welcome to bbc news. welcome if you are watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm james reynolds. here in the uk or around the globe. i'mjames reynolds. our top stories: italy is preparing emergency measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak, which could stop people entering or leaving the worst affected regions. a building used as a quarantine centre for the virus collapses in china. four i confirmed dead. —— are confirmed. all passengers stuck on board a huge cruise ship moored off the californian coast are being tested for the coronavirus. and protests, celebrations, and calls for action. people around the world mark international women's day.

the italian government has just adopted emergency measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. the measures come after over 1200 new cases were reported in italy in the last 24 reported in italy in the last 2a hours, the biggest daily rise in cases since the outbreak began. 0fficials officials say 36 more people died in the past 2a hours. the authorities have brought in a major escalation of controls, limiting or but emergency travel to and from the entire region of lombardy, including the city of malan. the measures also extend to 11 northern and eastern provinces, as well as the cities of parma and venice. cities were close 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 beds, according to the head of beds, according to the head of the civil protection agency.

translation: lombardy is facing a tense situation in hospitals. we expect will be asked to tra nsfer we expect will be asked to transfer patients to intensive ca re transfer patients to intensive care services in other regions. we will win this battle, this war, if our fellow citizens are not responsible behaviour and we change our not responsible behaviour and we change oui’ way not responsible behaviour and we change our way of life, especially those persons who are in the fragile category and at risk. a professor of political philosophy and ethics at the pontifical gregorian university is in southern university, and he told me what he has made of the government's decisions. because i teach political philosophy i am the first to criticise the government, but in this case, i must be honest, they are doing the right things. 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 signing when to spread the news, to spread the new laws and the new policies. —— not clever in timing. butfor policies. —— not clever in timing. but for the policies in themselves, i think they are themselves, i think they are the right thing to for italians, it is very spontaneous to touch, we are attaching people. when you see somebody now and you want to shake their hand, what do you do?

we start to touch the feet and shoes like the young people do. how long do you think the country can live like this? scientific of the government, they are not able to forecast i suppose, it is just a thought that i have got, just watching probably another couple of weeks we will be in this situation. rescue efforts are continuing in the china city after five storey building collapsed. the hotel is being used as a quarantine facility.

a lucky survivor being pulled alive from the rubble after this 5—storey hotel just gave way. emergency crews rushed to the scene as a crowd looked on in disbelief. reports started coming through around 7:30pm saturday night local time in the province. about 70 people were staying in the hotel, which was being used as a coronavirus quarantine facility, monitoring those who had had close contact with confirmed cases of covid-19. like many across china, they were waiting to get the all clear before being allowed to leave. more than 10,000 people across the country have been put under observation since the coronavirus outbreak. it is still not clear why the building collapsed. the central government in beijing has sent a specialist team to the region to help with the rescue operation. rich preston, bbc news.

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 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 mum jackie 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 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. us vice president mike pence has held talks with leaders in the cruise line industry. today we held talks with the cruise line 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 ship—board testing for the coronavirus. new quarantining standards will be coordinated 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 for the coronavirus in washington, dc. the mayor gave more details. man in his 50s, dc resident, started exhibiting symptoms in late february. he presented and was admitted to a dc hospital on march five. at this point, he appears to have no history of international travel and no close contact with a confirmed case. he remains hospitalised. let's get more on the outbreak elsewhere. 15 american tourists have been quarantined in a hotel in bethlehem in the west bank as pa rt bethlehem in the west bank as part of efforts against the virus. the city has been in lockdown since cases of the

virus recorded there on thursday. there has been a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases in germany was not more than 680 people we re was not more than 680 people were infected, ten times the number according to last week. no deaths have been reported. the world health organization says it has seen tremendous progress at hospitals across iran in recent days. the who's representatives say that iran has made facilities available in every province for treatment of patients. iran confirmed over 6000 coronavirus infections and 145 deaths, but experts fear the official numbers may be underestimated. turkish president recep tayyip erdogan has ordered his country's coastguard to prevent migrants from crossing the aegean towards nearby greek islands. the coastguard said this was because of the dangers they face. that pressure continues a turkey‘s northern land border with greece, where thousands of young men, some of them fleeing the violence in northern syria, are attempting to get into the eu. 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. a desperate tug of war at europe's gate. lebanon's government has voted to default on a foreign currency debt for the first time in the country's history. the country will no longer pay 1.2 billion eurobond that

