this is bbc world news. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: the world health organization raises its assessment of the coronavirus threat to the highest level. we have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of covid—19 to very high. the virus causes another frantic day on global markets, hit with their worst week since the financial crisis. as the taliban and the us prepare to sign an interim deal, president trump urges afghans to seize the opportunity for peace. several actresses walk out of france's national film awards after roman polanski wins best director.

hello and welcome to bbc news. the world health organization has raised the global threat level from coronavirus to very high, the highest possible level of alert. they're planning to send a mission to iran next week. officials there say 3a people have died, but health sources have told the bbc the actual figure is more than 200. south korea has seen a sharp rise in the number of people contracting coronavirus. nearly 3,000 people have now been infected. 17 people have died. rich preston has this update. the number of countries reporting new incidents of covid—19 continues to rise. new zealand, lithuania and iceland are amongst the latest to confirm their first cases. the world health organization has upgraded the global risk of the virus to its highest possible level.

it calls for all countries to educate their populations, to expand surveillance, to find, isolate and care for every case, to trace every contact and to take an all of government and all of society approach. at least 210 people are reported to have died in iran as authorities there try to get control of the situation, friday prayers were cancelled for the first time in 40 cancelled for the first time in a0 yea rs. worldwide there have been more than 2500 deaths from this strain of coronavirus. italy continues to be europe's biggest cause for concern with 250 cases. several towns in the north of the country are still in lockdown. the united nations says each country needs to do its it. we know containment is possible, but the window of opportunity is narrowing, and so opportunity is narrowing, and soi opportunity is narrowing, and so i appeal for solidarity and full global support but with

all countries fully assuming their responsibilities. even north korea is taking action. it hasn't officially reported any cases but sources in south korea says the virus has been detected there. its border with china has been shut and schools are closed. north korea's leader, kim jong—un, has reportedly told his officials to strengthen checkups and quarantine. south korea has reported its biggest increase to date, nearly 600 new cases, taking the national toll to almost 3000. in the united states, a third case of community contagion. the number of infections across the country has passed 50. we haven't lost anybody yet and hopefully we can keep that intact. there have been no deaths in the united states at all. a lot of that's attributable to the fact we closed the border very early, otherwise it could be a different story. other countries that haven't yet had any confirmed cases of the virus are preparing,

bracing themselves for what is likely the inevitable. rich preston, bbc news. more on the situation in iran where, as we've heard in that report, the bbc has learned that more than 200 people have died from the virus — that's six times as many as the officialfigure. the health ministry has accused the bbc of spreading lies. but, as bbc persian‘s kasra naji explains, there are fears the government, unsure of how to handle the outbreak, is covering up the extent of the spread of the virus. we are getting reports that the spread of the virus is much more serious than what the government is admitting to. today we have managed to get a figure of 210 from our sources in iran, hospital sources in several cities where they say at least 210 people have been killed or have lost their lives because of the virus and that is almost more than six times the official figure of 3a that was given by the health minister at lunchtime today.

a source of concern is that the government is not quite sure how to handle the situation and also it does not have quite all the facilities or the kids that it needs to control it. on top of that we have the issue of religiosity, the issue of religious figures who do not want to close down their places of worship in iranfor example. frequenting the holy city of qom, the centre of a serious outbreak there and the religious authorities are still refusing to close down these main shrine there saying it is the people's religious duty to visit these places of worship and we cannot close them down.

so all that has added to each other to the extent that there is a lack of confidence in the government's ability to handle the situation and also the government's figures coming out from the health minister and others. we'll be looking at the impact the virus has had on the global economy a little later in the bulletin. president trump has urged afghanistan to seize an opportunity for peace. an agreement is to be signed in qatar on saturday in the presence of the us secretary of state, mike pompeo. this will set out a timetable for a phased withdrawal of us troops in return for security guarantees from the taliban. chief international correspondent lyse doucet looks ahead to the meeting. in this serene setting, history is being made. it would be wrong to call this agreement between the us and the afghan taliban a peace deal, but it is truly significant.

