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 and needed surgery. jenny hill reports from berlin. for instance teams have spent the night examining the blast site. three devices in what police described as a targeted attack exploded as the players‘ bus left their hotel shortly after 7pm. it‘s believed the explosives were hidden ina believed the explosives were hidden in a hedge and were detonated as the bus passed. the vehicle had reinforced glass. the two panes at the back shattered, injuring spanish international marc bartra, who has undergone surgery. other team members were unharmed. at a press conference held soon afterwards, a

spokesperson for the team gave an update on this condition. translation: marc bartra is being operated on right now for a broken bonein operated on right now for a broken bone in this right hand and he‘s got various glass shards that have been blasted in this arm. the team through the captain just rang me. they‘re still very shocked and thinking about marc. we hope people recovers quickly. the police are still trying to stab —ish what happened and why. a letter had been found close to the scene. translation: i can say a letter was found near the blast scene. at the moment due to the ongoing investigation i can‘t give more information about the content. the authenticity is being investigated. the devices exploded around ten kilometres from germany‘s largest stadium. the match has been postponed until later today. the world of football has come together in wishing bartra a full recovery and condemning the attack, which has

u nsettled and condemning the attack, which has unsettled players and fans alike. jane—frances kelly, bbc news. and for all the latest from dortmund just go to our website. that‘s bbc.com/news. you can also download the bbc news smartphone app for all the latest stories. 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 the... to the... to using chemical weapons. yes, possibly forgetting something there. 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. ijust want to give you an opportunity to clarify something you said that seems to be gaining some traction right now. "hitler didn't even sink

to the level of using chemical weapons". 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 mean, there was clearly... i understand your point, thank you. thank you, i appreciate that. there was not... in the, in the, he brought them into, um... to the holocaust center, i understand that. what i‘m saying, in the way that assad used them where he went into towns, dropped them down to innocent... into the middle of towns, it was broad. so the use of it, i appreciate the clarification. that was not the intent. 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. it's

it‘s interesting because he made that first comment about hitler and then immediately kind of went crazy on social media and that‘s why you saw the correspondent in front of me ask the question to give him a chance to clean it up. what was sort of so jarring to all of us in the briefing room was instead of cleaning up and clarifying this misstatement, he made it worse. i think we were all watching in a state of both confusion and disbelief. i guess there's no common station in which comparisons to hitler work, especially not if your white house press secretary. somehow it became a comparison between killing people en masse in a confined space was worse than doing it in the streets of a city or in a hospital? i think you're exactly right in that there‘s a good rule of thumb that even schoolchildren know, you can compare to hitler but... that‘s something sean spicer learned in real—time in very public

real—time today. you saw in this clarification when he finally went on cnn and apologised, he said he wasn‘t trying to make a qualitative statement about where it‘s better to kill people, of course not. he was sort of trying to make a point that assad was bombing this people with chemical weapons from aeroplanes, but it‘s not a good analogy to make. ashley, he‘s offended a lot of people, he‘s apologised and. how much does the rest of it matter? it's much does the rest of it matter? it‘s another stick to beat sean spicer with but it‘s not an administration that is going to fire this press secretary, is it? a couple of things. it‘s tricky for sean because he‘s had some other gaffes and blunders from the podium. it's gaffes and blunders from the podium. it‘s doubly tricky for this administration that‘s had problems with their statements onjewish issues before, including on holocaust remembrance day when they put out a statement that didn‘t mention thejews at all, so this is

an administration that comes with a bit of a negative track record on all of this. but, no, ithink bit of a negative track record on all of this. but, no, i think one thing that was striking to me, and you don‘t see this often from this administration, and it‘s worth noting, after this mistake sean went out, he knew he made a mistake, he took full responsibility, he basically said i was wrong, it was a mistake, i never intended to offend anyone, people make mistakes and i think their hope is people will access the apology and people do make mistakes. ashley parker of the washington post. 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: three years on from the abduction of the chibok schoolgirls, why kidnapping still persists in nigeria. 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.

