservist at university. he wanted to join the reserve sas. it's not what we wanted to hear, but he was passionate and said he wanted to be the best soldier that he could be, and they were the best of the best. we were worried about what he could be asked to do if he was deployed. but the thought of training didn't occur to us at all. craig and two other reservists died while attempting

a special forces selection test in the brecon beacons in 2013. an inquest found that the exercise was run by people who'd not been trained properly and planning was poor. things went terribly wrong up there. we shouldn't be talking about failures or deaths within training exercises when there's things in place which can prevent it. to stay safe on the battlefield, tough training is essential. this is where some of the most extreme tests take place, including for the sas. just three years after craig roberts died here in the brecon beacons came more grave concerns about safety. news: a soldier has died while training in brecon in mid—wales. 26—year—old corporal josh hoole was preparing to take part in the platoon

sergea nt‘s battle course. three soldiers on sas selection died in similar circumstances in 2013, also training in the brecon beacons during hot weather. my phone just started to light up, so we just immediately thought it was the same thing had happened again. it was just a year after the inquest into craig's death that corporaljoshua hoole died on a different training exercise near brecon. we felt very, very sad forjoshua's parents. it should not have happened again, yet it has. i don't want to see any more parents going through what we've been through. it was just so avoidable. joshua hoole's father, phillip, who served 2a years in the army himself, was told his son simply had

an underlying heart problem. but he fought to have the inquest reopened late last year. troubled by the news, the roberts wanted to lend support to joshua's family. they travelled from their home near llandudno in north wales to the inquest in birmingham. they wanted to know if promises of improved safety made by the mod had been kept. radio: senior coroner louise hunt concluded that the failure of the army to learn from previous mistakes was very concerning. relatives of those who died six years ago were in court alongside corporal hoole's family. i spent two years of my life working to get the result today. it is my belief that the ministry of defence failed

in its duty of care to implement any meaningful changes. this whole process has given me no pleasure. i would rather have my son not being classed as a preventable death. mr hoole said he didn't want to make the army any softer. he simply wanted the mod to learn lessons. thousands of soldiers train across wales every year. recruitment videos talk about good preparation and doing the right thing. the confidence that lasts a lifetime — there's one place you'll find that. but some now question if we can have confidence in their safety record. there is always going to be risk. it's not no risk. but the army were aware that their quality and standard of training on risk assessments was below standard,

and they had to do something about it. so you've got some photos there from your, uh... lewis cherry is a former army officer. for decades, he has represented servicemen and women as a solicitor, and has followed cases of deaths in training. the inquest in 2019 into the death of corporaljoshua hoole showed that a virtually identical situation arose as had happened in the deaths of the three reservists in 2013. is there something cultural in the army which allows these mistakes to happen and to repeat themselves? from my knowledge and experience, and i'm regularly talking to servicemen and women, nobody has ever said to me that they've ever been told to stop a test because they think it's dangerous. craig roberts and joshua hoole

were both on training exercises near brecon when they died. so what were the mistakes which were repeated just a few years apart? back in 2013, craig's test was a 16—mile march over steep mountains against the clock. 25kg on his back, high humidity and not a breath of wind. two men were withdrawn early on, severely affected by heat, a sign that others were at risk. these were warnings that no matter how fit these young men were, the heat, the extreme exercise and their determination to finish was a potentially fatal combination. by the time a third soldier was withdrawn because of heat illness at 14:26, craig was charging towards the finish. but he too overheated, collapsed and couldn't be revived.

