a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: g7 foreign ministers increase pressure on russia to abandon its support for syria's president. smartphones capture the moment a passenger is forcibly dragged off an overbooked united airlines flight. one of the security officers involved has been placed on leave. we'll hear from someone who saw it all. more violent anti—government protests in venezuela as the country's political and economic crisis deepens. and a report on the use of the death penalty around the world claims china is hiding the true number of executions it carries out. 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. greg dawson reports. they call it a photo. and it's a image that used to include russia before was expelled in 2014 when the gs became the before was expelled in 2014 when the g8 became the g7. the kremlin may not be represented but its continued support to the syrian regime dominates conversation. these foreign ministers have been working out the precise message the us secretary of state should deliver when he heads to moscow later on

tuesday. if i think about the position of vladimir putin now, here's talks are flying his reputation and that of russia are continuing association with a guy who is flagrantly poisoning his own people. his visit will be the first high—level meeting between the us and russia since the election of donald trump. the new president may wa nt donald trump. the new president may want improved relations with the kremlin that the continued support of by sharia asada from vladimir putin makes it difficult. the president now appears to be aiming to break the syrian russia alliance. a spokesman from downing street revealed that the prime minister and president agreed that a window of opportunity now exists in which to persuade russia that it is a lot beans with syria is no longer in its strategic interest. but russia has already threatened to retaliate with force if president trump repeats last week's tomahawk strikes on a

syrian air base. they continue to deny any role in the chemical attack which killed 89 people. the white house maintains it is open to take on further military action. 0ne house maintains it is open to take on further military action. one of the options that ministers are discussing is heading russia with targeted sanctions if it refuses to buckle. but the chances of president putin abandoning his allies seem remote. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james robbins is at the summit in lu cca. i think we now know that rex tillerson will take essentially a message to moscow that the west, the united states and her allies are convinced that it is really not in the strategic interest of russia to continue on their present path of active military support for president aside. i think he may go armed with a threat of limited targets if they can be agreed here between enough partners so that

there would be a naming of specific russian and syrian senior military officers who would be accused of actively and complacently campaigning against the civilians of syria. not necessarily direct involvement in last week's chemical attack but nonetheless of working together to kill or injure innocent civilians in syria. 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. in mexico, at least five people have been killed and 20 injured by the collapse of a car park which was still under construction. authorities say there are still people trapped at the building site, in mexico city. a big fire has destroyed a camp housing about fifteen—hundred migrants in northern france. at least ten people

were hurt when flames tore through the closely—packed huts. according to an official, the fire started during a dispute between afghans and kurds. migrants in northern france are usually trying to reach britain. 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. one of the security officers involved in an incident when a man was dragged off a united airlines flight has been put on leave. the airline had overbooked the plane from chicago, 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. 0ne 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 i spoke to gary leff, author of viewfromthewing.com — an aviation blog. he gave more details into what happened. here we had a full flight where the airline realised they needed to take some crew and send them to louisville to fly the next morning so they had people that were going to work on another plane, that if they didn't have the crew there, that plane would be delayed or cancelled. so all of a sudden they had four more people that needed to be accommodated on this aircraft and there were seats are they began

by asking if there were any volunteers who would take compensation, a hotel night and a flight the next day. they offered 400, they offered 800. there were no takers. finally, they said, ok, we have four more people that seats, we need to take some people off the aircraft and they have a procedure for that. it appears that they followed it but one of the people who they had asked to leave wouldn't do so. it is surely yet another pr disaster for united, isn't it? and it looks particularly bad that they did all this to let some of their own people on board. well, it's their own people but these are people that had to operate another flight, not for leisure. they would have inconvenienced a whole lot of other passengers as well. it was a difficult situation all the way around. united seems to have followed their proper procedures although they'll certainly want to

look at what those procedures are. unfortunately, where this really escalated was when the passenger wouldn't leave and then the chicago aviation police didn't handle it gingerly, so to speak. it didn't seem to have affected their share price. what about the consumer reaction? everyone is furious. united is taking more than their fair share of the blame. there is blame for the passenger who didn't follow instructions, there is blame for the chicago aviation police who may not have handled things very well with the passenger. united was in a difficult situation and each step of the way, there probably wasn't a win for them and they couldn't have anticipated how badly this turned out. thank you very much. there's been more violent anti—government protests in venezuela. they began last week after the opposition leader was banned from holding office for fifteen years.

