welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: g7 foreign ministers increase pressure on russia to abandon its support for syria's president. oh, my god! smartphones capture the moment a passenger is forcibly dragged off an overbooked united airlines flight. the firm issues a sort of apology but there is outrage online. the oil giant shell admits dealing with a convicted money—launderer to negotiate access to a vast offshore oilfield in nigeria. and thousands of police line the streets of london for the funeral of pc keith palmer, killed in the westminster terror attack. hello. there is growing international pressure on russia to abandon

its support for syria's president assad, in the wake of last week's chemical attack. but there's little sign russia will risk its strong military interests in syria. western foreign ministers from the g7 group — the uk, the us, japan, italy, france, germany and canada — have been meeting in italy, trying for a co—ordinated response — which could include new sanctions on moscow and damascus. from lucca, our diplomatic correspondent james robbins. contemplating italy's past glory and syria's present horror, boris johnson and america's secretary of state rex tillerson were in lucca to turn up the international heat on president assad and his russian backers. this morning rex tillerson very deliberately started his day at a memorial to a nazi atrocity in 1944, the massacre of local villagers, and drew a direct parallel to the gas attack last week.

we will rededicate ourselves to holding to account any and all who commit crimes against the innocents anywhere in the world. so when president trump's foreign minister, who will speak to the russians this week, sat down with the foreign secretary who cancelled his visit to moscow to be here instead, they talked of ways to win the widest possible international support against vladimir putin's present path. i think it's very important in these circumstances for the world to present a united front and for there to be absolutely no ambiguity about the message and the message that we're sending to the russians is very, very clear. on the russians have been involved in co—ordinating the military effo rts in co—ordinating the military efforts of the syrian army. they are thereby contaminated by the

appalling behaviour of the regime. the russians am asking you for not going to moscow. why did the prime minister ask you not to go?” going to moscow. why did the prime minister ask you not to go? i think it is very important in these circumstances for the world to present a united front and for there to be absolutely no ambiguity about the message. the message that we are sending to the russians is very regular. do they want to stick with a toxic regime? do they want to be eternally associated with a guy who gasses his own people or do they want to work with the americans and the rest of the g7 and indeed like—minded countries for a new future for syria. but president assad's major backers, iran and russia have warned of the military retaliation if president trump repeats last friday's cruise missile strikes. although the iranian president, seen as a moderate, seems to contradict his own hard—liners today, saying change in the assad regime should go hand—in—hand with fighting his opponents. translation: terrorism in syria

should be eradicated and some reforms should be implemented within syria, within the syrian regime. this evening g7 ministers, all but one of them nato members as well, are starting to explore new pressures they could apply, knowing full well that russia has so far stuck firmly with president assad and his regime. also on monday, the us defence secretary claimed the us missile attack on a syrian airbase last week damaged or destroyed 20% of the government's operational aircraft — although the base has been in use again. james mattis also said fuel and ammunition sites had been hit. g7 nations are now meeting in italy to try and hammer out a unified approach to the country in conflict.

i asked the former nato in bassett isa i asked the former nato in bassett is a co—ordinated strategy was possible. i think the countries at the g7 will come up with a unified approach. under american leadership because it is the americans who are doing so nobody wants to look like are caving to president putin. whether that adds up to anything more thanjust whether that adds up to anything more than just some sounds and diplomatic talk is another matter. in fact, i really do not see what they can come up with that will lead toa they can come up with that will lead to a fundamental change in russian behaviour. russia has such strong military interests in syria? is this the reason? i think that mr putin may be willing to dilbert let's look what he wants. he like to be taken seriously with the last administration did not do. he wants to obtaina

administration did not do. he wants to obtain a significant position to bea to obtain a significant position to be a brokerfor to obtain a significant position to be a broker for whatever happens and he would like to see the sanctions imposed upon him because of the siege of crimea and the other thing is that the russians and their supporters have done in the ukraine, to be reduced. he is in a position where if indeed the west pushes him that hard, claiming that they need him, he will respond hard and i do not know that we have, the western side, all the americans by themselves, have the leverage to get him to budge. the american carrier, united airlines, has been heavily criticised for having one of its passengers dragged off a flight in chicago. the airline had overbooked the plane, and when no—one volunteered to leave, to let some of united's staff on board, they selected the man and his travelling companion, at random. when he refused to get off, he was dragged down the aisle by security guards. nedda tawfik has the story. these are the disturbing moments that have now travelled around the world.

