the ridge of high pressure across the south which would be good news. perhaps wednesday and thursday looking drier. warnings on the website. this is bbc news. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: a moment of history — the united states and the taliban sign a deal that it's hoped will end 18 years of war in afghanistan the us sees its first death from the coronavirus, but donald trump calls for calm and says everything possible is being done. we've taken the most aggressive actions to confront the coronavirus. they are the most aggressive taken by any country. polls close in south carolina's crucial primary, where democratic party supporters have been choosing their party's pick to take on trump. one of britain's most senior civil servants quits and says he'll sue the government, accusing the home secretary of

a vicious bullying campaign. hello and welcome to bbc news. the united states and the taliban have signed an historic agreement which could see thousands of american troops withdraw from afghanistan in the next 1a months. as part of the deal, signed in qatar, the taliban must begin peace talks with the afghan government and break with al-qaeda. our chief international correspondent lyse doucet reports. they fought the world's mightiest army, but today they sat together. old enemies shaking hands on a deal. the first step towards ending america's longest war. a glimpse of hope that afghanistan can finally move towards peace. but the us‘ top diplomat says

that is up to the taliban. first, keep your promises to cut ties with al-qaeda and other terrorists. keep up the fight to defeat isis. welcome the profound relief of all afghan citizens, men and women, urban and rural, as a result of this past week's massive reduction in violence, and dedicate yourselves to continued reductions. but for the taliban, today was a victory march. there is no doubt that you won the war. there is no doubt. otherwise, the foreign forces have not come to afghanistan. what would you say to those now who fear the return of the taliban? they should not fear. because the government which will come after this, will be acceptable to all in afghanistan. watching from the sidelines in kabul, an afghan government shut out of this deal. the taliban refused to talk to it. today, the nato chief and us defence secretary also sent

them a message. they are still standing shoulder to shoulder with their afghan allies and their troops won't start leaving until peace talks start. but this is a different country from the dark days of brutal taliban rule. in doha, one deal is done. making peace will be much harder. history is being made in this moment. this is not a peace deal, but it is a significant step forward and for all the uncertainty and scepticism, afghans know this is their best chance to move towards peace in a very long time. but they worry about a us rush to the exit. especially in an election year, when president trump wants to bring his troops home. lyse doucet, bbc news, doha. we'll have more on the

challenges facing that deal between the us and the taliban, later in the programme. the state of washington in the us has declared a state of emergency after reporting the country's first death from the coronavirus. health authorities say the victim was a man in his 50s. earlier, president trump said the victim was a woman. he also said additional cases were likely, but healthy people should not be badly affected. rich preston has this report. the man was one of two patients who were confirmed to have the disease at a hospital in seattle, in the us state of washington. all the visuals they have now declared a state of emergency. at a press conference at the white house, president trump said there was no reason to panic. additional cases in the united states are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover

and we think that will be a statement that we can make with great surety now that we have got this problem. it comes after confirmation that three people in the us contracted the virus from within their communities. the world health organization says the total number of confirmed cases in the us is 62. worldwide there are more than 85,500 cases. in the worst hit part of south korea, the army has been drafted in to disinfect public spaces. france, which has more than 100 confirmed cases, as bad gatherings of more than 5000 people as part of efforts to tackle the spread of the disease —— band. italy has extended the closure of schools and universities. recent countries to announce their first cases include qatar and ecuador. the virus was first reported at the end of december last year. reported at the end of december last yea r. efforts reported at the end of december last year. efforts to develop a vaccine are ongoing, but there

is no clear idea of when one may be available and how easy it would be to roll one out on such a huge global scale. rich preston, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. voters in slovakia have handed a resounding victory to the centre right, anti—corruption olano party, according to exit polls. the country's general election has been dominated by public anger over the 2018 murder of a journalist who was probing corruption. the olano, party has taken around a quarter of the vote, ahead of nearly 15% for the governing smer centre left party which has been in powerfor over a decade. french prime minister, edouard philippe, has said he'll use a special parliamentary measure to pass into law proposed reforms to the pension system. the reforms have prompted nearly three months of strikes and protests. opposition deputies tried to block the bill's passage through the national assembly by tabling more than 40,000 amendments — a move which the president's supporters called a deliberate strategy of obstruction.

