this is business briefing. i'm sally bundock. uber is banned from testing its self—driving cars in arizona after last week's deadly accident raising fears the technology could be stopped in its tracks. millions of indian farmers demand government help with their debts as they struggle with poor infrastructure and harvests. uber has suffered another blow in its quest to develop self—driving cars. the company — which is best known for its ride hailing app — has been told it no longer has permission to test it's self driving cars in the us state of arizona. that's where just over a week ago a 49—year—old woman died after being hit by one of the vehicles. uber voluntarily suspended tests

last week and says its continuing to help investigators. our correspondent peter bowes is folloing the story from los angeles. i understand that urban now has specific reasons on the state of arizona as to why they have been banned. —— uber. arizona as to why they have been banned. -- uber. and this is on the order of the state governor ducey has this been a strong supporter of what uber has been doing, paving the way to the phoenix area to become a hub of experimentation for this technology that uber has been following for some time but in a letter, he has spelt out his reasons for suspending that permission to carry out those experiments. this is improving public safety has always

been the emphasis of arizona postmark approached the vehicle testing. and my expectation is public safety is the reason. he says the incident that took place on march 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation. public safety is number one in his list of reasons why this kind of testing must have the time being at least be stopped. initially when the accident happened, and the pedestrian, she died, sadly she died. the conclusions drawn initially were that it was not the fault of uber or the autonomous vehicle, as it were. but is talk about what this means for uber because it, along with many other companies, is trying to push ahead with this technology. and of course, uber will continue to want to do

that. it should be said the investigation continues into that incident a couple of weeks ago and certainly uber cooperating with each other as they move forward to try and determine what happened. the implications could be widely felt, not just for uber but implications could be widely felt, notjust for uber but also and this comes right back to what the governor was saying, public opinion. if people feel uneasy about this technology, whether using a vehicle to get from a to b or simply being on the streets when it is being used, if that public support for this kind of technology is lost, and it may take some time before people can get back their confidence, that could be a big blow to this industry. a taiwanese company

which is part of the tech giant foxconn says its agreed a nearly $1bn deal to buy the american electronics manufacturer belkin. that's if us regulators give the go ahead. rico hizon is in our asia business hub. good to see you. where asian countries have tried to buy or get a sta ke countries have tried to buy or get a stake ina countries have tried to buy or get a stake in a us company, that has recently been a problem. this one is no exception. this is subject to approvalfrom the no exception. this is subject to approval from the us committee on foreign investments many it is not a done dealjust yet and given there have been other high profile foreign acquisitions shut down under the trump administration, one should not consider this purchase safe especially considering it involves

networking equipment. the us government blocked money gram sales to china's ant financial, owned by alibaba. several weeks ago, singapore —based broadcomm making a hefty offer of four qualcomm and that was rejected as well. but foxconn has pledged to build a $10 million factory in was conscience —— wisconsin which could help it with the administration. we'll have to wait and see whether this deal will materialise for foxconn. we will watch this space. now let's brief you some other business stories. the us federal trade commission has confirmed that it's investigating facebook. it follows the revelations that cambridge analytica had gathered data on 50 million users. the ftc probe follow revelations

facebook could face huge fines but said it welcomed the opportunity to answer the regulator's questions. amazon is taking a step into the french grocery market by teaming up with one of the country's biggest grocery brands monoprix. the services will initially be available to amazon prime customers in the paris area. other french retailers have been trying to improve their online offerings so they can compete better with amazon. america's second biggest shopping mall owner is changing hands. brookfield is paying $9.25 billion to take full control of ggp which owns 115 malls. ggp's share price has fallen in the last few years as traditional store based retailers have struggled to compete with online shopping. the german carmaking giant volkswagen is due in court again

over the diesel emissions scandal. this time its trying to fend off a class action lawsuit in the uk. tens of thousands of vw customers want damages from the company. they say they lost out as a result of it fitting emissions cheating software to their vehicles. volkswagen has recalled 1.2m uk vehicles because of it but denies customers suffered losses. we were hoping to speak to one lead lawyers in that box lagan programme. we will chat to him later. one of the biggest challenges for india's government is how to feed its 1.3 billion people. and that's why farming is so important to the economy. but amid tough conditions millions of farmers have had to borrow money which they couldn't afford to repay. so the government came up with a plan to forgive those loans. but as sameer hashmi reports from the state of maharashtra, farmers haven't found it easy to get hold of that money. rukhma and herfamily have been

