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: one of germany's top football teams is deliberately targeted by three explosions — police say they found a letter at the scene. he told a press briefing adolf hitler didn't use chemical weapons. the backlash forces sean spicer into an apology — and yet more misstatements. with concerns that moscow is hardening it's support for syria — the us secretary of state prepares for crisis talks with the russian government. and deep under the atlantic ocean — the richest deposits of rare minerals anywhere on earth. scientists marvel at the wonders inside an undersea mountain. hello. police in germany believe the three explosions that hit a bus carrying

the borussia dortmund football team, were directly targeting the club. they were planted at the roadside and went off as the team were being driven to their champions league match against monaco. one player — marc bartra — suffered a hand injury jenny hill reports from berlin. an apparent attack at the heart of the national game. three devices using what police described as serious explosives, detonated as the players left the hotel. tonight germany's largest stadium deserted. 65,000 fans told to leave, confusion and fear. translation: we've searched the site of the explosions and found a suspect device. we cannot say any more about its nature. we've also found a letter but i cannot disclose its contents. the devices exploded here ten kilometres from the stadium.

police believe they may have been left in a hedge at the side of the road. in shock, players were helped from the bus, although only one was taken to hospital, marc bartra, a spanish defender, joined dortmund last year. elsewhere police were taking no chances. extra security for leicester city ahead of their game in madrid. tonight a match postponed, questions unanswered. what appears to have been a deliberate attack has left players, fans, a country shaken. jenny hill, bbc news, berlin. our correspondent damien mcguinness is in berlin, and sent this update a short while ago. now police have said they are treating this as a deliberate attack on this football team, borrusia dortmund because they are saying that now they found the explosives and they were serious.

this was a deliberate attack on this particular team. there were also reports that thanks to reinforced glass in the bus, a catastrophe was averted because it seems this glass was very, very strong indeed. only two of the window panes were smashed which is why only one player was injured, but now it transpires that the player's injuries are worse than was originally thought. he is now being operated on. he has a broken rib and glass in his arms. his arm is being operated on right now so his injuries are worse than were originally reported. of course, the whole team is in shock. this appears to have been quite a serious attack, even though serious injuries and deaths were averted, thankfully. thank you, damian mcguinness in berlin. calls tonight for president trump to fire his white house press secretary, for a series of statements, apologies and misstatements,

while discussing russia's support for the syrian regime. sean spicer said adolf hitler had not used chemical weapons during world war two. we didn't use chemical weapons in world war two. you know, you had a... you know, someone as despicable as hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons. possibly, as hitler who didn't even sink to using chemicalweapons. possibly, of course, for getting something. asked to clarify those remarks, sean spicer then said hitler did not use gas on his own people in the same way as president assad. just want to give you an opportunity to clarify something that is gaining some traction right now. hitler didn't sink to the level of using chemical weapons will stop what did you mean by that? i think when you come to sarin gas, there was no— he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that assad is doing.

i understand your point, thank you. i appreciate that. he brought them into bed... to... —— the. the gas chambers but aside is doing it differently. he's since made a public apology on us tv: ashley parker is white house correspondent for the washington post. she was at the briefing. as you will surely know, there is a close—up macro to the face —— there isa close—up macro to the face —— there is a close—up guess of your face.

close—up macro to the face —— there is a close—up guess of your facem went crazy on social media. that's why you saw the correspondence in front of me. what was jarring to us ina front of me. what was jarring to us in a briefing room was that instead of cleaning up and clarifying his misstatement, he made it worse. i think we were all watching in a state of confusion and disbelief. think we were all watching in a state of confusion and disbelieflj guess state of confusion and disbelief.” guess there was no conversation about how comparisons to hitler work but not if you are white house press secretary. somehow it came to killing people in a confined space was worse than doing it in the street and the city or in a hospital. there is a good rule of thumb even schoolchildren know that you compare nothing to hitler. that is something that sean spicer learned in real time very publicly. you saw in his clarification when he

finally went on cnn and apologise, he said he wasn't trying to make a qualitative statement about where it is better to till people. of course not. he was a sort of trying to make a point that assad was bombing his people with chemical weapons from aeroplanes but it is not a good analogy. he has offended a lot of people. he has apologised. how much does the rest of it matter? it is another stick to beat short spice —— beat sean spicer with. it is tricky for him because he has had other podium blunders. this administration has had problems with s —— state m e nts has had problems with s —— statements on this issue before. this is an administration that comes

