this is bbc world news. i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: california under lockdown — america's largest state orders its a0 million citizens to stay at home. as italy's death rate from coronavirus continues to soar, other european countries bring in new emergency measures to try to contain its spread. india executes four men for a notorious gang rape and murder, on a bus in delhi, eight years ago, that sparked widespread horror and protest as japan comes under increasing pressure to postpone the olympics, the flame arrives from greece.

hello and welcome to bbc news. some calm has returned to financial markets after a week of record breaking falls. global shares have been able to hang on to some modest gains and crude oil had its best day in history, soaring 25%. all this comes after a barrage of stimulus measures from central banks. in the uk the bank of england cut interest rates to almost zero, following a surprise pledge by the european central bank to pump 750 billion euros into the financial system this year. us treasury secretary, steven mnuchin, is urging congress to pass a $1 trillion emergency stimulus package immediately, after a smaller package was signed into law by president trump earlier this week. what are the markets in asia doing? let's get some reaction from sharanjit leyl in singapore.

how are the markets react to what has been happening over the last 2a hours? what has been happening over the last 24 hours? it is a final day to a really tumultuous week. you can almost hear investors and trading almost breathing a sigh of relief at the relative calm that has returned. it did not quite made up for the steep declines but interesting, against the grain of what we have seen central banks doing, the people's bank of china, which is of the nation's central bank kept its interest rate unchanged, very much against expectation that they would be cut. this could be a suggestion of two things. one, that perhaps there may be a growing confidence that china has gotten through the brunt of the coronavirus. today was a second day that the country reported no new domestic cases.

and two, recent measures in china were enough to help the economy in the immediate term. consider the central bank adjust the rates of its currency to its lowest in some 12 years, a move which is meant to keep chinese exports competitive, much to the disagreement of president trump who has accused china previously. a way of written liquidity also in that banks will be able to be in a position to lend more to try and help stimulate the economy. in our investors in asia seem relieved that mossey has not plunged yet again. shares from hong kong, australia and others going up. a breeze from the rebounded oil prices. the decay injapan was closed for a public holiday but reopening next week. —— nikkei.

let's get some reaction from chris beecham, chief market analyst at the spread betting firm ig, here in london. unprecedented few weeks and if the markets and we have seen them slightly improving today what exactly is it that investors and the markets are looking for right now?|j investors and the markets are looking for right now? i think they are chaired by the side of they are chaired by the side of the stimulus programmes around the stimulus programmes around the globe. it doesn't clear the effect of the rate of infections but provides a cushion to the economy at least toa cushion to the economy at least to a degree. the biggest think they are looking for is a passage of the bill in the us to give money to all american citizens. a kind of a block asked to move and they would be happy to see for the markets. if you get that kind of support directly to american citizens, that will be important because the us has yet to see if the worst of the outbreak and, until that happens, this rebound might not last

particularly long. the historical fact that if you see markets drop this weekly, there isa markets drop this weekly, there is a rebound, they rally and drop back down again. we are facing that kind of uncertainty until that deal gets passed. what are these dogs doing well, performing better than anyone else? / stocks. exxon chevron and in london gp leading the charge. travel firms might also see some short—term recovery but the supermarkets have done well. in the us and uk have seen well. in the us and uk have seen the stockpiling so they are the ones to watch out for. these measures will not go away and people will need to step up their level of buying for the time being. what message do you have for the people that i'm for people who may have investments, pensions, who are

worried about these falls in the markets? we might revisit the markets? we might revisit the lows this week but it is ha rd to the lows this week but it is hard to imagine we could go to much lower. if we can get past the worst the financial disruption with the stimulus, the markets may have found the floor and, if you are reacting now, chances are the moment has gone. if you're looking for much longer in your 20s and 30s, you can start re— accumulating assets once again and take advantage of these lower prices we have seen. thank you very much indeed for your time. let's get some of the day's other news: netflix says it's reducing the video quality on its service in europe for the next 30 days, to reduce the strain on internet service providers. demand for streaming has increased because large parts of europe are self—isolating at home due to the coronavirus outbreak. netflix says lowering the picture quality will reduce data consumption by 25%,

