killed all 157 people on board. the boeing 737, owned by ethiopian airlines, was carrying passengers from more than 30 countries. it came down shortly after taking off from the capital, addis ababa. syrian forces backed by the us have begun their assault on the last enclave held by so—called islamic state. most of the group's supporters have now surrendered to kurdish forces. this story is doing well online: it's the moment a deer was rescued from an icy pond at pittsburgh zoo. one of the keepers plunged into the water to help. luckily the animal was able to get out and returned to its herd. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: a 27—year—old man is due to appear in court on monday after aston villa

midfielderjack grealish was attacked on the pitch as his side played local rivals birmingham city. now on bbc news live to singapore for asia business report. aircraft manufacturer boeing is back in the spotlight after one of its bestselling planes crashes in ethiopian. ready, set, vote — indian officials an ounce elections are scheduled to begin in april. good morning, asia, hello world. it is monday, glad you could join us for this edition of asia business report, i'm rico hizon. we start off with boeing, and the aircraft manufacturer is facing questions over 50 of its new 737 jet, after

one crashed in ethiopian, killing 157 people. a similar model, flown by lion air, crashed off the coast of indonesia in october, also killing everybody on board. the bbc‘s transportation corresponded, tom burridge, says it is still too early to tell if there was any direct connection between the two incidents. flight data recorders have to be sent off or analysis, but i think the overriding fact is that you have two of the same aircraft, ultramodern model, a shorthaul model from boeing, crashing in the space of five months, is incredibly rare, andi of five months, is incredibly rare, and i think that is incredibly important to be investigated, and there is a lot of pressure for them to come up with dancers as quickly as possible, both the airlines and their passengers. india is set to hold parliamentary elections next month with narendra modi eyeing a victory for a second term. on sunday, the election regulator announced the schedule for the

multi— phased election process that sta rts multi— phased election process that starts on april 11, ending on may 19. the result will be announced on the 23rd of may. mr modi's economic record will eventually decide the outcome of these polls. this man has been farming for more than three decades. back—to—back droughts and low returns have crippled him financially. he took a mortgage of nearly 2000 us dollars to support his family, which he has been unable to repay. narendra modi has announced annual income support of $85 for millions of farmers like this man, but he says that is not enough. translation: the scheme won't benefit me at all. i spend $60 every month to buy medicines and to support my son's education. i want the next government to ease the pressure on us. and that is exactly

what this man may end up doing. rahul gundy, the prime ministerial candidate of the main opposition party, the indian national congress, is expected to pledge that he will forgive farm loans worth billions of dollars if his party comes to power. he and other opposition parties have been attacking mr modi for the matter in which he has handled the economy. apart from the farm crisis, the other big challenge has been jobs. despite rapid economic growth during mr modi's tenure, maintaining employment has been a big challenge. and mrgandhi employment has been a big challenge. and mr gandhi has been challenging him in the polls. with more than half of india's population under the age of 25, the economy needs more than 8 million newjobs every year to absorb the young workforce entering thejob

to absorb the young workforce entering the job market. to absorb the young workforce entering thejob market. but to absorb the young workforce entering the job market. but young people looking for employment are facing problems. with everyjob there are ten or 15 people waiting for the samejob. there are ten or 15 people waiting for the same job. i there are ten or 15 people waiting for the samejob. i don't know if i will get a job. there are jobs available but there are so many people looking for the jobs that they end up getting underpaid for it. experts have appreciated many economic policies introduced by mr modi, but have criticised some of his dishes and is, like banning a number of banknotes to crack down on black money for disrupting the economy. polls show that mr modi is leading the election race, but it is unlikely to be an easy competition. some major events set to shape the agenda this week. later today mr trump will release his budget expectations for the fiscal year. he is expected to attempt to get $8

billion to build a wall along the border with mexico. there are a number of key votes on the future of brexit. british lawmakers will begin by weighing in on whether to approve prime minister theresa may's revised deal on the 12th. at the end of the year, deal on the 12th. at the end of the yea r, toyota is deal on the 12th. at the end of the year, toyota is set to reveal its next big thing. on friday we will be finding out if japan's central bank is feeding the economic slowdown. earlier, i spoke to a senior economist in hong kong, who said that a trade slowdown is being felt around the world. the jobs number, if you look at the headline, which was much worse than the trend, it shows a slowdown, so it is putting up shows a slowdown, so it is putting up wage shows a slowdown, so it is putting up wage pressure shows a slowdown, so it is putting up wage pressure but it is slowing. and the growth driver of the world, china, is slowing materially. we have data, not just

china, is slowing materially. we have data, notjust from trade, which shows a contraction of exports, but on top of that imports are contracting. so there is a spilloverfrom trade to are contracting. so there is a spillover from trade to services, and then we have data over the weekend, from ppi, which shows that liquidity in china continues to accelerate. on top of that, a weakening growth picture in the eurozone, where the ecb took a knife and slashed the growth forecast a 1.196. and slashed the growth forecast a 1.1%. so your outlook and slashed the growth forecast a 1.196. so your outlook looks very bleak! will this week must continue for the remainder of the year, or do you think there will be a bounce back? we have two fact is we are looking at. on a psychical basis, yes —— cyclical basis, yes. we should be able to trim down the balance sheet, so the base effect will allow it to move quite nicely in the second half. but there is a structural factor weighing