there is no evil, a film by the iranian director mohammed rasoulof, has won this years top prize at the berlin film festival. the film, made up of four stories, explores how individualfreedom can be expressed under an authoritarian regime. the director is currently banned from travelling by the iranian authorities. mr rasoulof is banned from travelling by the iranian authorities and was unable to collect the award in person. to the democratic race to take on donald trump in the 2020 election. former vice presidentjoe biden has a lot riding on the critical primary in south carolina. in order to stay competitive in this race he is counting on a resounding win — and particularly among the significant number of african american voters. i asked our correspondent, barbara plett usher, if a win forjoe biden would make him a contender again.

well, it certainly means that he will be a contender in the race at this point, because his campaign has been so shaky he hasn't really had much of an impact. he's not really won a contest of the previous three ones, he has to have a big showing here to at least a viable. and his campaign has recovered, somewhat, in the past week. they are feeling more confident about his prospects. we had a strong debate performance. he was endorsed by james clyburn, debate performance. he was endorsed byjames clyburn, the most senior democrat in south carolina. the exit poll show that has had an impact, people said they were influenced by that. he is hoping for notjust a win but a really convincing win to give him a big bounce into those crucial super tuesday votes next week when 1a different states road at once. he wants to be able to present himself will come through that is the most viable alternative to the frontrunner, bernie sanders. so that's what he is hoping to achieve. and this is where he is hoping to give a victory speech later on tonight. just briefly, you

mentioned bernie sanders, what does this particular race in for him in south carolina? well, he's bowling second place right now, but he is the man to beat, because he is the frontrunner overall and he has been drawing and big crowds both here and elsewhere. so he wa nts both here and elsewhere. so he wants this race to give him as much momentum as possible also going into super tuesday where it is looking like he could have a strong performance. again, mr biden is hoping that if he does well here we will be able to slow down that momentum. barbara plett usher there. one of britain's most senior civil servants, sir philip rutnam, has dramatically resigned as permanent secretary at the home office. he told the bbc it follows what he called a "vicious and orchestrated" campaign against him, and says he's suing the government for constructive dismissal. sir philip's resignation comes after persistent reports of a rift between him and the home secretary, priti patel. our political editor, laura kuenssberg reports. you're not meant to have heard of him. permanent secretaries are the backroom bosses of the government machine.

but this rainy saturday morning became a personal and a public storm for him. in the last ten days, i have been the target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign. it has been alleged that i have briefed the media against the home secretary. this, along with many other claims, is completely false. the home secretary categorically denied any involvement in this campaign to the cabinet office. i regret, i do not believe her. she has not made the effort i would expect to dissociate herself from the comments. priti patel has made no effort to engage with me to discuss this. i believe that these events give me very strong grounds to claim constructive, unfair dismissal and i will be pursuing that claim

in the courts. priti patel is known as a straight talker, but denied doing anything wrong when whispers about her behaviour made their way to the press in recent days. are you a workplace bully, home secretary? but there are now demands for an enquiry, with herformer top official taking the government to court and listing the accusations against her in public. i have received allegations that her conduct has included shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands, behaviour that created fear and needed some bravery to call out. sir philip's time in charge was not without problems. the home office, a notoriously tricky part of government. you've probably already read a great deal more about permanent secretaries in the last few days than you ever expected to... but an exit like this is serious and highly unusual. the prime minister has to get a grip on this and notjust allow this chaos to continue. you have to have a positive functioning relationship between civil servants who work

immensely hard to deliver and also ministers who need to show leadership and be held to account. tensions between ministers and officials are nothing new, but this exit is on a different scale. there's no sense from number 10 at the moment that there will be consequences for priti patel and they have made no secret of the fact that they want to change things and they are not afraid of ruffling feathers, but there is a difference between decisiveness and dysfunction and ultimately this government, any government, needs the civil service to get things done. this has been a very difficult decision. but i hope that my stand may help in maintaining the quality of government in our country. sir philip, do you think that priti patel is fit for office? he will say no more for now. but for the government's opponents, sir philip's decision to go public speaks volumes alone. laura kuenssberg, bbc news.