in with a bit of a negative track record on this but no. one thing that was striking to me and you don't see it often from this administration is after this mistake, he took full responsibility and basically said he was wrong and it was a mistake and he never intended to hurt anyone. i think people will accept the apology that people will accept the apology that people do make mistakes. thank you very much. let's round—up some of the other main stories: the head of united airlines has apologised for what he now describes as "the truly horrific removal" of a passenger from a flight on sunday. ceo oscar munoz at first told staff he stood by them, but with united's stock market valuation plummeting, issued another statement saying he was disturbed by the incident. clashes in chile on tuesday as students protested against education reform. legislation proposed by president michelle bachelet would expand free access to university but the students say it doesn't go far enough —

they're seeking free tuition for all. the man suspected of carrying out last week's stockholm truck attack has told a court that he committed a ‘terrorist crime'. rakhmat akilov — an uzbek national — appeared in court for the first time on tuesday, and confessed to driving the lorry that killed four people and injured 15. with tensions mounting over syria and the us secretary of state in moscow for talks, vladimir putin has hardened his support for the assad regime, and accused syrian rebels of planning fake chemical attacks — "provocations" — to draw the us into more missile strikes. president putin is still disputing the syrian government's responsibility for this month's sarin gas attack on a rebel—held area in idlib. as our diplomatic correspondent james robbins reports, moscow doesn't look to be in the mood to make concessions. america's top diplomat arriving in moscow does not accept that this is a mission impossible. rex tillerson still hopes he can somehow persuade the russians

to ditch syria's president assad and he is not mincing his words. "moscow" he said earlier, "bears a heavy responsibility after last week's chemical attack." it is unclear whether russia failed to take this obligation seriously or russia has been incompetent, but this distinction does not much matter to the dead. president vladimir putin is sending mixed signals, meeting the italian president today, the russian leader is apparently hoping for constructive cooperation with washington. but he is still talking up the risk of confrontation, accusing both america and opposition forces of planning further attacks. translation: we have information from various sources, that similar provocations, i can't call them any differently, are being prepared in other parts of syria as well, including the southern suburbs of damascus, where they are preparing to release some sort of substance again. one leading kremlin watcher says mr tillerson must tread very

carefully to do a deal with the russian leader. so, we know putin quite well. putin is a person who can make unexpected moves towards partners and even concessions, but he never does it under pressure, just the opposite. about last week's gas attack, moscow and washington do seem to agree on one thing, there should be a full investigation, but there is plenty of room to dispute who carries it out and when and how. the g7 meeting of america's allies ended in italy today without giving rex tillerson much extra political ammunition. ministers failed to agree any threat of future targeted sanctions on top russian and syrian military officers. borisjohnson had pressed hard for it but insisted no consensus was not defeat. i'm not going to pretend to you that this is going to be easy, but there are very few or better routes forward that i can

see for the russians. this is a way forward for russia and for syria, and in going to make this offer, i think that rex tillerson has, as you can see, overwhelming support. so looking at borisjohnson‘s performance, what does a former conservative foreign secretary make of his gamble over sanctions? putin will be pleased that the g7 was unable to reach agreement, that's good news from his point of view, but he's still got a problem because putin's an opportunist. in the obama years he was able to say, "i can do what i like militarily in syria because the americans will not intervene." the americans have now militarily intervened. they have done so once and they could do so again. rex tillerson did get from g7 allies universal endorsement of trump's missile strikes on syria, but still he left here for moscow without the sort of stick to threaten russia that boris johnson at least

would have liked. james robbins, bbc news, lucca. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: charity workers in france struggling to locate dozens of children after a fire at a migrant—camp in dunkirk. 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: one of germany's top football teams is deliberately targeted by three explosions. one player is injured. police say they found a letter at the scene. white house press secretary sean spicer has apologised after saying that adolf hitler didn't use chemical weapons. he made the comments while talking about the recent poison gas attack

in syria. as we reported earlier, the us secretary of state is in moscow for talks with kremlin officials on the crisis in syria. william courtney joins me from washington. he's a former american diplomat under president bill clinton, having represented the united states in the former soviet union. i know you have considerable experience and expertise in the region generally. it seems moscow's support for bashar al—assad is hardening. what are your best hopes foran hardening. what are your best hopes for an outcome to these talks? the best hope is a repeat really what happened in 2013. you all recall that on august the 31st, 2013, vladimir putin said it was our turn nonsense that bashar al—assad had used chemical weapons, then the russians clamped down on assad and within two weeks there was an agreement between russia, syria and the us that assad would make a com plete the us that assad would make a