in the second half. but there is a structuralfactor weighing on in the second half. but there is a structural factor weighing on global growth. in china we have demographics and debt. in the rest of the world as well, in the eurozone we demographics and politics, and also we are dealing with how to manage their debt problem globally. so, i think we do have a cyclical pickup, but the outlook is not great. what about the announcement last week from china's national people's congress? li keqiang basically outlining a raft of economic stimulus initiatives. absolutely, the initiatives and the growth were figures that were in line with the forecast, and there we re line with the forecast, and there were a lot of tax cuts. vat reduction, local governments allowed toissue reduction, local governments allowed to issue more debt, et cetera. all of this is to show that china is committed that there is a soft

landing. japan's population may be falling but tokyo continues to grow. more than... people are living man, with incredible demand for housing. we will be reporting from the japanese capital as part of our leading cities story. we look at the astonishing way tokyo accommodates its residents. stockill from high—rise apartments to micro homes, tokyois high—rise apartments to micro homes, tokyo is where architectural creativity has flourished. this house was built from 100% recyclable concrete, using volcanic serial in place of sand. this is quite small, isn't it? how do you make it liveable for people? we mainly think about three things. one is a japanese concept, where we are very careful about where the windows are so careful about where the windows are so you have a connection with the outside. and we always think space

in terms of 3—dimensional thinking, notjust the in terms of 3—dimensional thinking, not just the planned. in terms of 3—dimensional thinking, notjust the planned. what is it like living with your parents, your grandparents, and your great—grandmother? in a city where demolish and rebuild has been the mantra, it will also increasingly finding value in transforming all the —— older buildings. this timber house belonged to this boy's grandparents. but following renovations, four generations of the family, seven people, now live under one roof. land is a precious commodity in a densely populated city. in striving to meet the needs of its growing population, tokyo is looking beyond accommodation or solutions. and, captain marvel is soaring to a

heroic weekend. he took an estimated 455 million us dollars, the six highest global debut of all time. it is the fifth instalment of this series, and it is the production company's series, and it is the production compa ny‘s first superhero series, and it is the production company's first superhero film of the female lead. let's have a quick look at the markets. currently very flat, the nikkei is down by half a point. the all ordinaries down by 22. thank you for investing your time with us. i will see you again soon. this is bbc news the top stories this hour: ethiopia declares a national day of mourning after the plane crash outside addis ababa that killed 157 people on board. syrian forces backed by the us have begun their final assault on the last enclave held by so—called islamic state.

hen harriers are one of the uk's rarest birds and are protected by law, are being deliberately targeted and killed, according to the rspb. in the most recent case in wiltshire, one of the birds, which was being tracked by a satellite tag, has vanished and is presumed dead. andrew plant reports. out on the hunt for a bird of prey. teams have been searching this wiltshire countryside. it's where vulcan, a rare hen harrier‘s satellite tag suddenly stopped responding. but both the bird and its tag have disappeared. sadly, suspicious occasion. so that tag just one day stopped working? stopped working — so the tag was in very good health, so that could only have happened through human interference, and it's being investigated by wiltshire police as a very suspicious case. hen harriers almost died out in england. now, just a handful are born every year. conservationists tag the strongest ones. of 3a chicks in 2018, they tagged 11.

six have now vanished, tags included — deliberately shot, say the rspb. so the question is, why would anyone want to kill one? well, that's a difficult question to answer, because this is a blatant criminal act. they are a highly protected bird. but that is what you think is happening, that people are deliberately... that is what we know to be the case. there have been convictions. unfortunately, there's a pattern of birds of prey going missing on the grouse moors, and there is intensive shooting. there has long been a plan to introduce more hen harriers back into england. the experts say that the environment can support a lot more breeding pairs. but, because of what has been happening to those tagged birds over the past few years, the rspb now say that plan should be put on hold. absolutely. all the research tells us that the environment in england can support hundreds of hen harriers, and yet we only have 3a chicks. and the one limiting factor, let's make no mistake about this, is illegal persecution. there's an estimated 575 pairs left in the wild, most in scotland.

the rspb say, until the birds can be properly protected, they will continue to vanish into thin air. andrew plant, bbc news. don't forget, you can get in touch with me and some of my team on twitter. i'm @bbckasiamadera now on bbc news, sport today. it's tight at the top. liverpool are back to within a point of manchester city after beating burnley in the premier league. roger federer gets his indian wells campaign off to a winning start.

and despite a five—week break from the sport, serena williams pulls out of indian wells mid— match with a virus. hello, and thanks for joining us on sport today. it has been another weekend of frantic football action across the europan leagues. liverpool have narrowed the gap to just one point at the top of the english premier league after beating burnley 11—2 at anfield. they had to do it the hard way, though, after the visitors opened the scoring on six minutes. but roberto firmino equalised and sadio mane then gave them the lead before the break. in the second half, firmino grabbed his second. but after burnley added a little pressure with another goal in the final minutes. mane ensured a comfortable and importnat win forjurgen klopp's side and those vital three points.