several smartphones record as three police hover over a man who is being forced to exit the aircraft. the situation quickly escalates, after one officer manhandles him out of his chair. oh, my god. all three officers then drag him bloodied and injured from the cabin. no, this is wrong. oh, my god. look at what you did to him! the incident began when united airlines asked for volunteers to give up their seats for additional crew members. when none were found, they chose passengers at random, but this man refused. one passenger said he claimed to be a doctor who had patients he needed to see. good work, way to go. ten minutes later, in unexplained circumstances, the man, clearly sha ken, ru ns back on the plane. united airlines in a statement, said:

that's what makes the world's leading airline flyer friendly. the airline has been criticised for its handling of the situation that some say clearly contrasts with its claim to fly the friendly skies. earlier, an anonymous passenger who was sitting next to the man ejected from the plane spoke to the bbc‘s phil williams. a guy that came from, i don't know who he was, some airport authority, was very calm about it, wasn't rude, wasn't even forceful. i think he was just there to intimidate and say "look, you need to come off", but he didn't use force. there was another officer that came on and then another man who you see in the video, the one with the hat and thejeans, he had a badge but it's probably helpful to say

who you are as an authority figure before you start yanking people out of seats and he didn't do that. the guy who yanked him out of the seat, did he say anything to him before yanking him? "get off". that's it. very direct with his words. as soon as he got on, he wasn't cooperating with the two other authority figures, and as soon as he got on, he just said "get off" and was already reaching for him and motioning him to get out. the passenger didn't want to be named. in other news, a teacher and a child have been killed in a shooting inside a primary school classroom in california. the gunman, believed to be the teacher's husband, is also dead. another child was wounded. local police are treating the shooting, in san bernardino, as a murder—suicide. a big fire has destroyed a camp housing 1,500 migrants in northern france. at least ten people were injured when the fire tore through the closely—packed

huts of the camp. an official said the fire was started during a fight between afghan and kurdish residents. migrants in northern france are usually trying to reach britain. the hungarian president has ratified a new law on foreign institutions in higher education, despite days of protests. opponents say the law is designed to destroy the central european university, funded by the american—based billionaire george soros. he has been strongly critical of the nationalist prime minister viktor orban. the new law means the university will not be allowed to award diplomas because it's registered in new york. the gha naian—born stylist edward enninful has been appointed the first male editor of british vogue. he will replace alexandra shulman in august. he was brought from africa to london as a child, and was first scouted here as a model, aged 16. it's the first time a major fashion publication has appointed a male and a black person as editor. a new report has claimed that china

is carrying out far more executions thanis is carrying out far more executions than is officially documents. that is from an amnesty international report on the use of the death penalty around the world. they found that over 1032 book executions globally in 2013. a drop on the previous year that saw 163a. over 90% of the executions in the world we re 90% of the executions in the world were in five countries, china, a run, arabia, iraq and pakistan. it is believed that china executed more than all other countries combined. we speak now to a professor of political science. what do you think about these figures? would you make of them? number one, china is the world ‘s most populous country and it continues to use the death penalty. as a result, of course, it isa penalty. as a result, of course, it is a big surprise that china stands out as a developing country, the public sector tends to be very

supportive of the death penalty but at the same time, what the report does not give, actually, the specific report on china does indicate is that china in fact has been practising a policy of killing fewer and more prudently. there have been many efforts in recent years in particular to try and address some of the issues related to the death penalty as well. do you believe the figures on china particularly? there are strong suggestions that the official figures are strong suggestions that the officialfigures are are strong suggestions that the official figures are not the true count. the chinese secrecy laws to give some leeway in terms of not revealing certain information, especially in potentially in regards to death penalty cases. the report addresses that. in fact, overall and an especially of the last few years, the supreme court has made a very sustained campaign to put most of

the court proceedings online. i think there can be more to be done in this area. a report like this may provide some nudges to efforts to further bring transparency to the process. overall, most importantly, the chinese government are beginning and around 2009, centralised the review of death penalty cases at the supreme review of death penalty cases at the supreme people's court. as a result we have significantly tightened the procedures and standards for imposing death penalty. how about the us? they have apparently had big changes now. they are now out of the top five for the first time in 12 yea rs. top five for the first time in 12 years. what are the reasons behind that? there are two basic reasons. number one, economically it does not make sense to kill. it is much more costly because of the lengthy legal procedures of the appeals and other problems associated with the death

penalty. the other aspect is increasingly there is strong scepticism of the death penalty because there have been a variety of cases which have later revealed to be wrongful but, of course, once you kill somebody you cannot bring that life back. to increasingly there is a public backlash and states of largely withdrawn from the death penalty as a result only a small number of state that do still allow a death penalty, especially in texas, for example. stay with us if you can on bbc news. much more to come. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: the us, canada and mexico bid for the football world cup in nine years' time. it would be the first time three nations have co—hosted the competition. pol pot, one of the century's greatest mass murderers, is reported to have died of natural causes.

