welcome to bbc news. lam iamjames i am james reynolds. our top stories: italy is preparing emergency measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak, which could stop people entering or leaving the worst effected regions. all passengers stuck on board a huge cruise ship, moored off the californian coast, are being tested for the coronavirus. a building used as a quarantine centre collapses. frescoes are looking for survivors. clashes under the turkish border as what a canon as migrants try to get into greece.

hello and welcome to bbc news. the italian government says it will adopt emergency measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. it comes after over 1200 new cases were reported in italy, in the last 2a hours — the biggest daily rise in cases since the outbreak started. officials say 36 more people have died in the last 2a hours. the authorites are preparing a major escalation of controls, blocking all but emergency travel to and from the entire region of lombardy, including the city of milan. the decree would also extend to eleven northern and eastern provinces, as well as the cities of parma and venice. the measures will see schools closed for several weeks, along with all museums, swimming pools and ski resorts. the number of cases in lombardy is already causing problems for hospitals. some are running out of spare beds, according to the head of the civil protection agency. translation: lombardy, as you know, is facing a tense

situation in its hospitals. we expect that we will be asked to transfer patients to intensive care services in other regions. we will win this battle, this war, if our fellow citizens adopt responsible behaviour. we have to change our way of life, especially those persons who are in the fragile category, and at risk. a professor of political philosophy is in italy and told me what he made of the government's decision. to be honest, because i teach political philosophy, i am the first to criticise the government but, in this case, i must be honest, they are doing what is right to do, the right things to do. probably, they have got some problems and they

are not have got some problems and they a re not clever have got some problems and they are not clever in timing went to spread the news, to spread the new laws and new policies but, for the policies in themselves, i think that it is themselves, i think that it is the right thing to do. how have you changed your life? have you had to stop shaking hands, kissing people hello and goodbye? exactly because it is recommended not to shake hands, not to touch each other, not to hug and, to be honest, for italians, it is a real sacrifice because of us it is very spontaneous to touch, to communicate by hands. we are touching people, as you say in your country. when you see someone now your country. when you see someone now and your country. when you see someone now and you your country. when you see someone now and you want to shake their hands, what do you do? it is an interesting joke because, normally,

instinctively you do it. so we hope one of the two remembers not to do it and we start to touch the feet, the shoes, like young people they do now. professor, how long do you think the country can live like this? this is a very difficult question because the scientific stuff of the government, of course, they are not able to forecast exactly the period. i suppose, but it is just a thought that i have notjust watching, probably another couple of weeks we will be in this situation. professor, thank you very much forjoining us. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you to you. rescue workers are working through the night in the city of quanzhou

have rescued three people from the rubble. it is thought 70 people were in the building. it is still unclear by it collapsed. joining me from hong kong is our bbc reporter danny vinson. what we know, over the last few minutes, writers have broken the news that two people have been confirmed to have died in this tragic collapsed building. we know that the building. we know that the building was used as a quarantine area for people that had been in close contact with those that were patients of the coronavirus but, as of the early hours of this morning, the rescue workers working through the night, we saw images on chinese social media, of workers pulling bodies, sometimes on stretchers, out of the rubble. what we do know now, there are two confirmed deaths. we have seen many

existing buildings used as quarantine centres and many temporary structures being built to house patients stop in general, other concerns about the safety of some of these existing and new structures in china? as we know, many parts of china's economy is built on infrastructure works. 0n social media, there are many people criticising the construction work of this building. do not know exactly why it collapsed but here in china many people call this time of building a cold tofu construction and criticise the shoddy construction work. many people concerned about why this building collapse and what it might mean for other buildings. as of right now we do not know exactly why this building has collapsed. thank you so much. in the united states, the number of deaths from coronavirus is now 19.

passengers on board a cruise ship stranded off the coast of california say the process of testing everyone on board has started. they're preparing for a number of days, or even weeks in isolation. from san francisco, sophie long reports. a large, empty berth. this is where the grand princess should have docked today. instead, it remains stranded off the coast of california, the lives of those on board left in limbo. when we get moved to this facility, we will all be tested and those who do not test positive may be able to leave. we are trusting in god with this one. something good will come out of this. we don't know what it is and i'm going to test negative and get to go home and get some treatment. testing kits lowered onto the cruise ship revealed 21 people on board had coronavirus. 21 people on board have coronavirus.

