i'm babita sharma. our top story: i'm babita sharma. ourtop story: moscow i'm babita sharma. our top story: moscow raises the diplomatic stakes after last week's gas attack on a rebel held town in syria. secretary of state rex tillerson is in moscow to try to persuade russia to drop president assad as a long—term ally. russia has consistently blamed the syrian rebels boardies arian gas attack. the white house press secretary sean spicer has apologised for remarks suggesting hitler didn't use chemical weapons against his own people, saying his words were inappropriate and insensitive. this video is trending at bbc.com, showing the queen and her husband prince philip at whipsnade zoo outside london and they were feeding the elephants. it's clear one of them loves bananas. you're up to date. stay with us. our top story in the uk: the parents ofa our top story in the uk: the parents

of a seriously ill eight—month—old baby are devastated after a high court decided doctors can withdraw their son's life—support. i'll be back later but first, here's sharanjit leyl with asia business report. toshiba's troubles. the japanese firm risks a de—listing after risking earnings without a sign of from auditors. and we find out what china's latest inflation figures tell us about the country's economy. hello and welcome to asia business report, i'm sharanjit leyl. toshiba's shares are down more than 296 toshiba's shares are down more than 2% at the start of trade in tokyo this morning, the conglomerate from japan could face delisting from the stock exchange after it listed results without the endorsement of

an auditor. it's unprecedented for a majorjapanese an auditor. it's unprecedented for a major japanese firm, they an auditor. it's unprecedented for a majorjapanese firm, they are going to sell their crown jewels, the chip business, to offset huge losses from its nuclear division in the us westinghouse. earlier i spoke to rupert wingfield—hayes and asked him about the likelihood of a de—listing. about the likelihood of a de-listing. every stock exchange around the world has rules over what companies have to do to qualify too keep their stocks listed, and one of thoseis keep their stocks listed, and one of those is normally that you have to file timely results, timely reports, financial reports, and they have to be audited by an auditing company and signed off by that company. clearly what we said yesterday that saw yesterday is pwc, toshiba's auditors, have refused to sign off on those results and the tokyo stock exchange will have to make a decision, does that mean toshiba is not in compliance with its own regulations and if so it will be forced to delist the company. i

suspect it will be reluctant to do so suspect it will be reluctant to do so but then there's the credibility of the tokyo stock market, it is potentially at stake here as well. rupert, what happens next to this giant conglomerate? we know it's a century—old company, founded in 1875, will toshiba be allowed to failand 1875, will toshiba be allowed to fail and how 1875, will toshiba be allowed to failand how might 1875, will toshiba be allowed to fail and how might this failure be a lesson to other japanese fail and how might this failure be a lesson to otherjapanese stalwarts? i don't think the japanese government wants toshiba to fail but at the moment there's no rescue package, so it looks likely some sort of deal will be done to sell off chunks of the company but the problem again for the japanese government and toshiba, at the moment only foreign companies are coming forward. word we understand a taiwanese company is prepared to offer well over the market rate for toshiba's memory chip business but there are political issues around selling such a crown jewels, as you called it, of toshiba to a foreign company. there are political

considerations and the japanese government would clearly like to keep that company or all of toshiba's assets injapanese hands if they can. what happens next to the company? as you say, it will be broken up into bits, the prized assets being sold off, but beyond that, can it continue to survive in what we know today, toshiba, the big giant conglomerate? it can certainly survive, it can survive de—listing, other companies have done so. it would be a major blow, a sort of moral blow to the company, everybody would frown upon a de—listing, certainly in the financial markets and the financial industry, it could delist and then go through a deal to sell off various bits of the company and raise enough cash to cover its huge debts, especially in its north american division. it will have to go through the bankruptcy and of

westinghouse in north america and it could re—emerge a smaller but leaner company and go back to basically it's all business of construction, thatis it's all business of construction, that is the core business that toshiba used to do. rupert wingfield—hayes. another high—level staff departure at uber. the compa ny‘s head high—level staff departure at uber. the company's head of communications has left and no reason was given for her exit but she's the fourth high—level executive to leave the company recently. last month uber‘s president left citing the culture of the company... uber‘s reputation took a hit after video emerged of the chief executive swearing at a driver as well as allegations of sexual harassment. more on that story and other corporate news on oui’ story and other corporate news on our website. not so long ago customers who were unhappy with the company's service would call up and complain or even write a grumpy letter, but in the digital age of you have questions or

need help with an order so companies are finding new ways to help you reach out to them. we caught up with the chief executive of a software company that supplies services like live online chat systems, zendesk. we see some new trends here that we don't see anywhere else in the world, we can see how these trends are coming through the rest of the world, how consumers are embracing mobile and new messaging paradigms and moving more of their brand interactions to these new channels and devices. we're curious about them and interested in how that can help our products and help customers elsewhere in the world. the voice of the customer has never been louder than it is today and

because of all the social media, any consumer can reach the entire world through social media and the internet, the customer has so much power both in terms of exposing companies and hurting their brands if they want to. so for businesses it's really about embracing those channels and figuring out the pot proper way of engaging in those channels and having meaningful conversations with their customers. technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, these kinds of things, helps us build better tools that helps us build better tools that help customers serve themselves better. so we see it as a very natural revolution of service but also that we have quality customer service that can help when the automated experience doesn't work. now, speaking of the importance of