but viewers would still find the picture quality good. jaguar land rover says it's temporarily suspending production at its uk factories from next week to curb the spread of coronavirus. it plans to resume production in the week of april 20th — plants in brazil and india are continuing their operations. rivals bmw, nissan, honda, toyota and vauxhall have all suspended uk production amid the coronavirus pandemic the uk government is temporarily relaxing competition laws to allow supermarkets to work together to combat shortages. retailers will be allowed to share data with each other on stock levels, cooperate to keep shops open, share distribution depots and delivery vans and pool staff with one another to help meet demand. working from home is the new normal for millions of us around the world. but how do you stay productive with numerous emails,

platforms with pinging notifications and family in the background ? how do you keep teams motivated and productive when remote working? stuart templeton is the uk head of the instant messaging service slack which is designed to help remote working. what kind of challenges do you think people will be facing trying to work from home, many for the first time? they're going be facing a number of challenges but they are not necessarily unique to this time. we did a little piece of research a few months back and a couple of things about the challenges we facing 76% of uk workers crave more connection an 80% crave more connection with each other. if you put that in the context of today, i think that challenge is even greater. if you think that people could be doing. first of

all, do not forget that need for connection. make sure we are taking time to do regular virtual calls and one—on—one calls into the office. we now have a daily 20 minute call here. we had a remote call and a pub quiz together as a way of trying to keep people connected. we have virtual office hours and those sort of things. did you win the pub quiz? i did not. but that is not a problem. i think the second thing is become more outcome focused rather than time in the office focus. i think workers of today have been requesting and wanting greater flexibility for a long time and we are in that well now and it is important to recognise we are in a difficult time and we need to be a

juggfing time and we need to be a juggling childcare perhaps, caring for our loved ones and, indeed, personalanxiety... sorry to interrupt you. a lot of people talking about productivity. are we more productive working from home or the office? what is the definitive answer? i do not have one but a slightly split point. there is value about getting quality work done by being locked away but there is also value in connectivity and i think there is a balance in there, actually. how important is it to make sure family are kept away from you during office hours? i would like to think we are in the world today where we can have empathy and understand the challenges that people are going through. we use a term, clarity is a kindness and i think clarity goes both ways. it goes to our employees, to remain productive ina employees, to remain productive in a difficult time but also clarity from employees to

employers to say i am unable to work at these times, i will be with the kids at these times. on tuesday, our cmo had her kids on her lap on a call. personally i think it is a time about thinking about priorities and have the empathy that i mentioned. the thing that worries me about working from home and staying so in touch and talking about platforms and e—mails and what have you, what worries me is how do you switch yourself off was make when you are at home, does it become one long day? how do you know when to switch off to e—mails, communications? when you are into the office, you leave the office and you go home and that's it. i challenge that a little bit. many years ago, we we re little bit. many years ago, we were worried about turning off. i think it is really important and if there are new

technologies where you can set yourself as inactive, turn off notifications and i think, as you move into a messaging based world, in the corporate environment, just because it is a message it does not need to be responded to in more real—time than an e—mail. i do think it is important to recognise message does not mean real—time, it means getting your work done and we need to have those barriers, frankly. thank you. you can go play your drums or go on your exercise bike. i want to come to your house, it looks like a fun place. have a good day. thank you. in many countries masks can be a shield that can create

shortages. one south korea fashion designer has created a line of colourful masks for young people which he hopes will ease the shortages and help cheer people up.

that is a south korean fashion designer, wanting to bring a little bit of share facemasks. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we have a look through the morning papers today, we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter. more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, bleeding, headaches and a dimming of vision — all of this caused by an apparently organised attack.

the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. now, this was an international trophy, and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: california has ordered all of its citizens to stay at home to limit the spread of the coronavirus. as the death rate from coronavirus continues to soar in italy other european countries are bringing in more emergency measures to try to contain its spread.