welcome to bbc news. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: italy's prime minister announces new measures to try to tackle the outbreak of coronavirus. up to 60 million people could have the freedom of movement restricted. a building used as a quarantine centre for the virus collapses in china, fourare centre for the virus collapses in china, four are confirmed dead will stop all passengers stuck on board a huge cruise ship stranded on the california coast are being tested for the virus. protests, celebrations. calls for action. people around the world mark international women's day.

hello and welcome to bbc news. the italian government is to quarantine some 16 million people across the north and east of the country as part of stringent new measures being introduced to tackle the spread of covid-i9. introduced to tackle the spread of covid—i9. gyms, swimming pools, ski resorts will also be closed. more than 230 people have died. the new restrictions have —— will hit the financial centre malan and the tourist hotspot venice. most of the cases have ina region venice. most of the cases have in a region of lombardy as well as the north and east.

translation: we are facing an emergency, national emergency. we have been applying precautionary measures from the beginning was up we are acting acting with the utmost determination. the region is home to 10 million people. that is like locking down tokyo or new york. gyms, circles, museums and ski resorts will be close. restaurants and cafe can open that customers need to sit at least a metre apart. religious events like funerals oi’ religious events like funerals or weddings are banned. and the pope's weekly sunday blessing will be delivered by video stream. instead of addressing the thousands who usually gather —— gather in saint peter's square. movement within the so—called red zones will be for urgent matters only. anyone who breaks the quarantine rules could be jailed for three months. one of italy's leading politicians says he has tested positive with the virus and has been self isolating. translation: i have always said

don't panic. let's fight this and in this moment i will, of course, give a good example and follow the advice of the doctors and scientists. i will try to lend a hand by working from home as much as possible andi from home as much as possible and i am fighting as it is right to do for each of us and for the country. officials say they will start recruiting retired doctors to help deal with the surge in cases. the new measures are due to last until the third of april. rich preston, bbc news. a professor of political philosophy and ethics is currently in southern italy and told me what he made of the government's decision. to be honest to be honest, because i teach political philosophy, honest 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 clever in timing when to spread the news, to spread the new laws and the new policies but, for the policies in themselves, i think that they are the right thing to do. how have you changed your own life? have you had to stop shaking hands, stop 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 for us it is very spontaneous to touch, to communicate by hands. we are touchie people, as you say in your country. when you see someone now and you want to shake their hand, what do you do? this 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 the 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 got, just watching, probably another couple of weeks we will be in this situation. rescue efforts are continuing in china's eastern city after a five story hotel collapsed killing four people and leaving

dozens more still trapped. the hotel was being used as a quarantine facility for people who had come into contact with confirmed cases of coronavirus. 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-i9. 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's 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. in the united states, the number of cases of coronavirus an houri9. number of cases of coronavirus an hour 19. passengers on a cruise ship stranded off the coast of california says the protest of terror —— testing eve ryo ne protest of terror —— testing everyone on board has started. they are preparing for a number of days or even weeks in isolation. 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. the lack of food and information increasingly difficult to bear. something good will come out of this, we don't know what it is.

we are trusting god. i hope i test negative and go home and get some treatment. testing kits have revealed 21 people on board have coronavirus. confirmation they were at risk of catching the virus that 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 their test results as quickly as possible. michelle bissell‘s mumjackie is on the cruise liner with her friend margaret. both women are in their 70s. michelle wants the government to act quickly and bring them home. when i was told that there were 21 cases of the coronavirus on the ship and most of them were staff, thatis and most of them were staff,

that is when reality hit last night and she was very tearful on the phone. the ship's medical cruiser say they are working to address urgent health needs and one person may have to be airlifted to hospital. they have come closer to sure 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. so belong, bbc news, san francisco. the us vice president mike pence have held talks with the leaders of the cruise line industry. he said they were tracking another ship that had a shared crew with the grand princess. mr mike pence said there were strict measures in place to deal with cruise ships. today we reached a deal to further enhance entry and exit screening. and also to establish shipboard testing for the coronavirus. new quarantining the coronavirus. new quara ntining standards will the coronavirus. new quarantining standards will be co—ordinated with the cdc for all ships and we will also be working with the industry, as

they develop a plan to move any patients that contract the coronavirus or otherwise become seriously ill, to a land—based facility. for the first time someone has tested positive in the capital washington, dc. the city's mayor gave more details. a man in his 50s who is a dc resident started exhibiting symptoms in late february. he presented and was at —— admitted to a dc hospital on march the fifth. at this point, he appears to have no history of international travel and no close contact with a confirmed case. he remains hospitalised. 15 american tourists have been quarantined in a hotel in the city of bethlehem as part of

effo rts city of bethlehem as part of efforts against the virus. the city in the occupied west bank has been in lockdown since cases of virus on thursday. a sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases have been found in germany. more than 680 people have been quarantine for doppler deaths have been reported to stop the world health organization has said it has seen tremendous progress in hospitals around iran. iran has made facilities available in every province for the treatment of patients, they say. iran has —— almost 6000 cases and more than 45 deaths but officials say the figures may be underestimated. lebanon's government have voted to default on a foreign currency debt for the first dominican republic history pulled up the country will no longer pay a 1.2 billion eurobond as of this monday. lebanon's debt had become more thanit lebanon's debt had become more than it had bare, and a decision had been made to protect the country's

