a very warm welcome to bbc news. if to bbc news. you're watching in the uk, pbs if you're watching in the uk, pbs in america or around the globe. my name is mike embley, our top stories: president trump tries to calm fears over the spread of coronavirus, telling people the risk remains very low. we're very, very ready for anything, whether it's going to be a breakout of larger proportions or whether or not, you know, we're at that very low level. international efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak intensify. more new cases are reported outside of china than inside. india's prime minister calls for calm as at least 27 people are killed in clashes over the citizenship law in delhi. and the pope urges roman catholics around the world to give up online

insults for lent. hello to you. donald trump has appointed vice president mike pence to respond to the coronavirus emergency. president trump said the risk to the american people is very low and he would work with congress to ensure whatever funding was required was secured. he required was secured. confirmed 15 people in the us he confirmed 15 people in the us had been diagnosed with the virus and all but one have made a good recovery. whatever happens, we are the best prepared. we have the best people in the world, congress is willing to give us much more than we were asking for, that's nice for a change.

but we are totally ready, willing and able. it's a term we use, ready, willing and able. it's going to be very well under control. now, it may get eager, it may get a little bigger, it may not get bigger at all, we'll see what happens, but regardless we are totally prepared. he said he hoped people would be able to travel freely by the summer be able to travel freely by the summerand be able to travel freely by the summer and outlined by mike ‘s would be in charge of the response team. —— mike pence would be. he's really an expert in the field and what i'm going to be announcing, exactly right now, i'm going to be putting our vice president mike pence in charge and mike will be working with the professionals and doctors and everybody else that is working, the team is brilliant, i spent a lot of time with the team over the last couple of weeks. i asked our washington correspondent chris buckler what the response has been. yeah, mike, democrats very much

accused president donald trump of not taking this seriously enough, not taking the threat of what the coronavirus could cause if it spread in the united states and hadn't even thought about what that could mean for the country. what we had today was a president showing himself to be presidential, taking control of this and doing his best to ensure the country is ready to tackle this issue. you mentioned the figure of $2.5 billion, that's the funding he's requested from congress but actually many inside congress believe that they needed is probably much greater. they've talked about $4 billion. one democrat even talked of $8.5 billion. what president donald trump has said is whatever money is needed and whatever needs to be done, he's prepared to do it and it's this attempt to show he's in charge of this problem and he will deal with it if it becomes an issue in the us. is it clear why mike pence is in charge? he says he wants to keep it within the administration and he says

mike pence will be surrounded by experts, and they have some of the best people working on this. i think also what's worth pointing out is that donald trump is doing his best to tackle this because it is an election year. that's also playing into this. he's aware the democrats have been accusing him of not doing enough and he wants to ensure he deals with this and that's particularly after some dismissive tweets we've seen from president trump. for example he attacked the us news networks for scaremongering and also causing a certain amount of alarm in the stock markets, which have all and in the us. he says he wants to deal with thoseissues he says he wants to deal with those issues and, of course, the economy always very important to president trump, particularly when an election is approaching. chris buckler for us there. the world health organization has announced the virus is spreading outside china, where it began, than inside. several countries have announced their first

infections, all apparently linked to the growing outbreak in italy with the number of cases have now reached 400. walsh, bbc news. fergus walsh, our medical correspondent, has more. northern italy has a serious coronavirus outbreak, the biggest by far in europe. virtually all traffic is banned from entering 11 towns designated red zones. more than 50,000 people have been in quarantine since sunday, but the virus hasn't been contained. the first confirmed cases in brazil and algeria, as well as austria and switzerland, were all linked to italy. and france recorded its second death at a paris hospital, a 60—year—old teacher who had no record of travel to any outbreak hotspot. germany is bracing itself for a surge in cases after a couple with coronavirus symptoms spent ten days travelling before they were diagnosed. both are now in hospital. translation: we are at

the beginning of a corona epidemic in germany. the chain of infection is no longer completely traceable. none of us has any immunity to this new virus, but even if we get a widespread outbreak, analysis from china suggests 81% of those infected only get a mild illness and so don't need medical treatment. the first symptoms are a fever and dry cough. older people and those with existing health problems are at greater risk from the coronavirus, which attacks the lungs. but that also applies to seasonal flu, which lungs. but that also applies to seasonalflu, which kills thousands of people here every year. remarkably, china is now reporting fewer new cases than the rest of the world. this is wuhan, the city where the virus emerged in december. for a time, its health system was overwhelmed but now patients are starting to go home. other countries wonder,

will it be their turn next? in the deadliest violence seen in the indian capital in decades, the number killed has risen to at least 27. the clashes first broke out between people for and against the contribution all new citizenship law, but now it looks like communal violence with crowds of mostly hindu men beating and burning and muslim residents fleeing their homes and businesses. narendra modi, who heads a hindu nationalist government, has appealed for calm. a muslim area that saw some of the worst violence. until now, it was impossible to get inside mustafabad. this road was full of mobs of men, armed with sticks, stones and even guns. we stop when we see a stream of people hurriedly crossing our path.