he and the khmer rouge movement he led were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million cambodians. there have been violent protests in indonesia where playboy has gone on sale for the first time. traditionalist muslim leaders have expressed disgust. the magazine's offices have been attacked and its editorial staff have gone into hiding. it was clear that paula's only contest was with the clock and as for a sporting legacy, paula radcliffe's competitors will be chasing her new world best time for years to come. quite quietly but quicker and quicker, she seemed just to slide away under the surface and disappear. this is bbc news. i'm mike embley.

the latest headlines: foreign ministers from the g7 group of countries are meeting in italy to discuss the war in syria, and russia's role in the conflict. smartphones capture the moment a passenger is forcibly dragged off an overbooked united airlines flight. the firm issues a sort of apology but there is outrage online. the oil company shell has admitted that they dealt with a convicted money launderer when negotiating access to a vast oil field off the coast of nigeria in 2011. shell went ahead with the deal even though they were on probation for their involvement in a separate corruption case in nigeria. our business editor simonjack has this report. nine billion barrels of oil, the prize for the company who could secure the rights to a lucrative field, called opl245. but doing deals in nigeria is one of the toughest challenges in the oil business. the building behind me is shell's uk headquarters. it's the most valuable company on the london stock exchange.

if you have a pension, you almost certainly own some shares in shell. they've been operating in nigeria for nearly 60 years, so they have the size and the expertise to meet that challenge. in the way was this man, who acquired the field while he was oil minister. for the first time tonight, shell acknowledges they did engage with him to do the deal. shell and the italian oil company acquired the field in 2011, paying $1.3 billion to the nigerian government. that's more than nigeria's health budget, but it didn't go on public services. instead, more than1 billion of it was passed to a company called malabu, controlled by atete. from there, according to documents filed by italian prosecutors, nearly half was forwarded to the then president and members of his government.

shell have always said they only paid the nigerian government. today shell has changed its tune and they're now saying they engaged with danatete, a former oil minister and convicted money lawneder. so what prompted shell to change its position? well, e—mails obtained by global witness and finanace uncovered seen by the bbc show shell representatives negotiating with mr atete a year before the deal was finalised. that e—mail was forwarded to the chief executive, showing this went right to the top. other emails showed millions would be paid to the president, in an e—mail from july, the strategy was: a spokesperson for goodluckjonathan described the allegations

as a false narrative. atete didn't respond. this deal was done just months after shell had paid $30 million to the us department ofjustice to settle previous allegations of bribery in nigeria and elsewhere on condition of future good behaviour. shell having been investigated over a previous deal you would think they would be cautious. but instead of walking away from a deal that was clearly problematic from a corruption, potentially bribery stand point, they doubled down and attempted to sanitise the deal. shell's partners said there was no credible evidence that any of its staff were involved in wrongdoing. shell still maintain the deal with the nigerian government was legal and that any political payoffs were done without their knowledge. but today marks an important concession in a huge deal mired in controversy for years. simon jack, bbc news. president trump's first nominee to the us supreme court has taken the oath of office.

neil gorsuch replaces the long—serving judge antonin scalia, whose death last year led to months of congressional wrangling. his appointment tips the court back towards a conservative majority. i'm humbled by the trust placed in me today. i will never forget that to whom much is given, much will be expected. and i promise you that i will do all of my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the constitution and laws of this great nation. thank you. the funeral of pc keith palmer, killed in last month's westminster attack, has been held at london's southwark cathedral. thousands of police from all over the country lined the route from the palace of westminster. here's our home editor mark easton. at the gates of the palace of westminster, police constable keith palmer's coffin paused, at the very spot where he was killed 19 days ago. the place where, unarmed, he moved towards a man brandishing two knives, where he put

himself in harm's way, to protect parliament to protect our democracy. police officers from every force in the country lined the route. thousands of men and women who did not know keith palmer, but know what it means to wear the badge. you never really know what you're going to face when you go out there. so, you know, it is with incredible bravery that he did that. i think it brings home what the job is about, the risks that you take. it shows what a family we are, really, that we all look out for one another and we all do the same thing at the end of the day. the global police family came together in london today, including officers from new york's police department. we have had so much support from officers around the country, around the united states, as well as from other places in the world when we have had officers die in the line of duty, so we have feel a need

to be supportive back. as the cortege headed across the river, police officers paid tribute in the air, on the water, and along the route. two of pc palmer's colleagues spoke of the friend they so admired. if you could paint a picture of a perfect policeman, you would be painting a picture of keith palmer. he sounds like a pretty extraordinary man. he was, he was so down—to—earth and so normal. he came to work because he had a family to support. he was a fantastic dad and a fantastic husband. and... he is going to be missed so much. as the coffin passed through the capital, london stopped what it was doing to remember all those who lost their lives on that appalling day, pc palmer and the four men and women killed on westminster bridge. pc palmer symbolises the public service and sacrifice that underpins our society, the debt we owe to all those who put their lives on the line defending ourfreedoms.