confirmation they were at risk of catching the virus that has killed thousands around the world came from news channels, not the ship's captain. you may have heard this on the news by the media already and we apologise, but we were not given advance notice of this announcement by the us federal government. it would have been our preference to be the first to make this news available to you. these individuals will be notified of the test results as quickly as possible. michelle bissell‘s motherjackie is aboard with her friend margaret. both women are in their 70s. michelle wants the government to act quickly and bring them home. when they were told that there were 21 cases of the coronavirus on the ship and most of them were staff, that is when reality hit last night and she was very, very tearful on the phone. the ships medical crew say they are working to address urgent health needs, and one person may have to be airlifted to hospital. they have come closer to shore

to make it easier to get supplies on board but, ultimately, thousands of people still have no idea where they are going or when they will get there. the us vice president mike pence has held talks with leaders of the cruise line industry. he said they were tracking another ship that had shared crew with the grand princess. mr pence also announced there would be strict measures in place for dealing with cruise ships. today we reached an agreement with the cruise line industry to further enhance entry and exit screening. and also to establish shipboard testing for the coronavirus. new quarantining standards will be co—ordinated with the cdc for all ships, and we also will be working with the industry, as they develop a plan to move any patients that contract the coronavirus, or otherwise become seriously ill, to land—based facilities.

for the first time someone has tested positive in washington, dc. a man who is in his 50s, a dc. a man who is in his 50s, a dc resident, started exhibiting symptoms in late february. presented and was admitted to a dc hospital on march fifth. at this point, he appears to have no history of international travel and no close contacts with a confirmed case. he remains hospitalised. president trump said he had no plans to cancel any trump said he had no plans to cancelany campaign trump said he had no plans to cancel any campaign rallies. we will have tremendous rally and we are doing very well and we have done a fantasticjob with respect to that virus. we have had tremendous cooperation with other countries and all over the world and we have made it

very tough, very strong. the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan has ordered its countries coastguard to prevent people from crossing because of the danger they face. but pressure continues at turkey's northern land border with greece where thousands of young men, some fleeing the violence in northern syria attempting to cross the border. the land route into europe is blocked. as they approach turkey's border fence with greece, hopeful migrants are met be volleys of tear gas from police. frustrated but desperate to get across, groups of young men, predominantly from afghanistan, pakistan, and iran, try forcing away through to better life. sirens wail. water cannon, though, is used to drive them back. the message from the european union's foreign policy chief has been to avoid moving to a closed door, and greece is enforcing that with

every means they can. we are going to the metro station and they are giving us tickets, because it's service now. and no—one is telling us anything like gendarmerie, police, it's no problem now. so we had to just wait. if they open the door, then we have to cross the border. if not, we have to go back to istanbul. the stand—off at the greek—turkish border reflects a deeper impasse between the two countries. last week, ankara announced it would no longer prevent migrants crossing into europe. greece vowed not to let the migrants in. it's now moving to tighten security along the 140km border, saying turkey has orchestrated the crisis, using the migrants as geopolitical pawns. turkey, in turn, accuses greece of endangering lives and violating its own and international laws on asylum.

in between the two positions, and caught in a no—man's—zone, migrants cannot move forwards into greece, and turkey says they won't be letting them back. david campanale, bbc news. stay with us, still to come: why the right not enough candidates in upcoming mayoral elections in france. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 2a hours then the soviet union lost an elderly sick leader and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years his junior. we heard these gunshots in the gym. then he came out through a fire exit and started firing at our huts. god, we were all petrified.

james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. paul, what's it feel like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much do you think? i don't know really. i've never been married before. this is bbc news. the headlines: the italian government's preparing emergency measures against coronavirus which, it's reported, will prevent people entering or leaving the entire region of lombardy. all the passengers stranded on a cruise ship moored off california have started being tested for the virus.

let's get more on the outbreak now. dean of the national school of tropical medicine doctor peter hassan joins me now. it is said to be the most frightening disease a doctor has ever encountered so how would you see it. there are certain elements which are worrisome. we know for instance that this is quite a contagious virus and by some estimates, based on calculations from data from wuhan in central china, it is 2— three times more contagious than influenza, which is a pretty inflections disease to begin with so —— infectious disease to begin with and it also has high mortality rates among certain age groups, especially those over the age of 70, where we are seeing 10— 15% mortality rates, 10— 15% dying after infection. so it is really that