stay with us on bbc world news. still to come: tension on the turkey—greece border, after the turkish president said he would allow migrants to cross into europe. 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, the latest headlines: the united states and the taliban have signed a historic agreement in doha which may eventually lead to the withdrawal of american troops from afghanistan. michael kugelman is deputy director of the asia programme at the woodrow wilson centre in washington. he says this should be seen as a landmark deal. this is the closest that afghanistan has been to launching a formal peace

process. they have been so many false starts, so many u nsuccessful efforts false starts, so many unsuccessful efforts to false starts, so many u nsuccessful efforts to lau nch some type of process to bring a deal between the us and the taliban, resulting in the opportunity to launch a peace process but that has not happened until now so this is an agreement. it is in perfect but it is historic. it has been a19 but it is historic. it has been a 19 year while since going and in 2001 for the us. is this an acknowledgement that they have lost? i do not think so but i think a key us objective is to project this deal is something very different from a surrender. plenty of people in afghanistan means that the us has no interest in staying in afghanistan and simply wants to let the taliban and the afghan government work things out so thatis government work things out so that is why i think it was

important for secretary of state mike pompeo that the us remains committed to working with afghanistan and be involved into this dialogue expected to start. the key aspect of this deal is also that all us troops will leave afghanistan in 1a months but only if the taliban uphold its commitments. it is not going to abandon afghanistan and the afg ha n abandon afghanistan and the afghan people, the us. you talk about the taliban needed to uphold its commitment. do you think the taliban will? will we see this troop withdrawal? this isa see this troop withdrawal? this is a big question. in terms of the commitment from the taliban, the us is looking to sever all its ties with all international terror groups. it sets out what the taliban needs to do in terms of not providing shelter or training to terror groups. how do you and monitor,

how to impose mechanisms ensure the taliban is indeed cutting off all ties with international terror groups? that is what many people want to know. reportedly there are some secret aspects of the agreement that have not been made public and maybe these things have been laid out. but how will these efforts from the taliban to cut off ties with terrorist is the key question. president erdogan of turkey says he has "opened the door" for refugees to travel to europe from turkey, as his country could no longer handle new waves of people fleeing syria. the decision has led to a rise in migrants and refugees trying to cross into greece. greek police have fired teargas at crowds near its border with turkey. our correspondent orla guerin is in greece, on the kastanyes border crossing.

greek border police are in position with riot shields and they have been holding the line, preventing anybody from getting through. we are basically in no man's land between greece and turkey and the crowd has been building in the crowd has been building in the last few hours. from hundreds to more than a thousand. we have matt people from iran, syria, afghans, people with many young children, women with babes in arms. the smell of teargas has been hanging in the air. people say they have no water, no food. many slept outside overnight in the biting cold, exposed to the elements. we have seen them building fires today to try and keep warm. the president wants to build pressure on europe and the turkish leader says the could

be more refugees to come. turkey has been sheltering almost 4 million series for the past few years and that is a huge burden to any economy but the people here are also being used as leverage. they are being used as a bargaining chip. with the opening of turkey's sea border, migrants have also been braving the perilous crossing across the mediterranean sea. inflatable boats carrying people trying to reach europe have continued to arrive on the greek island of lesbos, the scene of recent clashes between locals and police over the construction of new migrant camps. thousands of people have marched through the centre of moscow, to mark five years since the prominent kremlin critic, boris nemtsov, was murdered. the march is the first major opposition gathering since president putin announced a plan to overhaul russia's constitution, which many believe is meant to allow him to stay in power indefinitely. our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford reports from the march.

five years after boris nemtsov was murdered here in moscow, a big crowd has come out in his memory. as you can see, some people have brought flowers where they plan to leave in the spot where boris nemtsov was shot, a few metres from the kremlin. carrying photographs of boris nemtsov and also quotes of boris nemtsov and also q u otes of of boris nemtsov and also quotes of things he said, thinks he has stood for, freedom, freedom of speech, freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of election, freedom for the right to choose their future. boris nemtsov was a very well—known in the opposition here in russia and many people solve his murder is a blow against democracy. —— saw. a lot of young people at the protest. this group

shutting the change. a lot of people representing those that calling physical prisoners, protesters and others who are in prison now. any people here saying unfairly. the government does not see resistance, that means they can go forward with political repression and i think politically active people, young people, they perfectly understand this. people have come out here with their own courses as well. this group has been demonstrating against changes to the constitution that president putin has initiated and they believe they would let him stay in power forever. what believe they would let him stay in powerforever. what is believe they would let him stay in power forever. what is the biggest message you are trying to send with this much today? we are trying to say no to putin. we are trying to say no to all the negative things that are happening to us for the last 20 years because of this