these are muslim families and they're fleeing the hindu—dominated areas they live in. they don't feel safe in their own homes any more. one man tells me, "hindu mobs are slaughtering us like goats and chickens." we're shown a mosque that was set on fire. holy books, reduced to ashes. just outside, a muslim man was stabbed to death. he was the father of these girls. his wife has covered herface in mourning.

in the adjoining hindu—dominated locality, too, there is fear and anger. a man shows us where he was hit by bullets. this woman tells me petrol bombs were thrown at her home. what used to be just a busy street full of shops has today almost become a boundary between a hindu community on one side and a muslim community on the other. these religious divides has been deepening in india ever since prime minister narendra modi and his hindu nationalist party came to power. a citizenship law passed in december was the trigger for the riots. it gives amnesty to illegal immigrants from three neighbouring countries, except muslims. for months, it polarised opinion. now it has left the capital on edge. yogita limaye, bbc news, delhi.

a gunman has killed five of his workmates at a brewing company in milwaukee before killing himself. the shooting was in the early afternoon while hundreds of employees were still at work. the state governor says still at work. the state overnor sa s it's still at work. the state governor says it's the 11th mass shooting in wisconsin since 2004. freya cole reports. armed and ready, milwaukee sherrock apartment prepares its tactical response after a mass shooting at a local institution. a 51—year—old man still dressed in his work uniform went on a rampage through the molson coors campus, killing five of his former colleagues before turning the gun on himself. there were five individuals who went to work today, just like everybody goes to work, and they thought they were going to go to work, finish their day and return to their families. they didn't and tragically they never will. known locally as the old miller

brewery, it's home to at least 1000 workers. when the shooting started in the afternoon, they we re started in the afternoon, they were told to stay indoors. many remained in lockdown late into the night while police secured the night while police secured the grounds and carried out a thorough investigation. once the scene had been secured, local officials gathered addressed the media. they each paid a solemn tribute to the victims and their loved ones. but the press conference didn't escape an urgent call for reform on america's second amendment. we here at the scene of another american tragedy, senseless american tragedy, one that shouldn't have to happen and unfortunately it's in our and unfortunately it's in our andi and unfortunately it's in our and i hate to say that. once again, this is the 11th mass shooting in our state since 2004 but i want to call a challenge, we shouldn't accept this, this isn't the way it should be and we shouldn't grow co mforta ble should be and we shouldn't grow comfortable in the face of these repeated tragedies across these repeated tragedies across the country. police stressed their investigations have onlyjust

begun and made a vow to rally round a community forced to come to terms with yet another senseless tragedy. 26 civilians have been killed according to syrian rescue workers in the latest warming in idlib, the last stronghold held by rebels. the offensive by president assad's government, backed by russia, has four small than 1 million people to flee their homes. there's been talks in the turkish capital to find some way out of the conflict —— has forced. from there, orla guerin and there's disturbing images in her report. in idlib, a frantic search in the rubble after another neighbourhood becomes a burial ground. the white helmet volunteers are directed by annas. this was the home his family fled to, hoping to be safe. "there is the sound of a boy," he says. annas rushes in. but they find the lifeless body of his son.

childhood in assad's syria. where regime air strikes don't spare a two—year—old. then a last kiss. but there was more anguish to come. aid workers told us annas lost everyone. his mother, his wife and his older son. rebels, some backed by turkey, are battling the regime, trying to prevent it retaking idlib, what is left of it. among thejihadists in control are militants who were previously linked to al-qaeda.

president assad and his russian backers say they are fighting terrorists. but the united nations says syria's displaced could be caught up in a bloodbath. they have nowhere to run, trapped between the advancing regime and the border with turkey, a nato nation. aid agencies say at least seven children have frozen to death. president erdogan insists he cannot open the gates for another influx. so he is threatening war while trying to talk peace. tonight here in ankara, turkish and russian officials have met without agreement. they will talk again tomorrow but president erdogan insists his troops in idlib are ready for battle if syrian forces do not pull back by the weekend.

