tangling desh the dawn of islam this of an exclusive d.w. report starting april twenty first. this is the day of your news live from berlin eastern ghouta retaken the russian military says the syrian government is now in full control of the former rebel stronghold near the capital damascus now that includes the site of an alleged chemical gas attack the u.s. has threatened a military response in syria for that attack also coming up the number of executions carried out last year around the world fell compared to the year before

that according to a new amnesty report on capital punishment. and drama galore in the quarter finals of the champions league as a late red card and anil to leave you ventus reeling and spare real madrid some of lush's. i'm brian thomas thanks so much for being with us russia's military is saying the syrian government has now taken complete control of eastern ghouta that's the last rebel stronghold near the capital now this includes the town of duma the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack last week the trumpet ministration is threatening to respond saying all the options are on the table. aha. moment of celebration for syrians at least government supporters they took to the

streets of duma after rebels who had controlled the city left yet the victorious military action included a suspected poison gas attack the attack for which u.s. president donald trump has vowed retaliation but the white house later appeared to roll back on his threat to launch missiles. the president has not laid out a timetable and still leaving a number of other options on the table and we're still considering a number of those and a final decision on that front hasn't been made. that's in contrast to the president's earlier incendiary tweets including russia vows to shoot down missiles fired at syria get ready russia because they will be coming you should be partners with a gas killing an animal who kills his people and enjoys it u.s. warships left port on wednesday to move within striking range of syria. russia said it's keeping a close eye on the fleet and the kremlin hit out

a trump's handling of the situation. we do not participate in twitter diplomacy we support a serious approach we still believe that it is important not to take any steps that may harm the already fragile situation in syria we are also still convinced that the excuse regarding the use of chemical weapons in duma is made up and cannot be used as an argument for military action. russia has moved fast to establish itself in duma this amateur video purportedly shows russian police investigating near the site of the alleged chemical attack moscow says it and the regime already to allow a probe but only one which shouldn't assign blame. or earlier i spoke with peter buyer he's the german government's new coordinator for transatlantic cooperation and an advisor to chancellor merkel on american german relations i asked how he was going to approach the u.s. in regards to syria especially in light of president trump's latest tweets. well

first of all the united states remain the most important partner of germany and europe as a whole on the other side of the atlantic got it internationally on the global scale that is the one fact on the other hand we see in the in the past the development that concerns us that brings a change to how we communicated across the atlantic asked compared to form a time so we were facing new challenges we see that europe and germany have to take over more responsibility by that they itself to care about it or know about their own security issues. but having said that the current situation that we're facing on my hope is that before any missile strike after the gas attacks in duma which for me are a fact you know kid can be answered that there will be diplomatic talks and also including the words security council the fact is as well that some in two main

barbarian act as we have seen the killing of a lot of people including women and children in doman syria needs an answer the assad regime as well as russia who are they protective of power there they have to understand this speaking to me earlier that was peter buyer the german government's new coordinator for transatlantic cooperation an advisor to the chancellor on american german relations invited more about that story as well at our website w dot com in other news the human rights group amnesty international says the number of reported judicial executions around the world fell during twenty seventeen but the group warns that the true number of people put to death is not known some countries treat execution numbers as state secret china for example and it's often the case in china and in other nations executing their citizens capital punishment is often very public. iran responsible for carrying out more than

half of the world's known executions last year that's according to amnesty international's latest figures in dozens of those cases that meant public execution in iran drug trafficking and blasphemy are among those crimes punishable by death. at least five people were executed in iran for acts committed when they were still under eighteen. just four countries responsible for eighty four percent of all recorded executions last year iran saudi arabia iraq and pakistan but the country suspected of being the world's leading executioner is china. it's thought to have put thousands to death last year more than the rest of the world put together the because data on the death penalty there is a state secrets exactly how many is a matter of speculation. but not counting china twenty

seven thousand so the total number of executions worldwide fall by four percent from the previous year. i mean this day international says that reaffirms the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty last year a further two countries guinea and mongolia joined the one hundred four who have now abolished capital punishment for a second year in a row the us did not feature among the top five global execution is slipping from positions seven to eight this is due in part to ongoing legal challenges of the use of lethal injection. but as litigation and several states progress is that to see executions in. time for some of the other stories making the news at this hour geria has started three days of national mourning after a military plane crash that killed two hundred fifty seven people the russian built transporter went down shortly after takeoff wednesday killing mostly soldiers and