opportunities to stop the march and to save craig's life had been missed. edward maher and james dunsby also died from the effects of the heat that day. an army officer later spoke to craig's family. so we said, "well, why wasn't the test postponed because of the heat?" and he looked at us and said, "well, there would have been too much paperwork to postpone it." an inquest found that the army had failed to train its staff properly on just how dangerous the heat could be. and don't expect the lads to be looking after themselves, because you can't self—monitor yourself if you go into a heat illness, because you don't know you're going into it. the health and safety executive found the law had been breached on that exercise. but unlike a private company, it couldn't take the mod to court,

because it has immunity from prosecution under health and safety law. instead, the hse issued its most serious sanction — a crown censure. it felt so weak, that the balance of three boys‘ deaths with this bit of paper — it was just so weak. how can they get away with not being punished? like, a corporation would be taken to court. like craig roberts, joshua hoole was considered one of the fittest in his unit. his was a 2—hour march over eight miles, again carrying 25kg. less than an hour in, a soldier collapsed into a hedge. some of those on the march described it as feeling "hotter than afghanistan" at times. that may be hard to believe, but add up

the weight on your back, the lack of wind because of the hedgerows and the steepness of the hill sections, and the risks were beginning to mount. by 8:30, a second soldier collapsed with his eyes rolling back in his head. he was told he was lucky to have survived. the second soldier collapsing was a second opportunity to stop the march. but information wasn't passed on, and, again, signs of heat illness weren't recognised. much like in 2013, there were two chances to intervene and stop the exercise. but there was a lack of training, and not enough clear advice given to those in charge on the ground — the very thing the army had been warned to put right before. joshua collapsed a few hundred metres from the end of the march. despite immediate medical help, he died.

radio: senior coroner louise hunt concluded corporal hoole had an underlying health condition, not previously identified. but she said a combination of factors had led to his death, adding that on balance, had the test not gone ahead, corporal hoole would not have died. they promised us lessons would be learned. but when you read the record of inquest, and it's in a way like reading craig's record of inquest, and you say, " haven't they learnt? " the robertses are petitioning the prime minister to change the law. to have this safety net of immunity from prosecution, i would imagine nearly every single company within civvy street would love that

and it should be removed off them. we've discovered that those failings, those mistakes are costing the mod a lot of money. pay—outs for injuries because of excess heat or cold have cost it £18 million a year. but it's about a lot more than money. over the past two decades, 148 service personnel have died, not in battle, but in training. so, how quickly can the heat become a danger, even in these welsh hills? professor george havenith is an expert on how on the climate affects the human body. we're monitoring the core temperature inside, and here on the outside, we can monitor the heart rate. he gave evidence at the inquests

of those who died in the heat in the brecon beacons. we haven't made it that hot, just 22 degrees celsius, to simulate what's happening in the field, and to show that actually it doesn't have to be extremely hot to get problems with heat illness. the volunteer, alex, was an athlete in the university rowing team. he has 20kg on his back and has been marching for an hour uphill. with lamps to replicate the sun, high humidity and no wind, his core body temperature heads towards 39 degrees. so in the lab, we would probably let him go on for another 20 minutes before we would have to take him out for safety regulations. and in the field, you'd say if you would just let him go on, i think within the next 45 minutes, he could develop health issues. out in the field, military instructors rely on mod guidance on how long extreme exercise can safely continue.

but that guidance has been described as confusing and not everyone appears to know about it. mod has to find a way to empower the people on the ground to actually act on what they see, act on these guidelines, and either stop exercises, change exercises, or pull individuals out of the exercise if they see there is a problem. how does that feel? hot, very hot. and how does that compare with the same exercise at a lower temperature? well, my head's throbbing. i'm sweating a lot more. it isjust a lot more difficult. how much longer do you think you could have gone on without the need to slow down or stop? i'd say another half hour, maybe 45 mins. and it's that determination to carry on that has sadly proved fatal in military training. over the years, we've seen many accidents, many people suffering from heat illness. because theyjust have to be tough and just do the job they're supposed to do.

this device is potentially a life saver. it monitors the environment to tell you how warm it really is. the military has had them since before the three fatalities in 2013. but whenjosh hoole died, this wasn't being used properly. the mod promised to train people on it and introduce warning labels. but as of late last year, they hadn't even done that. the mod told us it was still work in progress, and it is working hard to address the failings raised by the coroner. but we can reveal that in the past two decades, the ministry of defence has breached health and safety laws a0 times.