marking the end of what has been more than a year of difficult negotiations here in qatar over a phased and conditional pullout of us troops in exchange for taliban security guarantees. most of all, a promise that afghanistan will not be used again as a haven for extremist groups. but where there is a possibility of peace is when, if all goes as planned, two afghan delegations sit down and talk. one from the islamic republic of afghanistan, the other from the afghan taliban. it is a test of taliban commitments to move away from war, to seek political solutions. it is also a test of afghan leaders now bitterly divided. will they be able to stand together, to protect the real gains in afghanistan since the fall of the taliban in 2001? most of all, this agreement is a rare glimpse of hope in more than four decades of war. so for most afghans,

it is a risk joining me now for the latest on this is secunder kermani, our correspondent in kabul. secunder, is there optimism among afghan people that this can work? well, yes, i think there has been a sense of cautious optimism and that's really been building with a sense of hope over the past seven days as this reduction in violence that's been in place has passed off largely successfully. the taliban, afg ha n successfully. the taliban, afghan security forces and us led international forces have all promised not to launch major attacks against each other leading up to this assigning to create a kind of conducive atmosphere for peace and to build trust between their sides, so i think there's a recognition here amongst ordinary people that this is an historic occasion and they hope it will translate into a lasting peace. as my colleague lyse doucet was saying there,

this us taliban agreement alone won't do that stop the it's quite interesting to note that officials are not calling this a peace deal, but this agreement will set out a timetable for the withdrawal of american forces from afghanistan in exchange for guarantees from the taliban... in exchange for guarantees from the taliban to not allow groups like al-qaeda to operate in their territory, and for the taliban to start, for the first time, separate discussions with other afghan political leaders. they'll be talking about a broader ceasefire and the future political situation in the country and there will be other topics to tackle, what will happen to women's rights and democracy? secunder kermani, the agreement is obviously between the us and the taliban, there is no afghan government involved. yes, that's right. this agreement is between the us and the taliban. we are expecting later today a joint declaration between afghan officials and us

officials here, where the us will pledge ongoing support for afghanistan but really this agreement taking place in doha is the first phase of this process , is the first phase of this process, the second phase is yet to come and that will come when afghan political leaders, including those from the government, sit down with the taliban to discuss the future of the country and those discussions, one afghan official admitted to me, could ta ke yea rs official admitted to me, could take years and there are concerns there could be rain price to pay for afghans for peace being established. there could be rain roll back on some of the process no progress that's been made over the past two decades and there were fears the taliban could resort to violence during those negotiations, will they refrain? will this reduction in violence over the last week be extended? that's violence over the last week be extended ? that's one violence over the last week be extended? that's one of the key things many people here are waiting to find out. very interesting to see what happens in the coming days and beyond that. secunder kermani in kabul, thank you very much that. let's get some of

the day's other news: new zealand's prime ministerjacinda ardern has called australia's policy of deporting foreign nationals convicted of committing crimes corrosive. the comments were made at a heated news conference with her australian counterpart, scott morrison. australia has been deporting hundreds of people to new zealand, even though some left at a young age. the gare de lyon station in paris was partially evacuated after a large fire was inadvertently started by demonstrators. they were protesting against a congolese singer who was giving a concert nearby. they accuse fally ipupa of being too close to the congolese government. police say nobody appears to have been hurt. staying in paris, several actresses have walked out of france's biggest film awards ceremony after roman polanski won best director. polanski was convicted in the us of the statutory rape of a 13 year old in 1977 but fled the country. the cesar awards, france's equivalent of the oscars, have been mired in controversy after polanksi's film an officer and a spy received 12 nominations. he has since faced other accusations of sexual assault. alydia noble reports.