the united nations says there has been a surge in the use of children as suicide bombers by the west african islamist group, boko haram. it says most of them were girls. that warning comes three years after boko haram kidnapped nearly 300 girls from the town of chibok. more than 190 are still missing. clive myrie has been to one of the last places some of them were seen, the town of gwoza in north—east nigeria. it‘s where boko haram ran its campaign of abductions, which led to thousands of women and girls being ta ken into captivity. for several months, the city of gwoza was under the heel of radical islam. now it‘s the nigerian army that claims to hold sway. we‘re the first journalists to enter the shattered city since the liberation. a place of repression and death, all in the name of strict sharia law. it‘s also a place that

knows kidnapping. the bbc was told this building, plastered with the black and white flag of boko haram, was a safe house used to hide some of the chibok girls. their abduction three years ago this week horrified the world and gave the boko haram global notoriety. several people claim they saw some of the girls here but there has never been any concrete proof. actually, boko haram kidnapped thousands of others but those who were left behind, the youngsters who were not taken, they are suffering too. a makeshift sign says we‘re entering the village of pulka, and our military escort guides us in. here 18 girls were seized by boko haram in a dawn raid just two weeks ago. four more have been snatched in recent days. but the lives of those not taken to breed a new generation of religious fanatics is blighted nonetheless. this camp houses thousands of women who have lost everything.

like adama adamu, who is 30, traumatised and all alone. translation: my father and my two brothers were captured by boko haram. i don‘t know if i‘ll ever see them again. while the people here in the camp are good to me, i‘m on my own. and that means adama, like so many others, is vulnerable. in some camps women have been refused food unless they offer sex. others have had to turn to prostitution to get by while a few desperate families, for a handful of pennies, have sold their daughters into wedlock. i found the elder of this camp who told me there had been several marriages so far here and the bride price, or the fee paid to parents by the grooms, had fallen dramatically to as little as £8. so what‘s the future for these kids, boys and girls? education could be the key

to a better life and that‘s why all the displacement camps insist on children going to school five days a week, much to the anger of boko haram, which detests western education. school is fun? yes. you like maths? yes. spelling? yes. no! no? you don‘t like maths? yes! you do like maths! 0k. if only things were that simple. their teacher, mostafa mohammad, says that while most parents hate boko haram, many do believe a western education threatens islamic culture. some of the parents, most of the parents, they don‘t want their children being in the school. and why is that? is that because they believe what boko haram says? that‘s it. ignorance. a fitting tribute to the memory of the missing chibok girls is that these youngsters do at least

have the chance to go to school. clive myrie, bbc news in north—eastern nigeria. the un refugee agency has issued another warning about the risk of mass deaths from starvation in somalia, south sudan, and north—east nigeria. unhcr says drought, conflict and a lack of funds mean an avoidable humanitarian crisis is fast becoming inevitable. the international organisation for migration is reporting a disturbing new trend in people smuggling in libya, migrants bought and sold into slavery. migrants have told the iom of people smugglers preventing them reaching the libyan coast, and instead taking them to town squares or parking lots, where they are sold as slaves. charity workers say they are struggling to locate dozens of children who were evacuated after a 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. 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 rape inside and increasing arrivals after the closure of the calaisjungle camp. eyewitnesses say the fire started after fighting broke out between groups of afghanis and iraqi kurds, blamed on competition for space. so here, this is one of the community kitchens were afghans were sleeping, completely packed, one against the others, while the kurdish people had shelters. and, 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‘d say about 50% is completely burned down. they‘ve been told to go to emergency shelters. i‘m told there‘s about room for 900. there are 1,500 people here. and many migrants have said they willjust 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. i need go england now. today after all them that i need to go on the back of a truck or inside or on the side. you need to get on a truck? yes, back or the side. he‘s one of 60 children between 12 and 17 alone in dunkirk with family links to the uk. charity workers say they‘ve lost track of at least half. a lot of them are missing so we're trying to reach them, but it's really hard of course