but he was also a husband, a father, a family man, and so today is about both national reflection and private grief. pc palmer's wife asked that the family's privacy be respected inside southwark cathedral. but the sound of the service was relayed to the streets outside. keith laid down his life for each one of us here. each one of you who have lined the streets and filled the bridges of this city today. in her first public engagement in her new role, metropolitan police commissioner cressida dick honoured a fallen colleague. an amazing life. he was clearly very kind, very good—hearted, very hard—working, a very, very talented police officer. police constable keith palmer's name has been added to the national police

roll of honour. the grief will lessen. his bravery will endure for generations to come. mark easton, bbc news, southwark. the united states, canada and mexico have announced a joint bid to stage the football world cup in 2026. if successful it would be the first time three nations have jointly hosted a fifa competition. at a news conference, the president of the us soccer federation said president trump's controversial comments about mexico wouldn'tjeopardise the bid. we have the full support of the us government. the president of the united states is fully supportive and encouraged us to have this bid. he's especially pleased that mexico is part of this bid and that in an last few days that we've had we aren't at all concerned about some of the issues others have raised.

we looked at bidding alone and decided we wanted to bid with our partners in north america and we have strong encouragement from president trump to the very end. they are still children, but britain's prince george and princess charlotte will have important roles next month, at the wedding of their aunt, pippa middleton. kensington palace has confirmed the duke and duchess of cambridge's children will be page boy and bridesmaid at the ceremony in berkshire, england. miss middleton, bridesmaid for her sister kate in 2011, is to marry her fiance james matthews on the 20th may. prince william and kate, and prince harry, will also be attending. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcmikeembley. good morning.

sunday was the warmest day of the year so far, with 25 degrees, 77 fahrenheit recorded, so whatever the weather on monday, it could have been a little bit disappointing, or was it? on the whole, not too bad across the south coast, as you can see from this weather watchers picture, and temperatures peaked at 16 celsius, which, with the sunshine, still felt reasonably pleasant. different story, though, in the highlands of scotland, a grey, bleak day and it looks like we're likely to see more cloud and outbreaks of rain into the north—west today. the wind swinging round to a bit more of a westerly, so that will take the edge off the feel of things as well but with some sunshine, not too bad on the whole, cloud and rain continuing out into the far north—west of the great glen in particular. top temperatures of around 11—16 degrees. as we move out of tuesday into wednesday, we'll see a series of weather fronts slipping their way steadily south and the winds pivot round more to a north—westerly, that will make it feel that little bit fresher on exposed coasts, especially as the winds will strengthen gusting to gale force wind in the far north and west.

with those weather fronts slowly slipping their way south it will bring showery outbreaks of rain, nothing particularly heavy but a bit of a nuisance. top temperatures of 10—16 the high. so that's the story through wednesday, but with clearer skies through the night we could in rural spots sea temperatures into low single figures. a touch of light frost not out of the question for thursday morning but some sunshine in central and eastern areas before cloud and showery outbreaks of rain gather again from the north and west. so there's a bit of a theme developing as we head towards easter weekend. the jet streams slicing the country into two and always coming from a north—westerly direction so a colder source, low pressure out to the east, high pressure to the west and the settled weather is likely to be in south—western areas. but, with that north—westerly flow, the chances are temperatures are going to dip a bit into the easter weekend and perhaps just below where they should be at this time of year. but we could be heading for that classic case of sunshine and april showers, so if you catch

the sunnier moments, the sunshine is quite strong and it will feel reasonably pleasant from time to time. so on good friday, another weak weather front making its way slowly south across the country, sunny spells and scattered showers following on behind, 7—15 the high. into saturday, the start of the easter weekend, well, again it's predominantly cloudy, but a good deal of dry weather in the story, but that cool north—westerly breeze as well. take care. the latest headlines from bbc news. i'm mike embley. there is growing international pressure on russia to abandon its support for syria's president assad, in the wake of last week's chemical attack. foreign ministers from the g7 group have been meeting in italy, trying for a co—ordinated response — which could include new sanctions on moscow and damascus. the american carrier, united airlines, has been much criticised for having one of its passengers dragged off a flight in chicago.

the airline had overbooked the plane, and when no—one volunteered to leave, to let some of united's staff on board, they selected the man and his travelling companion at random. the oil company shell has admitted that they dealt with a convicted money—launderer when negotiating access to a vast oil field off the coast of nigeria in 2011. shell went ahead with the deal even though they were on probation for their involvement in a separate corruption case in nigeria. police in manchester said the number of people