of course there have been no court cases, because of its immunity from prosecution. the mod says it carries out its own investigations, but even then families have found basic errors. the roberts were told that craig had hidden an underlying heart condition. and they suggested that craig wouldn't have told us. and i felt like saying, "well maybe you wouldn't tell your parents but our son would certainly tell us." the ministry of defence later apologised for looking at the wrong medical notes. if they'd looked at his records they'd have seen that the date of births didn't tally. the addresses were wrong, so they couldn't have checked very hard. the evidence was there, theyjust chose to brush over it and come to their own conclusion. and to the roberts family, apologies given by the army for the deaths of craig, james, edward, and josh, sounded all too familiar.

"we are truly sorry for all the mistakes that the coroner identified today." "the mod has acknowledged that aspects of the policy in place could have been better." "we will study the coroner's conclusion very carefully. " "we shall act upon the recommendations from this inquest." to find out if they can challenge the mod‘s immunity, today the roberts are getting some advice. hilary meredith has acted in military cases for over 30 years. it's so frustrating when you see this massive body thatjust doesn't move. it could be a whole number of things but something has to be done to make them wake up and say, "we have to actually change the way we operate." in my view, the way forward to try and stop this again is to try and petition parliament, maybe, to get the law changed, so the immunity is taken away from the ministry of defence. and that should be something that really is high on this

parliamentary list. so far, we've been hearing about incidents here in the brecon beacons — concerns about heat and risk assessments. but we've discovered there have been concerns and warnings about a whole other area of military training, where lives have again been put at risk and even lost. this site near chepstow is often taken over by the military to train underwater divers. at 80 metres deep it's not without risks. you need good equipment and well trained instructors. we've uncovered this internal mod report commissioned in 2002

after a spate of diving deaths. it urges the top brass to make "substa ntial changes" to equipment and training, which "weren't up to 21st century standards." but less than two years after this report was written, it appears those weren't being heeded. sergeant bill mclellan died in just a few metres of water during an exercise in germany in 200a. he was wearing the same kit that the army was warned it should have replaced, and training at the time was still lacking. then in 2016 the mod was again warned its new diving kit still had safety problems. those concerns were overruled.

then, two years later, another death. lieutenant corporal george partridge died 1a years after the first major warnings — another failure to learn lessons by the mod. and still no training for diving officers. the mod said it has conducted a complete review of military diving following george partridge's death, and investigations are ongoing. it always seems to be a similar pattern. it's always that people in higher places have identified that there need to be changes, but things don't seem to change, or they don't seem to change quick enough. lewis cherry says he has raised serious concerns about safety with the mod, even about some of the most recent changes the army has made to training. he claims there is still no simple guidance about when exercises

like this should stop because of the heat. it seems like they've rushed this through without putting in the requisite, in my mind, safety precautions to run that test. and until the army put all those in place fully and properly, i fear for the lives of the young men and women who are doing this test in 2020. the mod told us policy on heat illness is regularly reviewed and has been updated six times since 2015, with more attention now paid to climatic injury. we know that craig's part of special forces have improved their safety, but maybe the rest of the army aren't up on it as much.

they keep on using this lame excuse of "we will learn from our mistakes," and clearly history has proved that they're not very good at learning. after taking advice from hilary meredith, the roberts are taking their campaign to westminster. they want mps to remove the immunity the mod has from prosecution under health and safety law. they're meeting plaid cymru's spokesperson on justice. it really seems to be something that's out of its time. it should be changed, and the public as a whole deserve proper answerability, which they're not receiving at present. i think we're in the 21st century, it seems a desperate anomaly that

most of your defence are treated differently to other employers or other organisations. later that day, the issue was raised in the house of commons. four men have been lost to their families following their deaths during army training in the brecon area. the parents of one of these men, craig roberts, are in the gallery today. no child should die in training in our uk armed forces. while cognisant of the fact that it must stay as aggressive and war—like as we can. ministerjohnny mercer later committed to meet with the roberts. the fight goes on. until we can either get the crown immunity off them or there is a change in the law that holds them accountable. a commitment to go further. it can't affect us, but it can affect so many of our service personnel.