because they 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 are ok. in the street, talk of a narrow escape, but still determination to get to england. i don‘t have shoes, only running, not telephone, my telephone, my charger, everything, my clothes, everything is burning. with french elections weeks away, front—runners, emmanuel macron and marine le pen, are both talking of a need to renegotiate the border agreement. with warmer weather, more arrivals, and the talk of more makeshift camps appearing, it‘s a recurrent issue that has dogged anglo—french relations for over 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. now to a newly discovered shrimp that‘s making one of the biggest noises in the ocean. this is the synalpheus pinkfloydee, named after the rock band, pink floyd. with its distinctive pink claw and a snap loud enough to kill nearby fish, one of the discoverers thought the name fitting to honour his favourite band. well, the name has stuck, and inspired one fan to create this album cover mock—up of "another shrimp in the wall." 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. that is it for me now. thank you for watching. hello there, good morning.

cooler, cloudy weather is 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 pontypridd in wales. but further north it was rather grey, threatening skies that we had here in stirling in scotland. and we had this thick cloud across more northern parts of the uk, and that‘s slowly pushing its way southwards. we‘ve got a westerly breeze, though, and that is dragging in cloud even across england and wales, so temperatures here won‘t be as low as they were last night. the rain, though, is further north and that will push its way slowly southwards during wednesday. but we‘ll start with some rain in the central belt. wetter in glasgow than it will be in edinburgh, some rain for northern ireland, some heavy rain perhaps over the hills of cumbria and into lancashire and by 9am a little rain for liverpool and manchester. that rain here is on a weather front but as it heads southwards, it‘s a familiar story, the weather front weakens considerably. little or no rain on it. to the south we‘re looking at one or two showers but some brightness, some early sunshine before it clouds over more during the afternoon.

some sunny spells following behind that weather front across the north and a few showers around. quite a cool breeze blowing across scotland will take the edge off those numbers. ten in glasgow, 16 in london, not far off what we had on tuesday. that weather front then, no rain on it really to help the gardens at all. it clears away. then behind that on thursday we‘re into a cooler north—westerly airflow. it could be quite a chilly start for many eastern areas of the uk, especially in the countryside first thing. but some sunshine in the morning. the tendency is, though, for things to cloud over more and more from the west with gradual moistening up of the air to bring us a few showers. but a lot of places will be dry further south and east. and those temperatures, ten to 1a degrees. some sunshine and a few showers for scotland on good friday. something drier and a little bit warmer towards the south—east but in between a cloudier zone where we‘re more likely to catch a few showers from time to time. and that really sums up the easter weekend. it‘s certainly not going to be a washout by any means

and when the sun comes out, as it will do, it will actually feel quite warm at this time of year of course. and we could, on saturday, have some sunshine and a few showers. we‘re getting chains of depressions, areas of low pressure pushing our way. so for easter day it could be more persistent rain across northern parts of the uk, and then between two areas of low pressure, easter monday may bring us something a little bit drier and brighter. now, i‘m going to leave you with this temperature comparison. easter day, ten to 15 degrees, about average for this time of year. quite a bit cooler, though, than we had on christmas day. the latest headlines from bbc news.

i‘m mike embley. german police say a bus carrying the football team borussia dortmund to a champions league game was deliberately targeted when it was hit by three explosions. the state prosecutor said a letter had been found near the scene of the blasts. officials warned against assumptions of a terrorist attack. donald trump is facing calls to sack his press spokesman, that was 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. russia seems to be hardening its support for the assad regime in syria even with the us secretary of state 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 and accusing rebels of setting up fake chemical attacks. now it‘s time for panorama. tonight, the scandal at the top of britain‘s banking establishment caught on tape. interest rates were rigged. there are interest rates were rigged. there a re calls interest rates were rigged. there are calls for an enquiry into whether parliament was misled. that is shocking. we need an immediate enquiry to look into exactly who knew what when. last week to ba rclays bankers knew what when. last week to barclays bankers walked free from court. but what about the bankers accused of conspiring with them who‘s been jailed? accused of conspiring with them who's been jailed? they get off with their fine. who's been jailed? they get off with theirfine. now we who's been jailed? they get off with their fine. now we wantjail. who's been jailed? they get off with their fine. now we want jail. we ask should they have been prosecuted?