stay with us if you can on bbc news, much more to come, including: down in the depths of the house of commons, what is the secret behind the green door? prince charles has chosen his bride. the prince proposed to lady diana spencer three weeks ago. she accepted, she says, without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets. a climax in the night outside the gates of mr marcos's sanctuary, malaca nang, the name itself symbolising one of the cruellest regimes of modern asia. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly using a cell from another sheep. warren beatty and faye dunaway announced to the world that the winner of best film was la la land. the only trouble was, it wasn't. the mistake was only put right in the middle of gushing speeches by the team behind the modern musical. not for 20 years have locusts been seen in such numbers in this part of africa. some of the swarms have been ten miles long.

this is the last time the public will see this pope. very soon, for the sake of the credibility and authority of the next pope, benedict xvi will, in his own words, "be hidden from the world for the rest of his life." welcome back, good to have you with us on bbc news. one main story dominating the headlines. president trump has been trying to calm fears over the spread of the coronavirus, telling the american people the risk remains very low. let's stay with that story. doctor benjamin weiler, assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine. i asked him what he thinks. i think that this is a really important first step to stay ahead of the curve, and to mobilise resources to be prepared if we do have increasing spread of the coronavirus in the united states.

time for us to take these measures is before that spread has occurred and i am encouraged to see the government is taking those steps now. how well—prepared do you feel the country is? it is a big country, presumably preparations may not be as good across the whole country. i think there are a few steps to preparation and preventing spread. up until now, the main step that we have taken is to limit new cases coming into the country through travel restrictions, and that becomes a lot harder once there are more countries where infections are occurring. once we start to see infections spreading in the community of the united states, we need to be very vigilant at a state and local level to be able to identify and isolate patients that have infection to slow the spread of infection. within the community and within the healthcare setting. the president has accused the media of scaremongering, alarming the stock market,

some of his tweets have been quite dismissive, calling coronavirus just like flu. does he have a point? seasonal flu does kill many people every year, doesn't it? it does. there are a number of similarities. the way that the virus is transmitted is primarily through respiratory droplets when people cough or sneeze. these droplets can contaminate the hands and surfaces, so the way that people have been exposed to this are very similar. in addition, the spread in the community is likely to be very similar. the main difference, and we don't really know the answer yet, is what the exact fatality rate is. influenza, if we look at the number of people who are infected and the number of people who die, it is about 0.1%, about one in 1000 people. in coronavirus, the estimates are about ten times that, so the potential

for this to cause a lot of deaths, if it spreads widely in the community, is greater than the seasonal flu, and i would add that we don't yet have a vaccine like we do for influenza, so there are not people who are protected by vaccine. pope francis has suggested fellow roman catholics should stop insulting people online is one of their resolutions for lent. many christians to give up habits such as drinking alcohol or eating sweets for 40 days to mark the season, but the pope told tens of thousands of worshippers in the vatican to consider abandoning useless chatter, rumours, and gossip. andrew singleton told me the pope is familiar with social media. pope francis is considered a worldly pope, so i have no doubt he is one of the people with a good understanding of trolling and he does

have a social media presence as well, the vatican is certainly up with the latest developments. why do you think he has picked on it particularly? historically, catholics, alongside other christians are supposed to give up something for lent, and the 1960s through to the 1980s they kind of became more accommodating on the list of things that catholics were invited to give up. no longer did it have to be abstinence or fasting, you could give up coffee or cigarettes or alcohol, but i think in this instance he is speaking to more than just a catholic community, but people generally, and we have seen some of the most toxic effects of trolling online, and i think his message is just about trying to be relevant to the world more generally and notjust of the catholic community. do you think it is likely to be effective, his plea ?

already, very committed catholics, the ones who take his message really seriously, for all intents and purposes, are already probably doing something in relation to lent, most likely giving up alcohol and perhaps meat, and i would presume they are not particularly concerned about their social media presence. if they are in the philippines or vietnam or brazil where there are large catholic communities taking this stuff really seriously, so they will take heed of that message, but i would suggest that they are giving up something already. i think this is the message from the pope speaking to bigger social concerns which is really quite common for him to have the concern for people's welfare generally. so you think his message is about the tone and the aggression and society generally? absolutely, and if you look at the overall theme

of his message, it isn'tjust give this up for lent, he was talking about peace and stepping away from the noise of contemporary society to find something a bit more contemplative, and that is a message that would ring true with buddhists, practitioners in mindfulness, this sense that we need to perhaps separate from the noise of contemporary society and some of the excesses and negative affect that that might have on people. professor andrew singleton of deakin university there. a secret doorway which is used during a 17th century royal coronation has been discovered in the house of commons. the entrance dates back more than 350 years and was rediscovered during work during the £4 billion restoration. for a long time we have known that there was some sort of doorway in

the wall of westminster hall, because there was a plaque but almost nothing was known about it. and then suddenly, i was doing some research and i discovered a really intriguing photograph of the interior of what looked like a chamber in the wall, and i've realised that it was just behind this doorway, so i'd became tremendously excited. this is the way that charles ii came on the way to his coronation, and alsojames ii, and it was also the main way through to the house of commons which was at the time, with saint stephen's hall now is, so this because of the house of commons will have come this way, many, many mps over the centuries, so it is a really historic route.