their family members the accident is the worst aviation disaster in algeria is history and investigation is now underway. yemen's army says it has recaptured a key city from around back to the rebels the army said it had completely liberated the city of miti which lies on yemen's border with saudi arabia the saudis are major backers of the yemeni government in its civil war with the who these. sirens have sounded across israel's that country came to a standstill for holocaust remembrance day minister netanyahu attended the ceremony to remember the millions of jews murdered by nazi germany during world war two further ceremonies will be held at the site of auschwitz and poland later today. and the u.s. facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg has told american lawmakers that the regulation of social media is inevitable those comments came as he testified for a second and final day before

a congressional panel but the c.e.o. failed to directly answer how he would move to better protect facebook users for a second day mark zuckerberg faced the cameras and sat through hours of questioning from u.s. lawmakers. accused of compromising the private data of tens of millions of facebook users he repeated his apology from a day earlier. it's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well and that goes for fake news foreign interference in elections and hate speech as well as developers and data privacy it was my mistake and i'm sorry. zuckerberg gave repeated assurances that he would allocate more facebook staff to help improve data protection but he appeared evasive in response to committee members questions is yes or no if you could will you make the commitment to change all the user to changing all the user default settings to

minimize to the greatest extent possible the collection and use of user's data congressman this is a complex issue that i think is deserves more than a one word and well again that's disappointing to me because i think you should make that commitment. while making numerous promises on improving data security secretary still managed to remain vague on specifics little. football now on all fours loss of the champions league sami's are now taken one of them by byron munich johnson crane of our sports department here to talk about last night's decisive master good morning johnson before we talk byron let's talk about that incredible game between last year's finalist real madrid and you ventus how did you ventus fight back from a three goal deficit only to lose in the dying moments it was a crazy game brian and i think we'll be off for themselves and probably the referee

the same question such incredible drama probably the most exciting round of the champions league we've had in recent history don't even know where to start with start at the beginning because you ventus rest screen a lot that tied today on aggregate but then it all came down to this stoppage time instant john ngugi buffon that sends off off the railroad ward is a somewhat controversial penalty none you would want to step up in that situation situation christiane or neither did he made no mistake to that century for three on aggregate but of course or the top post match was about the penalty on the red card instead now john ricci before and is probably going to retire at the end of the season so this was likely his last champions league game and as we're going to hear he was very very disappointed to put it mildly. i could have said anything to the referee and he should have had the sensibility to forgive me. because what he did is he commits a crime against sportsmanship. and that's why i said the woods i had to

say. now if you thought those words were strong his words were even stronger and then interview with italian t.v. because he said to referee michael all about how they rubbish spin for a holiday and he said instead of being a referee should be in the match in the stands crist's very strong words from him interesting parallels here because last week we were comparing christiane a bicycle kick goal that amazing go was and it seems that dan's the real coach in the two thousand and two champions league final cost in my back to two thousand and six the world cup the john his career ended korea and did under a cloud because he sends off and unfortunately the same thing is going to have to happen for for the fun as well painful moment for g.g. and for events let's talk about a video replay technology in all this the i never to be that has now come up again in the wake of this incident of course. used in the bonus legal angle seventy three but not in the champions league now and after the match the event as president came

out and said well maybe it should be but i think it was depends on which way these decisions go because when the season. express doubts are using and if you go by the rules in this case it wouldn't help because the video assistant been able to intervene early supposed to intervene when it's an obvious mistake this one was really fifty fifty very close to call and i think if you take away the emotion and when this happens during the game then objectively you have to say they'd make it given it probably was a penalty of course that doesn't help events it's really really disappointing if it is so difficult to take away the emotion isn't it what every all the dread ok there through the now byron munich how did edifying look again surveyor. i mean it just got the job done they've done the hard work in seville week before they would say you are not from the first leg this much in munich last night ended goalless i think both sides had some chances by munich needed to defend instead of they usually attack the first time believe it or not in trente two champions league home

games that by an affair to score so severe can take some credit for that the not enough for them to go through that by and in the half the semifinal fat draw takes place on friday now for three prospects you've got liverpool roma bus. and brian munich is going to win the competition i think rounder trade my heart says liverpool livable do very well in this competition or shall ok yeah madrid real madrid ok recording on that we'll see how it all goes coming up here johnson great thanks very much. and now if you have lots of money and lots of time to dust here's something for you and something on this latest rage as well wealthy collectors dinosaur bones the dro auction house and carousel into fossilize skeletons for us to bring in combined about one and a half million dollars it turns out that prehistoric skeletons have some trendy interior decorations. in store for people who probably have too much money the

auction house is targeting private collectors because they typically pay more than museums specimens for sale are alice soros and deployed daucus and if you don't know what they are just ask your children for clarification. and that's your news wrap for me brian thomason entire news team thanks so much for being with us with. the whole d w one hour. for in soakers global insights on the news out for local heroes. the double made for minds.