power which never changes. lots of people have started making their way here, from the protest to the spot on the bridge where boris nemtsov was actually murdered and where volu nteers actually murdered and where volunteers have been keeping the shrine, guarding at night and day since that moment for some people have brought flowers to lay at the spot saying that they remember boris nemtsov and what he stood for. britain has been battered by another winter storm, storm jorge. weather warnings are now in place from cornwall to the north of scotland and across to northern ireland for snow, ice, wind or rain, alongside around 100 flood warnings. in east yorkshire, people evacuated because of severe flooding still can't go back to their homes. from there, olivia richwald reports residents in the village of east cowick were rescued by canoe today as efforts to alleviate flooding in east yorkshire moved into their fifth day. we thought we would wait,

because this is totally unprecedented and then, at god knows what time of the morning, bang, bang, bang, we heard, you've got to get out. so, here we are. residents sandbagged their homes and environment agency pumps tried to prevent more homes from being inundated. it has been the wettest february since records began. pictures filmed on a drone show flooding up to the roof of kevin and catherine laurieman's bungalow in the town of snaith. it has just been heartbreaking. we are going to have to demolish, i think. so, that has gone. we are up to the gutter line, as you have said. and, you know, i can't even explain. where i am standing is half a mile from the nearest river. this area is called the wash lands and these fields are designed to flood, but this time the sheer amount of water just overwhelmed the man—made defences and flooded the town and now, there is nowhere for that water to go. the environment agency has more than 100 staff working

in the area. unfortunately, the levels got so high in the wash lands, they have actually over topped some of those barrier bags which is why we have had the flooding here. so, while things have operated as designed, we need to find out exactly why this happened and what we can do in the future. volunteers in snaith are providing hot meals, tea and coffee and donations of food and clothes. after weeks of flooding across the country and, with more weather warnings in place this weekend, the kindness of communities could well be called on again. olivia richwald, bbc news, snaith. we all have a story about our strangest day at work. for one australian vet, it came in the form of a snake that made a poor lunch choice, trying to swallow an entire beach towel. dr olivia clarke has told the bbc how she saved the jungle carpet python's life.

never have i seen or even heard ofa never have i seen or even heard of a snake eating a towel. we gotan of a snake eating a towel. we got an endoscope, a tube with a camera at the end, down through to the tract. through the endoscope we took out the tell and we were able to gently pull the towel out. it looks like it happened quite fast in the video but it actually took us a long time to get the towel out. a lot of steady traction while being gentle enough not to cause any damage but strong enough to get the towel out. it took us about half an hour to get the teller. at the end we we re get the teller. at the end we were all really happy. it was an amazing feeling. you don't go to work thinking, today i am going to pull a beach towel out of any animal's stomach.

not for the fainthearted. what a brave woman. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of my team on twitter — i'm at reged ahmad bbc we have seen the rainfall from storm jorge compounding the flood issue. it is still producing some very large gust of wind as well more hours of that to come through sunday morning. those gusts of wind likely to cause travel disruption but could also bring down power lines and trees as well as well as that we have the rain.

clearly going to be icy where we have the snow. the rent by the afternoon starting to ever way. maintaining the strength. it will make it feel chilly. for the start of march barely double figures. below par the temperatures for the start of the spring. this area of rain a concern through the night as it comes across through southern parts. it could give a splattering of snow for the downs and gentlemen ‘s. making things slippery. a cold night

on the cloud with widespread frost. we clear that away but it takes its time. a smattering of snow. the showers following with cold air means it will be wintry. the rents will not be as strong however. as we take that low pressure away on monday, another one rushing into was southern areas and that could be our next dollop of rain. potentially need to keep an eye on it. it looks as the if the low pressure will dominate. for most of the week temperatures will be lower than they should. it is a bit of a showery picture with the occasional risk of some lengthy rain. warnings on the website.

this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump says it's time for american soldiers to come home from afghanistan after the us signed an agreement with the militant group, the taliban. he said the us had committed to withdraw 5,000 troops by may and that he would meet taliban leaders in the nearfuture. the president's also urging calm after coronavirus claimed its first life on us soil. he said more cases were likely but that the country was well prepared. the victim who was in his fifties, was being treated in hospital in washington state and is said to have had underlying health conditions. joe biden is expected to be handed a major boost in the democratic race to take on donald trump in november's election. networks in the us are projecting the former vice—president will win south carolina's primary. it'll be a welcome result after poor performances in the race so far.