materials this monday. the prime minister said lebanon's debt had become more than it could bear and a decision had been made to protect the country's interest. stay with us on country's interest. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the mystery of the missing mayors. why there are not enough candidates in upcoming french elections. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 24 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 latest 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. a building used as a quarantine centre for the coronavirus collapsed in china. let's get more on the outbreak now. professor peter hotez is dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine.

i asked him to his assessment on how the virus is spreading. 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—3 times more contagious than influenza, which is a pretty 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 instance, ebola, 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 ebola patient, you're not going to get ebola. this has a mixing sort of a

diabolical way in being able to spread very quickly and causing a lot of damage, especially among older populations. 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 — 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 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 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 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 to send the tests off to your lab, often times it is a reference lab, and you are not getting it immediately. i think we're going to need is a version 2.0,

—— i think what we're going to need is a version 2.0, a second—generation test which is a rapid test so 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 1,000 in wuhan who became infected, they tend to get sicker than the ordinary population and we do not quite understand why, and it has not been confirmed but 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 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 the unknown, how likely and extensive this virus spreads, combined to create a lot of concern. professor peter hotez. 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 symptoms of the disease. sunday marks international women's day. one issue in particular — violence against women — has spurred protests in many countries, and nowhere more so than in mexico, where so—called femicide has risen nearly 140% in the last five years. 0ne musician, quintana, has written a song that demands an end to the murder of women. let's have a listen. sings in spanish.

that was quintana. candace piette, the bbc‘s america's editor with the world service, has been giving me more details about the protests by women for women. 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 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. really? and 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 — a rise of 140% 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 particular 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 it is 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. pinera sign a law passing — expanding the punishment for femicide from 15 years to life so there has been some breakthrough there. and argentina has its own movement? its own movement connected to the #metoo movement, called ni una menos and you'll recognize it from the green bandanas they wear. it is large, it has mobilised hundreds of thousands of women both on femicide but also an abortion. they too have had some breakthroughs. —— both on femicide but also on abortion. they too have had some breakthroughs. the new argentine president had listened to them and says he will send a bill to congress on the abortion issue this month.

the bbc‘s american editor candace piette there. 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 with no candidates. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. patrick maniere has been the mayor of baubigny for 14 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 realities 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're at the service of the people. for these baubigny and mayor maniere, this is the end —— for baubigny and mayor maniere, this is the end ofan 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.

a reminder of our top story. speaking in the middle of the night, italian time, the italian prime minister kontaveit came out to introduce restrictions on the movement of people in much of the north of the country. it is an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus which is hitting his country ——pm conte. the new emergency measures will affect roughly 16 million people in the northern region of lombardy, including the city of malan, and 14 central and northern provinces, including venice. he announces the measures as rigorous but necessary because of what he called a national emergency. any travel in the affected areas would require special permission. 0ther areas would require special permission. other measures such as the closure of museums and cinemas would be covered to ——

be extended to cover the rest of the country. more on this as it develops. i am on twitter at @jamesbbcnews.. 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 ayrshire 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 fairfew of them, so it's a brighter day, 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 off the week but the monday and the tuesday 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. some 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 the 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 that 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, 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're 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 perhaps 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 the 17, but not bad for the time of year.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the italian prime minister has announced radical new restrictions in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus in his country. the measures include limiting orbit emergency travel in and out of the worst affected region, lombardi, and 11 other provinces in the north and east of the country. rescue efforts are continuing in china's eastern city of quanzhou, after a five story hotel collapsed, killing four people and injuring dozens more. the building had been used as a quarantine facility for people who had come into contact with confirmed cases of coronavirus. 3500 people aboard the grand princess cruise ship 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 pointing people there. that quarantine people

there.