combination. it is not like for insta nce combination. it is not like for instance a bowler which is highly lethal with a 50% mortality but it is not very contagious at all, unless you are taking care of a dead or dying macro patient —— dead or dying ebola patient. it will spread very quickly and is really causing a lot of damage, especially in the older population and we have identified, since we have now started to see this epidemic began in the us, among other groups as well. including healthcare professionals, groups as well. including healthca re professionals, and that in itself has the ability to be highly destabilising. if we have large segments of the healthcare workforce put out of commission. so that combination i think makes this very serious infectious disease indeed. talking healthcare workers, how are they protecting themselves at the moment? well, there are established methods we have for

doing that so it is expensive and it requires extra equipment and it requires extra equipment and we call it ppe, personal protective equipment. and because it is a highly contagious, you have to have a fully geared up healthcare workforce, ready in places such as emergency departments or in clinics or in places where you are likely to encounter large numbers of individuals. and then you also need the adequate facilities for conducting a diagnosis and we have had difficulty scaling up the availability of diagnostic kits so availability of diagnostic kits so all of those things have to be put into place and it is not easy. when you are dealing with a new virus pathogen, to scale up a new virus pathogen, to scale up so quickly for a large country. what kind of new technology might we need to fight the virus? well, i think right now we have a diagnostic kit that we are rolling out for

the healthcare workforce to use among potentially infected individuals but it is still a bit cumbersome because you have two send the test of your lab, often times it is a reference lab, and you are not getting it immediately —— you have to. i think we're going to need is a version 2.0, second—generation test which is a rapid test that you can get the answer right away and i do not see it coming down the pike anytime immediately so that is an urgently needed technology. we certainly need new antiviral drugs to treat those who are seriously ill, especially the populations we are discussing, older individuals but also we have noticed and this is a medical mystery, the healthcare workforce, when they do become infected, there are about 1000 and wuhan who became info, they tend to get sicker than the ordinary population and we do not quite understand why, and it has not been confirmed but it has not been confirmed but it looks as though 15% in wuhan

we re it looks as though 15% in wuhan were not only ill but seriously ill, which is higher than you may expect for the age group and often times, in intensive ca re and often times, in intensive care units, whether it was due — first of all we do not know if that was reproducible elsewhere but second, if it is true, then you have the potential situation where you are going to have colleagues taking care of colleagues in intensive care units and that, you can imagine how destabilising it is. so all of these features and that with these features and that with the unknown, how likely and extensive this virus spreads, combined to create a lot of concern. combined to create a lot of concern . professor combined to create a lot of concern. professor peter hotez, thank you very much forjoining us. thank you very much forjoining us. thanks so much for having us. us. thanks so much for having us. a reminder that you can find more on all of our stories plus the latest information about the coronavirus, including what you can do to avoid it on our website. this guide on how to stay safe goes through basic steps like hand washing and how to spot the symptoms of the disease. sunday

marks international women's day. violence has been affecting many women, and in particular in mexico. femicide has lifted nearly 1a0% there in the past five years. 0ne musician has written a song that demands an end to the murder of women. let's have a listen. sings in spanish. america bbc‘s editor candice piette has given me more information about women violence. absolutely, it has become a very strong issue, a very political one. we have seen enormous protests over the last couple of years, last year, because of

the murder of two women by police officers, a couple of weeks ago the abduction of a 7—year—old girl and her murder. and so, mexican women have been really taking to the streets and this is becoming a very thorny issue for the president, andres manuel lopez 0brador, who has been quite prickly about his response to this whole issue. although he says he is a feminist, half of his cabinet are women, women do not feel he is really taking control of the situation with those very high femicide figures there. what has he said about tackling that rate — i read it in the introduction — a rise of 1a0% in recent years? very high, but he is pretty left wing. he thinks this should be tackled within the structure of trying to tackle poverty and violence across mexico so women feel that they need a particular — that the issue should to be addressed particularly for them. that's mexico. let's look at other countries where women possibly have been breaking through. yes, there's been a breakthrough in chile. we have seen large protests on social inequality in chile

for a couple of years now. they have been raging and raging, in fact, since last december, and this sparked a feminist song and dance routine which went viral. in english, called rapist in your path. we have seen this in performance now in mexico, colombia, spain, france, across the world, even in the us. and it is trying to draw attention to the complicity of governments in allowing high levels of violence against women. but earlier this week, the president sebastian pinera signed a law passing — expanding the punishment forfemicide from 15 years to life, so there has been some breakthrough there. and argentina has its own movement? it's own movement, connected to the #metoo movement, called #miracomonosponemos. you will recognise it from the green bandannas that they wear

and it is a very large, it is mobilised hundreds of thousands of people on femicide but also on abortion and there too, some breakthroughs with the new argentina president, he has listened to them and he says he will send a bill to congress on the abortion issue this month. seven days from now, local elections will begin taking place across france. thousands of councillors and officials will be hoping to keep theirjobs. but there is a growing trend that's affecting more and more towns across the country — elections where there are no candidates. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. patrick has been the mayor here for 1h years. not for much longer, though. he has decided to call it quits. but finding the next mayor is proving to be difficult. it seems no—one wants the job.