good customer service, shares of united continental, the parent company of united airlines, fell by as much as 4% in us trading before recovering to close lower than 1%, the selloff wiped off $255 million from the market value of the company and investors dumped on the stock after this video emerged showing airport officials dragging of a passenger on one of united's us flights. the video has gone viral and has been watched hundreds of millions of times around the world and united's chief executive had to issue another apology saying he was sorry and the airline would fix it. he had initially said the staff were following established procedures. in other news, china's inflation figures are out later this hour and the cpi grew fast last month. they are targeting 3% this year but is that a realistic target? here's the view of a man who tracks the chinese

economy and he spoke to me earlier. in china they have already set a target, this year. to why isn't good, too low isn't good, but of course it is a bit on the low side —— to why. 2% is probably around best for china. at the moment i would say it's not easy to achieve 296 would say it's not easy to achieve 2% because of food prices, food prices always account for a big chunk of china's‘s cpi. at the moment so farfood chunk of china's‘s cpi. at the moment so far food prices have chunk of china's‘s cpi. at the moment so farfood prices have been fairly low, that's why it isn't easy for china to reach 2% this year. looking away from that, let's look at some of the policies the chinese government took this year, capital controls, limiting capital flowing out of the country, what impact has that had? i know about that and the impact it has had. in terms of the impact it has had. in terms of the impact on the real economy, we have

heard from companies who have had some trouble expanding overseas. right now there's a lot of scrutiny in terms of investigation and motivation behind that. the money has been a distraction. but that's the negative side. on the positive side we are seeing a more balanced flow for china because in the past few years we have been worried about this but after the tightening measures we are seeing more balanced flow is, that is good for everyone. in terms of balance, the output, authorities are projecting 6.5% growth this year. what impact will that slower growth in china have on many of its trading partners in asia who count on it as a major trading partner? i would say 6.5% who count on it as a major trading partner? i would say 6.596 isn't a bad number for china given partner? i would say 6.596 isn't a bad numberfor china given china is such a huge economy, after 30 years of record growth, the size of the chinese economy is huge so 6.5% is

based on a high base already. so in terms of the impact on the region, i don't see significant impact as long as china can keep their growth around 6.5%. let's have a look at the markets before we go because as you can see, the nikkei is down 1% already at the get go. those toshiba shares have been going in and out of positive territory right now, they are up around 0.5% at the moment, a lot of conflicting talk about where the company is headed. that's it for this edition of asia business report. i'm sharanjit leyl. thanks for joining report. i'm sharanjit leyl. thanks forjoining us. you're watching bbc news. the headlines: the us secretary of state rex tillerson is in moscow trying to persuade russia to abandon its support for syria's and grow sad. after telling a press conference that adolf hitler didn't use chemical weapons, there are growing

calls for white house press secretary sean spicer to resign. ministers have been accused of not having a proper plan for the future of the natural environment. publication of the official 25 year strategy for nature has been repeatedly delayed and isn't now expected until the summer. but critics complain it's devoid of policies, as roger harrabin reports. english woodland in its springtime glory. the report aspires for everyone to be able to enjoy nature. it admits to serious problems with the countryside. european farm policies have driven away birds, it says. let's bring them back. fill the air would be cleaned up, the report promises. —— filthy. new policies on waste and resources would be possible after brexit. environmentalists welcome its vision, but say policies are virtually absent from the document.

it's lightweight, in fact it has no weight at all and that's disappointing given how long we've been waiting for it and how long we still may have to wait for the government actually tells us how it will achieve its noble ambition to have the environment in a better state for the next generation. the report certainly outlines a vision of a beautiful land. our water will be cleaner, it says. our pla nts water will be cleaner, it says. our plants and wildlife will be healthier. our seas will be cleaner. but where are the policies? ta ke forests. the document says that by far the best place to plant new woodlands is near cities where people can enjoy them. eight times better than planting them in the countryside, for instance. so what is the policy recommendation to ministers? absolutely nothing. brexit has made strategy much more complicated. the government's environment department defra is already struggling with another 25 year plan on farming, and farmers

themselves are nervous about expanding woodland. there's no doubt if we were to turn large tracts of land into forestry, yes it would have a detrimental affect on our ability to produce high—quality affordable food for the british public. ministers are still promising to leave the environment better than they'd inherited it. their critics wa nt to they'd inherited it. their critics want to the proof. roger harrabin, bbc news. historical drama the crown has dominated this year's tv bafta nominations after securing five nods, including best actress and best drama series. claire foy is tipped for her portrayal of the younger queen elizabeth ii on the netflix, while jared harris, john lithgow and vanessa kirby are featured in the line—up for best supporting actors. time now for all the sports news in sport today with tulsen tollett. hello.

this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: an explosion outside the borussia dortmund team bus forces the postponement of their champions league quarter—final first leg match against monaco. paulo dybala scores twice forjuventus in turin as they beat barcelona 3—0 ahead of the return leg in spain next wednesday. and pakistan's shoaib malik hits a six to win the match, the series and bring up his century as they beat west indies in guyana. hello, and welcome to the programme, where we start with the news that borussia dortmund's champions league quarter—final first leg match against monaco had to be postponed in germany on tuesday. three explosive devices detonated near the team bus while it was en route to the match, damaging the windows and defender,