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 in the district of hoechsten, about 10km from the stadium. the team was on its way to its champions league match against monaco. one player, marc bartra, suffered a hand injury and needed surgery. jane frances kelly reports. forensic 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 in a hedge and were detonated as the bus passed. the vehicle had reinforced glass. but two panes at the back shattered, injuring spanish international marc bartra, who's undergone surgery. other team members were unharmed. at a press conference held soon afterwards, a spokesman for the team gave an update on this condition. translation: marc bartra is being 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 captain marcel schmelzer, just rang me. they're still very shocked and thinking about marc. we hope he recovers quickly. the police are still trying to esstablish who was behind the attack and why. an official from the state prosecutor revealed that 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 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 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 interesting because he made that first comment about hitler and then immediately it kind of went crazy on social media and that's why you saw the correspondent in front

of me asked 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 his misstatement, he made it worse. i think we were all sort of watching in a state of both confusion and disbelief. i guess there's no conversation in which comparisons to hitler work, especially not if you're 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? yeah, i think you're exactly right in that there's a good rule of thumb that even schoolchildren know, that is you can compare to hitler but hitler and nothing to the holocaust but the holocaust. 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 his 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. how 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 its 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 sort of 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 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 accept the apology and that 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 doesn't 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 doesn't 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's 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. and over the obama years he was able to say, "i can do what i like militarily in syria because the americans aren't going to intervene." the americans have now militarily intervened. they've done so once, 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 are 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. i spoke william courtney, a former american ambassador to georgia and kazakhstan, and asked him what he hopes to come from this visit. the best hope is a repeat of what happened in 2013. you will recall that august 31, 2013, president putin said it was utter nonsense bashar al—assad used chemical weapons. the russians clamped down on bashar al—assad and in two weeks there was an agreement between russia, syria, and the us, that bashar al—assad would completely disclose his chemical weapons arsenal. and it would be removed by america and russia. there was not a com plete america and russia. there was not a complete listing, but a lot was removed. my guess is that rex

tillerson is going to moscow's to tell vladimir putin it is time to clamp down on bashar al—assad and to get the rest of the chemical weapons out. he could say that, but will russia play ball? well, again, the smokescreen propaganda that vladimir putin used in the thousand 13, we are seeing the same thing again. russia does not want bashar al—assad to have chemical weapons. —— 2013. he does not want multiple insurgencies to be able to seize them in syria. many people from other countries could take them to russia to use. russia wants them out of syria. because some people, you may well know, they have seen in putin's comments that there is evidence another false flag has been

done to give the us an excuse for more missile strikes. some people have seen that and are getting nervous, the suggestion that bashar al—assad may be prepared to use chemical weapons again. those false flag charges are false. of course. vladimir putin has offered no specifics to back it up. with regard to what the west is saying, medecins sans frontiers, and others, they have seen evidence of these attacks in opposition held areas, such as idlib. it is clear bashar al—assad did this. but what about the idea it could be used at an earlier or later time. i am sure they will be coming clear on their weapons. russia was embarrassed by this happening. they we re

embarrassed by this happening. they were humiliated. russia was part of that accord in 2013 that were supposed to eliminate these chemical weapons. there was some concern when rex tillerson was elected about his previous close links with russia, could that give him leverage? no. i was surprised to see rex tillerson talking tough. he has arrived in moscow today with strong endorsements from the g7 supporting the missile strikes on the syrian air base and on bashar al—assad to remove those weapons. i can president putin will see rex tillerson in a different way than he did afew tillerson in a different way than he did a few years ago when he got that special award. william courtney. the united nations says there has been a surge in the use of children as suicide bombers by the west african islamist group, 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 fire started after fighting broke out between groups of afghanis iraqi kurds, blamed on competition for space. this is one of 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'd say 50%

is completely burned down. they've been told to go to emergency shelters. i've been told there's about room for 900. there are 1,500 people here. 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 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 they 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. some other stories in brief now. 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. 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." queen elizabeth and prince philip have been feeding elephants, 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. just quickly, the main news. police in germany believes the football tea m in germany believes the football team borussia dortmund was deliberately targeted by three explosive devices as they were travelling to a game. one player was hurt. that is it for 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. german police say a bus carrying the football team borussia dortmund to a champions league game was deliberately targeted. it was hit by three explosions. officials say a letter was found near the scene — but warn against assuming it was a terrorist attack. president trump is facing calls to sack his press spokesman sean spicer for insensitive and inappropriate remarks. talking to a press briefing about the recent sarin gas attack

in syria, he asserted that "even hitler did not use chemical weapons during world war two." he has apologised to anyone who was offended. russia is hardening its support for the assad regime — even with the us secretary of state in moscow for crisis talks. president putin is still disputing the syrian government's responsibility for this month's sarin gas attack, and has accused rebels of setting up fake attacks to justify more american missile strikes. that's all for me, now it's time for hardtalk.