struggling to get food on the table. three years ago, her husband had his own life. —— took. he had borrowed $500 to build his house. but he wasn't able to make enough money from the family farm to repay the debt. she says money was a constant worry for him. she is now hoping a government plan to forgive loans for farmers will help ease the burden for herfamily. translation: my son and i work on some deals's farm. together we earn $3 per day. that is not sufficient given the high debt we have to repay. if the government cancels the loan repayments then it will give us some respite. almost all the farmers in this village are among the 7.7 million people across the area who are applied for the loan repayments to be cancelled.

the last ten years consecutive droughts and unseasonal has damaged crops across the state, forcing farmers to borrow more money to continue with farming and support their families. fahmy income has been declining across most of india, forcing farmers across india to take to the streets to highlight their plight. it is one of five states that has announced programmes to erase the debts. farmers say they still don't know if their loans have been cancelled. even then they say the policy won't stop the crisis. translation: loan repayments cancellations won't solve our problems. the main issue is that we don't get proper remuneration

for the crops we grow. 0urfinancial condition will improve. translation: we need to 24 hours of electricity. if these things are provided we would not need any kind of financial help. it is expected to spend more than $5 billion to cancel all loan repayments. but experts say the policy is bad economics, which will only drain on state finances and not address the root of the problem. we have seen concern we have seen concern over we have seen concern over global trade is in quite a bit. a strong bounceback street. the broader market sinks biggest jump bounceback street. the broader market sinks biggestjump since august of 2015 and that's really playing into the session in asia right now. injapan, a strong performance. the yen has weakened

quite a bit. the fear factor has gone away for now. that's it for business briefing this hour. up next, news briefing — we'll take you through the stories making headlines in the global media today, including: the funeral of an raf veteran who died without any close family was attended by hundreds of mourners yesterday after an appeal on social media. former airman kenneth white, from st ives in cambridgeshire, died aged 84 in december, but little else was known about him. kate bradbrook reports. it's not the sort of sendoff kenneth white would have imagined. the raf vetera n white would have imagined. the raf veteran died at the age of 84 with no known family but has he made his final journey today, hundreds no known family but has he made his finaljourney today, hundreds of people made sure he wouldn't make it

alone. i know he served in the royal air force regiment and i know he served for about half a dozen years also but apart from that, he was just another person who served in the royal air force and served his country with great pride. it is believed kenneth white joined the raf as a gunner in 1952 but little else is known. those attending his funeral today hadn't met him and didn't know what he looked like. people have come great distances to show that love and support for somebody. really moving thing but in the service, we made sure that there was a time to reflect on those who do die alone and you don't have that level of support. today's civilian population turned out as well as the military. the military as a family but we like that the military know that people appreciate what they do as well. no one is going down on their own. they will always have us here with them. those leaving a pact

to service paying tribute to a man they never knew but will remember. kate bradbrook reporting there. coming up at six o'clock on breakfast: dan walker and louise minchin will have all the day's news, business and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: australia becomes the latest country to join the biggest mass expulsion of russian diplomats since the cold war. 24 nations respond to the nerve agent attack in britain. a security guard is among five people arrested over a deadly fire in a shopping centre in siberia. russia's president putin has arrived to see the extent of the damage. european union leaders have urged turkey to improve its rule of law and relations with greece and cyprus after a summit with the turkish president. now it is time to take a look

at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the front page of the sydney morning herald covering our main story about australia's announcement to expel two russian officials. let's look at a business story now, and the financial times, we can see that bonuses came within a whisker of their pre—crisis highs last year. the front page of the new york times has a fascinating story about sweden's government—funded preschools turning gender stereotypes on their head. let's turn to the chigaco tribune, leads with the death of linda brown, whose attempt to enrol in an all—white school led to a landmark us civil rights ruling. and finally, the vancouver sun where a french waiter has filed a complaint with the canadian

government over his firing from a vancouver restaurant for being abrasive with co—workers, saying his "direct and expressive" demeanor is simply part of his french culture. that is who he is. with me is jane foley, senior fx strategist with rabobank. that's get started. australia, syd ney that's get started. australia, sydney morning herald, on packing the decision on the part of the australian government to expel russian diplomats. it is a long list. this is a big international move. it is. now we have