few awards provoke this sort of reaction, a walkout from the ceremony, but that's what happened when roman polanski won best director at the french oscars, the cesar. the 86—year—old had been a controversial nominee. he's been wanted in the united states for over a0 years after admitting to unlawful sex with admitting to unlawful sex with a 13—year—old girl and fleeing before sentencing. he hadn't shown up at the ceremony, fearing for his safety. and the protest outside before and during the ceremony left little doubt as to why. speaking before the event, the french culture minister voiced his concerns about whether mr polanski should win. translation: maybe he will win it, but then in my opinion that would be a bad message with

regard to the necessary awareness we should all have on the fight against sexual and sexist violence. it's important to find a way to say that even for a reputable oi’ say that even for a reputable or talented artist, there's no guarantee of impunity. the culture minister's view was shared by some prescience. translation: are no sexual violence exists and france has not really learned its lesson from the #metoo movement. this isn't the first time the cesar awards have faced controversy because of roman polanski, in 2015 he was picked to head up the awards this bestiary but later stood down after the move sparked outrage. —— awards' jury. the nomination of this film, an ofificer and gentleman, led to the... they bid to modernise the... they bid to modernise the organisation, which has long been accused of being too male with only 35% of its a600 members currently being female. alydia noble, bbc news.

stay with us on bbc news, still to come: how an argument with her neighbours led to eight years on death row — pakistani christian assia bibi recounts her ordeal in an interview with the bbc. first, the plates slid gently off the restaurant tables. then suddenly, the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards, and it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched onto her side. the hydrogen bomb. on a remote pacific atoll, the americans had successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i had heard the news earlier, and so my heart went bang, bang, bang! the constitutional rights of these marchers are their rights as citizens of the united states, and they should be protected even in the right

to test them out, so that they don't get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy — i know you don't want to say too much about it — but does it worry you that it's going to boil up when you get to the states? well, it worries me, yes, but i hope everything will be all right in the end, as they say. this is bbc news, our top story: the world health organisation has raised its assessment of the coronavirus threat to the highest level. us financial markets continued to fall dramatically on friday, following sharp declines on european and asian markets. investors are expecting the central banks to cut the cost of borrowing in the us, japan and other major economies. more from our business correspondent samira hussain. us financial market were battered in a way not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. the dowjones fell by

more than i2% this week although on friday trading was able to come back from a 1000 point lost to close only 350 points lower. wall street continues to worry about the coronavirus and if the increasing number of cases outside china pushes the deadly virus into an epidemic. the white house has been trying to calm nervous investors. the trump administration's national economic director says he does not believe the stock market plunge will have a long—term effect. the president himself spoke to reporters late on friday saying that some of these big drops can be attributed to investor fears of the unknown. earlier in the day, the us central bank, the federal reserve, released a statement saying the us economy remains fundamentally strong but if there is a need for the fed to step in, it will. traders interpreted that as a possible cut to borrowing

rates, something that other major economies are also considering. and there's special section of the bbc news website dedicated to the coronavirus outbreak, including a look at all the sporting events that are likely to be disrupted over the next few weeks because of health concerns. now onto the democratic race to take on donald trump in the 2020 election. former vice—presidentjoe biden has a lot riding on tomorrow's critical primary in south carolina. in order to stay competitive in this race he is counting on a resounding win. barbara plett—usher is in south carolina. this is biden country, south carolina — the southern state he cannot afford to lose. that's my neighbour. his loyal supporters are working overtime to make sure he wins. bernice scott and her reckoning crew trustjoe biden. y'all supposed to walk with some pep! his history with barack obama carries weight with them and other african—americans — the critical vote he needs here to stay in the race. hi, this is bernice scott, your neighbour. they think he's the best man to beat donald trump. yeah, we need everybody out forjoe biden.