theyjoined the army to serve the country and should be looked after. when things go wrong they can'tjust be let go. we've got to make sure it doesn't happen again for any other family. that's what we keep going for and we will keep going until we get it done. the ministry of defence turned down an interview, but it said the safety and well—being of personnel remains a top priority. it regularly audits training and all deaths in training i investigated and it treats the sensor process seriously. in virtually every case, it has taken action before any decision on the crown censure. very encouraging, it was good to see she managed to get a question the roberts and others hope parliament will now continue what they started — to change the law, to stop history repeating itself. i've seen so many families go

through this, and it's traumatising. we're talking about lives of people here. so it's really disheartening to see that people don't match the guidance to what's happening in the field. the armed forces say that they're a very caring family, but sometimes there's not enough care in the right time and the right place. these men all died in training, not in battle. but they will be remembered. margaret and kelvin roberts think of their son craig every day, especially in the places he loved. he said his favourite place in the world was up there. they're still waiting to know what craig's lasting legacy might be. craig just wanted to be the best he could be at whatever he put his mind to. and that's how he lived his life. no half measures.

hello there. the weather looks set to cause a few more problems over the coming days. first of all, well, the risk of flooding hasn't diminished at all. we've got over 100 flood warnings currently in force, and we've also got a severe flood warning that's been issued. that's been put on a stretch of the river severn, this time in shrewsbury, in shropshire, and it's here later on this afternoon that we could see the river approach record levels. and there could be further flooding over the coming days. we have got more rain in the forecast as well. the other thing that you might encounter as we head into the first part of the morning is this. yes, there is the potential

for some disruptive snow. let me explain. it's been getting chilly across northern parts of the country, whereas in the south, you can see some mild air here. temperatures ten degrees orso in cardiff. it's mild because it's turned wet and windy, and this band of heavy rain is moving across wales and the midlands, bumping into the cold air. it's turning to snow across the high ground of northern england, and across the hills of scotland as well. we could see the snow come down to lower elevations for a time, just in time for monday morning rush hour. so there is the potential for some disruption, and i suspect over the high ground, we could be looking at something like 5—10 cm. and that's not our only problem, mind you. this band of rain sweeps its way southwards and eastwards. as it does so, could bring about 40—50 mm of rain across the high ground of wales, and that sets the scene for further flooding problems later on in the week, even as the rain clears through. blustery showers follow, a windy day everywhere, and the winds will make it feel really particularly cold in scotland. a bitter feel to the weather here. now, heading into tuesday and wednesday, high pressure

is to the south—west of the uk, low pressure to the north—west, north—east, and that maintains north—westerly winds across the country. and it's those north—westerly winds that will feed in showers. now, the showers will be quite widespread, particularly across western areas, as we head into the afternoon. some of them will have some some wintry flavour to them, particularly across northern areas, over the high ground. yes, there'll be some sunshine between. but it's a similar looking weather picture as we head into wednesday — again, a cold north—westerly wind feeding the showers in. the showers particular frequent across the north—west of scotland, northern ireland, running down through the irish sea to affect north wales, cheshire, merseyside, greater manchester and the north—west midlands, all the while feeling cold in the wind, as well. so quite a lot going on over the next few days alone. yes, there's concerns that we could see some snow through this morning. heavy rain around as well, and that's likely to cause some further flooding problems as we go through the next few days.

welcome to bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: south korea raises its disease alert to the highest possible level as the coronavirus outbreak claims seven lives. italy imposes quarantine restrictions and the venice carnival closes early to contain europe's largest outbreak. we have a special report from syria where civilians trapped in idlib, the last rebel stronghold, are under ferocious attack by forces loyal to president assad. it's now the biggest exodus of the conflict. they have fled time and time again and now they can go no further, so they ask, now that there are so many of them, can the world continue to ignore their fate? india prepares for donald trump's visit. so can narendra modi and the us president