translation: there may be a lack of political commitment but there is above all, the reality of working life. the realitie which mean that people still give priority to their professional future over the commitment that it takes to be elected in a small commune. this is happening all across france. by some estimates, there are at least 100 towns or communes where they are struggling to find a single mayoral candidate. it is a familiar story of rural decline. people abandoning the countryside, heading to the cities. and that means a lot of work for those left behind. translation: when you are elected from a rural commune, you have to be a mechanic, a psychologist, a financial advisor and other things. you are at the service

of the people. for these areas, this is the end of an era. out with the old and in with the... well, who knows? another town in france looking for leadership, looking for a future. tim allman, bbc news. finally, let's bring you some good news from china, where a baby who was diagnosed with coronavirus has been discharged from hospital in hoon and province. it is unusual for young children to contract coronavirus and the baby who was diagnosed with covid—19 five days after birth had been receiving treatment for the last month. it has now been returned to its parents. they have also recovered from the virus and they were discharged themselves two weeks earlier, along with another four members of the same family, who had also tested positive for the virus. more on our website. i'm

on twitter at @jamesbbcnews. please stay with us. hello. saturday brought contrasting weather fortunes across the british isles, the south and east. dry for the most part, further north and west. it turned out to be a pretty wet and windy sort of day. notjust on the coast either. much of that brought about by this weather front, which, through sunday, takes relatively mild air over towards the continent, leaves us with something slightly fresher. the isobars begin to open up a touch, but there's still a fair few of them, so it's a brighter today, yes, but there will be a scattering of showers. no great organisation about them, i suspect, the heaviest of them perhaps out towards the west and a few more of them as well. but the temperatures just falling back a degree or two from the lofty heights of saturday. and we get into a showery regime to finish of the week,

—— and we get into a showery regime to finish off the week, but the monday and the tuesday, they look to be mild and wet and windy. and for all of that, you have to look quite a way out into the atlantic, but with time, so that system works its way towards the western side of the british isles. monday starts off dry enough, don't be fooled. northern ireland, you cloud up in the morning and here comes that wind and rain and then that pushes into the west of scotland widely across the west of england, through wales and really quite heavy rain in there. and it's driest for longest yet again further towards the east, both in the north—east of scotland and eastern side of england. you get to see the wind and rain there later on in the day on monday. and then just when you hope that the frontal system will move away, itjust kinks a wee bit there, so we keep the cloud and the rain for the greater part of england and wales. for scotland and northern ireland, something a little bit brighter, but there are plenty of showers to be had across the north and west of scotland on what is going to be a blustery day right across the piste, but that front really makes a difference, because across central

and southern areas, look at this, 15, 16, possibly 17 degrees. it's not overly cold further north, but you are closer to 8 to about 12 degrees or so because the air is coming in from just south of west and we keep it coming from that sort of direction through wednesday. but the weather front will have moved away, taking the very mildest of the air with it. brighter skies, therefore, for many of us on wednesday, but still with a packet of showers across many northern and western areas. much drier, brighter prospect, though, further east, but notjust as mild as was the case was for some of you during the course of tuesday. the second half of the week, as i say, the temperatures just begin to dribble away. no more than 17, but not bad for the time of year.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the italian government is preparing to introduce radical new restrictions in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus. in a draft published in the italian press, the restrictions could include preventing all but emergency travel in and out of the worst affected region of lombardy. all 3500 people aboard the grand princess cruise ship flying off the coast of san francisco are being tested for coronavirus. 21 passengers and crew earlier tested positive for the disease. the authorities will bring the ship to a non—commercial port and quarantined the ship there. turkish president recep tayyip erdogan has ordered his country's coastguard to prevent migrants from crossing the aegean to greek islands. pressure continues at tu rkey‘s islands. pressure continues at turkey's land border with thousands of young men, some escaping the violence in syria, attempting to get to the european union.