complete disclosure of his chemical weapons arsenal and russia and the us would remove it. assad did not make a complete listing of the arsenal but russia and the us did remove and destroy a lot of it. my guess is secretary tillerson is going to moscow to tell russia it's time to clamp down again on assad and get the rest of the chemical weapons out. do you think russia will play ball, they are talking very tough? yes. again, the smokescreen propaganda that putin used in 2013, we are seeing the same thing. russia does not want assad to have chemical weapons. one reason is russia does not want the multiple insurgencies in syria to have a chance to see some of those, call weapons “— chance to see some of those, call weapons —— to seize. there are lots of people in russia and former soviet countries in those insurgencies, if they seize some of the couple, chemical weapons they

might take them back to russia to use so russia wants them out. there's suggestion that vladimir putin has evidence another false flag, a fake chemical incident, a provocation, is being prepared by the rebels to give the us an excuse for more missile strikes. some people are getting nervous at the suggestion bashar al—assad might be preparing to use chemical weapons again. those false flag charges are false and of course putin has offered no specifics to back those up. to the contrary, with regard to what the west is saying, world health organization, ederson some frontier, they have seen evidence of the chemical attack in the opposition held every other idlib —— medecins sans frontieres. the concern is this is a coverfor another use by the syrian regime. ——

opposition held area of. i think the kremlin will be leaning hard on assad to come clean on those chemical weapons. russia assad to come clean on those chemicalweapons. russia is embarrassed by what has happened, actually humiliated by what has happened, because remember russia was part of that accord in 2013 that was part of that accord in 2013 that was meant to eliminate all its chemical weapons. there was concern when rex tillerson was appointed about his previous close links to russia, could that give him some leverage? know, in fact the kremlin is quite surprised to see secretary tillerson talking pretty tough. he arrived in moscow today with strong endorsement from the g7, supporting the us cruise missile strikes on the syrian air base and strong support for assad to eliminate those chemical weapons. i think now vladimir putin will be seeing rex tillerson in a different light to what he did when he gave him a

special award a few years ago. thank you for talking to us. you're quite welcome. charity workers say they are struggling to locate dozens of children who were evacuated aftera migrant camp in northern france was destroyed in a fire. french authorities say the fire at the grande synthe camp, near dunkirk, was started after a fight between migrants over the standard of accommodation. gavin lee reports from the camp. inflames, in flames, the last substantial migrant camp in northern france destroyed by those living here. french authorities had warned of trouble with reports of violence and... eyewitnesses say the fire started after fighting broke out between groups of afghani is iraqi kurds. —— afghani is. between groups of afghani is iraqi kurds. -- afghani is. this is one of the community kitchens were afghans we re the community kitchens were afghans were sleeping, completely packed one against the others, while the

kurdish people had shelters. as more and more afghans arrived they become more and more packed and felt the injustice of having to sleep like this. the police are moving the last few migrants away from here. the site is completely empty now, i would say 50% is completely burned down. they've been told to go to an emergency shelters. i've been told there are room for 1500. many migrants have said they will keep trying to get to the uk, they will set up other makeshift camps. 17—year—old mohammed from syria was evacuated. he says he's trying to reach his sister in london.” evacuated. he says he's trying to reach his sister in london. i need to go to england now. you need to get on a truck? yes. he's one of 60 children between 12 and 17 alone in

dunkirk with family links to the uk. charity workers say they have lost track of at least half. a lot of them are missing and we are trying to reach them, it's hard because we don't have battery on their phones so we're trying to reach them and figure out what is the situation where they are, if they're 0k. figure out what is the situation where they are, if they're ok. in the street, talks of a narrow escape. but still determination to get to england. i don't have shoes, only running, not telephone, my charger, everything, my clothes, everything. with french elections weeks away, front runners emmanuel macron and marine le pen are both talking they need to renegotiate the border agreement. with warmer weather, more arrivals and the talks of more makeshift camps appearing, it's an issue that has dogged french relations with europe for a decade,

one that with brexit talks could get more complicated. gavin lee, bbc news, grande synthe in northern france. british scientists have found some of the richest deposits of rare minerals anywhere on earth. they made the discovery in an underwater mountain in the atlantic ocean near the ca nary islands. the natural treasure trove contains elements that are vital for everything from solar panels to electronics. with this exclusive report, here's our science editor david shukman. deep in the atlantic, a remotely controlled arm grabs a chunk of the seabed. the rocks look pretty ordinary but, in a surprising revelation, it turns out they're laden with some of the most precious minerals on the planet. working from a british research ship, the james cook, scientists deployed robot submarines and they discovered that an underwater mountain, not far from tenerife, is entirely covered in a highly unusual crust. it's made up of rocks that are unlike anything seen on dry land because they hold exceptional quantities of important elements. what's astonishing about these rocks, brought up from deep underwater, is how incredibly rich