interests. stay with us on bbc news. still to come. the mystery of the missing mayors was a 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 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 latest headlines: italy parliament prime minister announces new measures to the country's coronavirus outbreak. up country's coronavirus outbreak. up to 16 million people could have their freedom of movement restricted. a building used as a quarantine centre for the coronavirus collapsed in china. four people are confirmed dead. let us get more on the outbreak now. a professor is dean of the national school of tropical medicine. i asked national school of tropical medicine. iasked him national school of tropical medicine. i asked him for his assessment of how the virus is spreading. there are certain elements which are worrisome. we know, for instance,

that this is quite a contagious virus, by some estimates, based on calculations from data from wuhan in central china, it is two or three times more contagious than influenza, which is a pretty infectious disease to begin with, so that's a concern, and it also has very 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 rate, but it is not very contagious at all, unless you are taking care of a dead or dying ebola patient. you will not get ebola. it will spread very quickly and is really causing a lot of damage, especially in the 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 a very serious infectious disease indeed. talking about healthca re workers, how are they protecting themselves at the moment? well, there are established methods that we have for doing that, but 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've 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 a lab, oftentimes it is a reference lab, and you are not getting it immediately. i think what we're going to need is a version 2.0, a 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 any time immediately, so that's an urgently needed technology. we certainly need new antiviral drugs to treat those who are seriously ill, especially the populations we're 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 that became infected — they tend to get sicker than our ordinary population and we do not quite understand why, and it has not been confirmed, but it looks as though about 15% in wuhan were not only ill, but seriously ill, which is higher than you may expect from that age group and oftentimes, in intensive care units, whether it was due — well, 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, how extensively this virus spreads, combined to create a lot of concern. you can find more on all of our stories and all the latest information about the coronavirus including what you can do to avoid it on our website. this guide on how to stay safe go through the basic steps like washing your hands on how to spot symptoms of the disease. sunday marks international women's day. one issue in particular, violence against women has bird protests in many countries. no more so than mexico with amosite has risen nearly 1a0% in the last five years. one musician has written a song that demands an end to the murder of women. have a listen. singing

candice, the bbc public editor with the world service has given me more details about the service by women for women. given me more details about the service by women for womenm has become a very political issue. we are seeing enormous protests over the last couple of years. protests over the last couple of yea rs. last protests over the last couple of years. last year because of a murder of two women by police officers, a couple of weeks ago and abduction of a seven—year—old girl and her murder, and mexican women are taking to the streets and this is becoming a very thorny issue for the president, who has been quite prickly about his response to this whole issue. although he says he is a feminist, half of his game —— cabinet are women. women don't feel he is really taking control of the situation with those very high amosite figures.

what has he said about tackling that rate — a rise of 1a0% in recent years? very high, but he is pretty left wing. he thinks that 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. yeah, there's been a breakthrough in chile. we've 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 performance now in mexico, colombia, spain, france, across the world, even in the us.

and it has been 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 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 #miracomonosponemos. recognising the green bandannas they wear. it is large and it has mobilised hundreds of women on femicide an abortion in argentina. they have had some breakthrough. the president has listened to them. its president will sent a bill to congress on abortion issue this month. local elections will begin taking place soon across france. counsellors and officials will be hoping to keep theirjobs. there is a growing trend affecting towns

across the country. elections with no candidates. patrick maniere has been the mayor of baubigny for 1h years. not for much longer, though. he's 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‘ re struggling to find a single mayoral candidate. it's 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 baubigny and mayor maniere, 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. apply now. let's bring you some good news from china where a baby who was diagnosed with

coronavirus has been discharged from hospital. it is unusual for young children to contract coronavirus. the baby, who was diagnosed just five days after birth, had been receiving treatment for the last month. he has now been returned to pa rents. he has now been returned to parents. they have also recovered from the virus themselves and were discharged two weeks earlier along with four other members of the same family four other members of the same fa m ily tested four other members of the same family tested positive for the virus. a reminder of our top story. speaking in the middle of the night, the italian prime minister said that he was introducing emergency restrictions on the movement of people in much of the north of the country. in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus in italy. these emergency measures will affect roughly 16 million people in lombardi, which includes the city of milan and 1a northern central provinces including venice. he was angry that the

measures have been leaked, he described them as is rigourous, but necessary because of what he called a national emergency. any travel into and out of the areas affected would require special permission, the prime minister said. other measures such as the closure of museums and cinemas he said will be expanded to cover the rest of the country. a reminder that you can find more on all of our stories, plus all the latest information about the coronavirus, including what you can do to avoid it on our website. this guide on how to stay safe go through the basic steps like washing your hands and also how to spot the symptoms of the disease. we will continue to monitor the situation in italy, looking overnight it appears that not all the mayors and local officials have been in co—ordination with the prime minister's office. so as the day begins in italy, we will be in contact with our correspondence in the region to ask how these dramatic emergency measures may be implemented on the ground. please stay with us. i am on

twitter. 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 fair few 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 scotla nd 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.

the italian prime minister has announced a radical new restrictions in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus. the restrictions will affect roughly 16 million people in the northern region of lombardy. giuseppe conte described the measures as rigourous but necessary because of what he called a national emergency. chinese authorities have said at least four people have died following the colla pse people have died following the collapse of more than 70 people have been trapped. —— the collapse of a building that was being used as a quarantine for people with coronavirus. people stranded on the grand princess are being tested for coronavirus. the authorities will bring the ship to a non—commercial port and quarantine people there.

now