this country needs someone who knows what's going on. he knows where the bones are buried. i think that if we do not elect someone like joe biden, it's gonna to be a lot more trouble than we think. cheering and applause. mr biden is getting a warm south carolina embrace but he's been the one in trouble. he has struggled for most of his campaign, outspent by his rivals, undone by his rambling rhetoric. the primary has become a make—or—break moment for him, so this was significant... i knowjoe. we knowjoe. but, most importantly, joe knows us. that's right. ..an endorsement from the state's godfather of democratic politics. but will the backing of the establishment be enough? one ofjoe biden‘s most serious challenges comes from bernie sanders, the left—wing frontrunner. he's been packing venues

and attracting black voters who think mr biden is no longer the man for the times. i just feel that bernie is something that will actually put change into the country instead of somebody who's just gonna, like, go with whatever is, like, happening in trends. like, he's always on the same topics, and that's why i like bernie more than biden, personally. do you think bernie can do well in biden country? um, i think so. i think he stands his own. i think he can stand by his own. so, yeah, i think so. i think a lot more people are on his side in this area than you think. really? especially younger people, yes. especially what? younger people. yeah. bernie sanders: bernie beats trump. cheering and applause. bernie sanders is looking for a a big boost in south carolina. he's getting a lot of love at this rally, butjoe biden has had a bounce back in the polls this week.

he'll need to win here to help him score victories on super tuesday, and he'll need to win big if he's to emerge as the moderate candidate to take on mr sanders. barbara plett usher, bbc news, columbia, north carolina. three former barclays executives have been cleared of fraud charges in the only criminal trial of senior bankers in the uk for events linked to the 2008 financial crisis. rogerjenkins, tom kalaris and richard boath were charged in connection with a £a billion investment deal with qatar, which enabled the bank to avoid being nationalised. the acquittal is a major blow to the serious fraud office which brought the case. in 2010 a christian woman from pakistan, asia bibi, was sentenced to death after being convicted for blasphemy after an argument with neighbours. she spent eight years in jail before her conviction was overturned. fears for her safety led her to flee to france. she spoke to my colleague mishal husain. the fury in pakistan just over a year ago as a woman sentenced to death for blasphemy was acquitted. asia bibi had been convicted on the flimsiest of evidence. now, she has broken her silence

about the nightmare that began when she was accused of insulting the prophet muhammad. translation: i was very scared. i couldn't even imagine something like this would happen to me. for a year and a half, i kept going to court. not once did the judge hear my side of the story. they sentenced me to death without letting me speak. asia told me she was working in the fields near her home in punjab province when a mob came to drag her away. her daughters, then aged eight and nine, saw it happen. they have since been reunited with their mother. it was so strange to see my husband and children after so long. i couldn't make sense of my emotions. but when i think about my daughters‘ childhood... i see them crying at being separated from me. that i cannot forget.

after international campaigns and eight years on death row, pakistan's supreme court dismissed the charges, but there are still christians and muslims being targeted by the blasphemy law. what would your message be to the government of pakistan? to prime minister imran khan, i say whenever something like this happens, it should be properly investigated. innocence should not be punished and innocent people jailed for this should be freed. in a statement, the government of pakistan told us it had taken considerable steps to prevent misuse of the blasphemy law, and that minorities are treated as equal citizens. this afternoon, asia bibi went

to meet president macron. she may be granted asylum here in france or in canada, but this period is one of huge adjustment for her. she told us she isn't sure yet what the future holds. mishal husain, bbc news, paris. scientists have detected evidence of a colossal explosion in space, five times bigger than anything observed before. the huge release of energy is thought to have emanated from a super—massive black hole some 390 million light years from earth. nina nanji reports. we know about the big bang, which scientists say was the start of the expansion of the universe. now comes evidence of a slightly smaller bang, but colossal nonetheless. in fact, the blast is thought to be five times bigger than anything astronomers have previously observed. it came from a supermassive

black hole hundreds of millions of light years away, leaving a giant dent in the ophiuchus galaxy cluster. researchers say it is hard to put the scale of the explosion into human terms. if this explosion continued to occur over the a0 million years of the outburst, which it probably wouldn't have done, but anyway, it would be like setting off 20 billion billion megaton explosions of tnt every thousandth of a second for the entire a0 million years. big, incomprehensively big. initially, scientists doubted the black hole explanation, because the cavity wasjust so big. but new low—frequency telescope data from australia and india seems to confirm the theory. if you think about the scales in terms of how big the cavity was that the black hole blew out from this, if for example if you or i were to burp right now in the uk, we would blow out a cavity in the earth's atmosphere that goes all the way from canada to the middle east. that would be the equivalent of the size that you would blow out if you could give out the same amount of energy that this black hole did.