they are in valuable minerals, especially the kind of things needed for renewable energy, which raises a really difficult question, if the world's going to go green, we may have to start mining rocks like these from the deep ocean. analysis reveals what are called rare earth elements, which are used in wind turbines, and a substance called tellurium. tellurim is used in a type of highly efficient solar panel. the element is hard to extract on land, but far greater concentrations of it have been found in rocks underwater. nothing comes without a cost. so if we need these green energy supplies, then we need the raw materials to make the devices that will produce the energy. so, yes, the raw materials have to come from somewhere. we either dig them up for the ground, and make a very large hole, or we dig them from the seabed and make a comparatively smaller hole. one mining company has already built giant robotic machines ready to advance over the seabed,

breaking it up to get at the rocks. we're on the brink of mines opening deep underwater. it's part of a new goldrush, searching for minerals. each of the coloured dots represents an area being explored. the pacific is attracting most attention with exploration of the seabed stretching over nearly 3,000 miles. more than a dozen different countries, including britain, are involved in this process. so how damaging will this underwater mining be? the british expedition did an experiment, pumping out huge volumes of dust to mimick the effects of mining. one fear is that plumes of dust could kill sealife for miles around. it's difficult to predict and, you know, like everything in the deep sea, everything connected with the effects of mining, we need to learn more. we still know so little about what's going on down there. we're discovering how there's more life in the deep than anyone

thought, but also how there's a treasure trove of critically important elements and the more valuable they are, the more likely it is the first mines will open on the ocean floor. david shukman, bbc news. queen elizabeth and prince philip have been feeding elephants, that was on a visit to whipsnade zoo in the english county of bedfordshire. the queen, who's patron of the zoological society of london, met donna, who is one of a herd of nine asian elephants. the royal couple were officially opening a new $2.5 million centre of elephant care at the zoo. much more on all the news any time on the bbc website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcmikeembley. thank you for watching. good morning.

cooler, cloudier weather more likely as we head into the easter weekend. there was some sunshine around yesterday. it was quite warm in the sunshine too. that was in pontypridd in wales. further north, grey and threatening skies we had in stirling, scotland. we had this clould and warmer in other parts of the uk. that is slowly pushing southwards. we have a westerly breeze, which is dragging in cloud even across england and wales. so temperatures won't be as low as they were last night. the rain, though, is further north and that will push slowly southwards through wednesday. we start with some rain in the central belt. wetter in glasgow than edinburgh. some rain for northern ireland. some heavier rain perhaps over the hills of cumbria and lancashire. by 9am it will rain in liverpool and manchester. that rain is on the weather front, but as it head southwards it's a familiar story. the weather front weakens considerably.

little or no rain on it to the south. a couple of showers, but some brightness. early sunshine before it clouds over in the afternoon. sunny spells following in behind that weather front in the north. a few showers around and a cool breeze blowing in scotland will take the edge off those numbers. ten in glasgow, 16 in london. the weatherfront, no rain on it to help the gardens. it clears away. behind that, for thursday, we are into a cooler north—westerly airflow. it could be a chilly start for many eastern areas of the uk, especially in the countryside first thing. but some sunshine in the morning. the tendency for things to cloud over from the west, with gradual moistening up of the air to bring us showers. but a lot of places will be drier further south and east. those temperatures —10—14 degrees. some sunshine and a few showers for scotland on good friday. something drier and warmer to the south—east. in between, a cloudier zone, where we are more likely to catch a few showers from time to time. that sums up the easter weekend. it won't be a washout by any means. when the sun comes out, as it

will do, it will feel quite warm. on saturday, we could have some sunshine and a few showers. we are getting chains of depressions, low pressure pushing our way. for easter day it could be more persistent rain across northern parts of the uk and in between the low pressure easter monday could bring us something a bit drier and brighter. i'm going to leave you with this temperatures comparison. easter day, 10—15 degrees. about average for the time of year. quite a bit cooler than we had on christmas day. the latest headlines. german police are saying that a vast carrying the football tea m are saying that a vast carrying the football team brochette dortmund to a champions league game was to liberally targeted. it was hit by three explosions. according to the state prosecutor, a letter has been found near the scene. officials are warning against assumptions of a terrorist attack. donald trump is facing calls to sack his press spokesman, after sean spicer admitted making insensitive and inappropriate

remarks. mr spicer asserted that hitler did not use chemical weapons during world war two, while talking about the recent suspected gas attack in syria. he has apologised to anyone who was offended. tensions between russia and the us over syria, are mounting — even with us secretary of state, rex tillerson, in moscow for crisis talks. president putin is disputing the syrian government's responsibility for this month's sarin gas attack on a rebel—held area in idlib. now it's time for hardtalk.