we realised the architect had been restoring this in early 19505 said he was thinking of putting an open panel and at, so we came and looked very carefully in detail at the panelling and we suddenly spotted this tiny keyhole and so the panel swung back and we went in and we think, for the first time since about 1952. i was awestruck because it shows the palace of westminster still has so many wonderful secrets to give up, and also the contents of this rather unassuming looking space are absolutely fascinating. for example, there is some graffiti on the wall which was put there by masons when they were walling it up in 1851 that showed that they had had a party with old ale, gives all their names and declares them to be true democrats. history was lost and now it is found in the fact that we have found it i think is quite amazing, the fact that we have

got graffiti, the builders have come in, had a bit of a jug of ale and it is about we've had some beer and a bit of history about themselves, and the fact that they decide to leave their mark, it is a mark of history that i really appreciate. there is always something new in this house. but if it has been secret for more than 350 years, how come they had a key? how about this for the ultimate convenience food? there is a lot of plant —based meat about but this is a big and steak made by three deep printer. it's creators say gives the end product not only the taste of a cut of beef but the same. it is not cheap, just the ingredients from one kilogram cost $30. the tea m from one kilogram cost $30. the team in barcelona say it is their dream for every cook to create customised food in their own kitchen. that is it for

now. thank you very much for watching. hello there. the next area of low pressure moving in will push into the south of the uk bringing a mixture of rain sleet and snow to parts of england and wales. some of this snow will be settling over the higher ground but may be sleet and wet snow down to low levels. likely to produce tricky driving conditions for the morning commute, crossing england and wales as i mentioned, the high ground which will see the settling snow so stay tuned to the weather forecast and your local radio if you head out. this is the culprit and this area of low pressure moving to the south of the uk on its northern way will encounter cold air. the m4 southwards generally should be rain but we will see snow on higher grounds of wales and towards the malvern hills and, for example, into the cotswolds. further north, clear and cold,

a couple of wintry showers and an early risk of ice. through the morning then that area of rain sleet and snow will push eastwards through the morning seeing some slushy deposits or some sleetiness across parts of the midlands, the northern home counties, over the chilterns and into east anglia but the whole thing will clear away by about lunchtime and the skies will brighten up with plenty of sunshine around so any light snow will be short lived. wintry showers across the north and it will be breezy and another chilly day temperatures ranging 6—9 degrees in the south. through thursday night, a few wintry showers continuing across scotland but a ridge of high pressure builds in and for many of us it should be dry with clear skies and turning cold with frost and some ice in places. you will see the temperature is beginning to rise across the south—west. that is because we have the next weather system moving in for friday and that will produce mild air to southern areas, quite a bit

of rain and strengthening wind. starting cold and bright across the north and the east and then that rain will spill up from the south—west and some snow on its leading edge across northern england to scotland and some settling snow on the hills but further south mainly rain and the temperature 10—11 degrees. any more rain here is very unwelcome. moving out of friday and into the weekend it looks like it remains unsettled. next front will spread a band of rain across the country and we could see a swathe of gales or severe gales, northern ireland, northern england and scotland late on saturday into sunday this next feature moves up from the south—west bringing more rain. it looks unsettled this weekend, quite windy at times particularly on saturday and we will see further rain in areas where we really don't need it so stay tuned to the forecast and head online to see all the latest weather warnings.

the latest headlines from bbc news:

president donald trump has been trying to calm fears over the spread of the coronavirus, telling the american people the risk remains very low. he's put vice president mike pence in charge of the response, and says of the 15 people diagnosed of the infection, only one remains in hospital. more new cases are outside china than inside. in italy, the number of cases has reached 400 and the virus has been detected in almost 40 countries. the world health organization says it's deeply concerned. the indian prime minister has called for calm as at least 27 people are killed in communal violence in delhi. the clashes first broke out over a controversial new citizenship law. crowds of mostly hindu men have been beating and burning, sending muslim residents fleeing homes and businesses. there are dead and injured on both sides.