now scientists are hoping that given the advancement of technology, this could be the first of many amazing discoveries from the universe. beatles fans will be familiar with this. it's the famous pedestrian crossing outside abbey road studios in london which featured on their 11th album, and you might recognise two of the faces — prince harry and jon bonjovi, along with two members of the invictus games choir, mimicking the fab four. the american rocker is re—recording one of his songs for harry's invictus charity. jon bon jovi quipped that he looked forward to working with the "artist formerly known as prince." you can reach me on twitter. i'm @sipusey.

hello. friday brought more rain to areas which didn't need it. another 10—15mm fell across shropshire. around a0mm of rain fell in around 12 hours in cardiff. meanwhile, across scotland, there's been further snow. and through the weekend, parts of the highlands could see another 20—30cm of snow, and all eyes this weekend are on this area of low pressure. this is storm jorge, which was named by the spanish met service. through the early hours of saturday morning, we will see further heavy, squally rain pushing its way eastwards, cold air tucking in behind. we could see icy conditions

across parts of northern ireland first thing on saturday. but the main focus this weekend is the strength of the wind. gales, if not severe gales, across a large swathe of the uk, gradually easing down through sunday. very wet and windy first thing across the eastern side of england. sunshine following. lots of showers pushing in from the west, likely to be wintry. it's very wet and windy across the northern isles through the afternoon. some more persistent rain and maybe some hill snow across northern england and into southern scotland. it's a cold day, particularly when you factor in the strength of the wind. so temperatures not much higher than 6—7 celsius in places and some gusty winds, quite widely a0—50 miles an hour, but through the afternoon, some really strong winds developing across parts of wales, northern england and into southern scotland, where they could gust up to 75 miles an hour, maybe even 80 miles an hour for some western coasts of scotland. and also some heavy, persistent rain for a time across northern england, southern scotland, northern ireland and also some snow once again over higher ground. through the early hours of sunday morning, we keep this focus of rain and hill snow across northern england and southern scotland. to the north and south of this, some clear spells, but squally, blustery showers. the strength of the wind should keep the frost at bay first

thing on sunday morning. so storm jorge slowly pulls away northwards through sunday. we're keeping an eye then on this feature here which will start to push some outbreaks of rain into south—east england through sunday morning. so two things to keep an eye on. the winds will be slowly easing down, but still some outbreaks of rain and snow across northern england and southern scotland. rain for a time perhaps across south—eastern england. we will need to keep an eye on the timings of that. then between all of this, there'll be some spells of sunshine, some wintry showers, the wind slowly easing down, but it's still a windy day. it's certainly still feeling cold, given the strength of the wind. but we start to lose those severe gales as we go through sunday. so it's a blustery day and for most, a mixture of sunshine and showers. and that's actually the theme into next week. it won't be as windy, it will be somewhat drier for a time. but still, some showers around. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the world health organization has

raised its assessment of the coronavirus threat to the highest level as more than 50 countries report infections, but the head of the organisation says there is still a chance to contain the virus if its chain of transmission can be broken. president trump has urged afghanistan to seize an opportunity for peace. us secretary of state mike pompeo is set to sign a deal with the taliban, setting out a timetable for a phased withdrawal of us troops in return for security guarantees. there've been angry scenes outside france's most prestigious film awards, the cesars, after roman polanski, a convicted rapist, won best director for his film an officer and a spy. more than 100 women's rights activists clashed with police near the paris venue. heavy downpours are expected to bring more flooding across england and wales as another weekend storm is expected tomorrow. up to 80mm of rain is expected

to fall when storm jorge