the organisation of american states says fresh elections are the only way to resolve the deepening crisis in the country. tim allman reports. clouds of tear gas, protesters throwing stones. the situation that appears to be spiralling out of control. the president has described these demonstrators as white wing extremists, trying to set the country are light. they insist they are fighting for their freedom. we are fighting for their freedom. we are young and we need change, so is this woman. we are all committed. i need to be out here fighting, so this protester, because really it is on us. this protester, because really it is on us. we can not let it end like this. the latest round of political u nrest this. the latest round of political unrest was sparked by a decision to ban this man, opposition leaderfrom political office. he has accused the president of setting out on the path

to dictatorship. the president says his opponents are trying to foment violence, laying the ground for foreign invasion. it is a crisis that has hardly gone unnoticed in the region. neighbouring countries calling for elections, and soon. for regional stability, venezuelan needs a legitimate government. the government that allows the country to get new financial resources, new international support. in the capital, police have arrested dozens of people, yet the clashes continue. and straight as a end the coming days they are planning what they call the mother of all protest marches. but a richer in venezuela continues to rise. in a new report it's claimed that china is carrying out far more executions than it officially documents. that's one finding of amnesty international‘s annual report on use of the death penalty around the world. the report found there

were more than 1,032 executions globally in 2016. a drop on the previous year of 1,634 executions. more than 90% of the world's executions took place in five countries — china, iran, saudi arabia, iraq and pakistan. china's believed to have executed more than all. i asked dali yang form the university of chicago for his take on the numbers in this report. number one, china is the world ‘s most populous country and it continues to use the death penalty. as a result, of course, it is a big surprise that china as a result, of course, it is not a big surprise that china 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 officialfigures 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 people's 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. 0verall, most importantly, the chinese government are beginning and around 2009, centralised the 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. 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. much more to come, including this. a bid for the football world cup in nine year‘ time. the first time that three countries have cohosted 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 0pl 245. 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 also been operating in nigeria for nearly 60 years, so they have the size and the expertise to meet that challenge. in the way was dan etete, who acquired the field while he was oil minister. he was later convicted for money laundering in a separate case. for the first time tonight, shell acknowledges they did engage

with him to do the deal. shell and the italian oil company eni 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. more than $1 billion of it was passed to another company called malabu, controlled by etete. from there, according to documents filed by italian prosecutors, nearly half was forwarded to the then president goodluckjonathan 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 that they engaged with dan etete, a former oil minister and convicted money launderer. what prompted shell to change its position? well, e—mails, obtained by anuti—corru ption charities global witness and fina nace uncovered and seen by the bbc, show shell representatives negotiating with mr etete a year before the deal was finalised. that e—mail was forwarded

to the then chief executive, peter voser, showing knowlege of etete‘s involvement went right to the top. 0ther e—mails showed shell had reason to suspect millions would be paid to the president, in an e—mail from july, the same employee says etete‘s negotiating strategy was: a spokesperson for goodluckjonathan described the allegations as a false narrative. dan etete did not respond. now, 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 eni 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. in other news: the funeral has been taking place of the police officer killed in the westminster attack in london. keith palmer was stabbed to death as he stuttgart outside the palace of westminster. thousands of police officers lined the route his coffin took through the city. the hungarian president has ratified a new law on foreign institutions in higher education, despite days of protests. 0pponents 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 0rban. the new law means the university will not be allowed to award diplomas because it‘s registered in new york. kensington palace has confirmed the duke and duchess of cambridge‘s children will be page boy and bridesmaid at the wedding of their aunt in may. pippa middleton, the sister of the duchess, is to marry her fiance james matthews next month. prince william and kate, and prince harry, will also be attending. millions of women in indonesia have left their families to work in the gulf and asia, often enduring harsh conditions. the east lombok district is known as indonesia‘s migrant hot spot as it exports the most people. in one village half the children are being raised without both their parents. it‘s known as the motherless village, and we‘ve been to visit. 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 united states government in this project. the president of the united states is fully supportive and encouraged us to have this joint bid. he‘s especially pleased that mexico is part of this bid, and that‘s in the last few days we‘ve gotten further encouragement in that. so we‘re not at all concerned about some of the issues that other people may raise. we looked at bidding alone and decided in the end we wanted to bid with our partners in north america, and we have strong encouragement from president trump to that very end. and finally, a weird, wet view that could disorient even the strongest swimmer. the pool at market square tower in houston, texas is 150 metres, more than 490 feet, above the street.

but it also has a glass bottom. so even though you‘re swimming a long way up, you can see all the way down to the ground. there is eight inch thick glass at the bottom of the pool, reassuring, maybe, to some, but paddlers of a nervous disposition might be best advised to sit this one out on the poolside. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i‘m @bbcmikeembley. thank you so much for watching. , again. —— come again. 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? 0n 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 so 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: 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. united airlines is underfire for having one of its passengers dragged off a flight in chicago. the plane was overbooked and when no one volunteered to leave, to let some of united‘s staff onboard, they selected the man and his companion at random. a security guard has now been sent on leave. there‘ve been more violent anti—government protests in venezuela. they began last week when the opposition leader was banned from holding

office for 15 years. the organisation of american states says fresh elections are the only way to resolve the deepening crisis in the country. now on bbc news, it‘s time for hardtalk.