17/03/2018 World News Today

This is BBC World News. Our top

stories. Moscow summons the UK

ambassador to

stories. Moscow summons the UK

ambassador to confirm it is

expelling 23 British diplomats as

the row over the nerve agent attack

on a double agent continues.

US

officials investigate allegations

that they mishandled Facebook data

in an effort to support President

Trump's vision campaign put

thousands flee violence in Syria.

Aid agencies say almost a quarter of

a million people have been driven

from loans this week. And the

campaign to clean up Mount Everest

begins. 1200 kilos of waste that

behind by tourists and climbers is

elevated from the world's highest

mountain. -- is airlifted from.

Welcome to World News Today. Russia

has hit back at the UK in the row

over poisoning of a former double

agent. The British ambassador was

called into the Foreign Ministry in

Moscow and given a list of measures

Moscow intends to take in

retaliation for British actions

against Russia which Russia --

London holds responsible for the

attack.

He had been expecting the telephone

call and today it came.

Britain's ambassador was summoned

to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

And in the skyscraper

that Josef Stalin built

as a symbol of a superpower,

the ambassador was told how Moscow

would retaliate to UK sanctions.

A note of defiance when he left.

We will always do what is necessary

to defend ourselves,

our allies and our values

against an attack of this sort.

Which is an attack not only

on the United Kingdom

but upon the international

rules-based system

on which all countries,

all countries including Russia,

depend for their

safety and security. Thank you.

The ambassador headed into work,

to tell embassy staff

about the Russian sanctions.

Moscow says they are a response

to British provocation,

Russia has expelled 23

British diplomats.

The UK had expelled 23 Russians over

the nerve agent attack in Salisbury.

The authorities here are shutting

down the British Consulate

in St Petersburg and

the British Council

which promotes UK culture abroad

will now be forced to end

all activity in Russia.

Moscow says the language coming out

of London was a factor in deciding

what sanctions to announce.

TRANSLATION: The British

Prime Minister insults

us and threatens us.

Her foreign and defence

secretaries insult us.

They talk to Russia

as if they are drunk in a pub.

So what the UK got from us today

is the result of this loutishness

and their groundless accusations.

Not so, said Theresa May.

Russia's response does not change

the facts of the matter.

The attempted assassination of two

people on British soil,

for which there was no

alternative conclusion

other than that the Russian

state was culpable.

Relations between Moscow

and London have not been this

fractured since the Cold War.

The expulsion of 23 British

diplomats, that was expected.

That is traditional tit-for-tat.

But the shutting down

of the consulate and the

activities of the British Council,

that feels like a challenge

to the British Government.

And the Russians have said that

if Britain responds

with more measures against Moscow,

then Russia will respond with

more sanctions against the UK.

The danger now is a spiral

of confrontation.

Let's get more now on where this

diplomatic stand-off

might be going next.

James Sherr, is Associate Fellow

with the Russia and Eurasia

Programme at the international

affairs policy institute,

Chatham House - and he

joins me from Oxford.

Welcome to the programme. Theresa

May and the British government say

that they will look at their next

steps in the coming days.

Realistically, what options do you

think are open to the British

government? I think the key steps

are the ones she has already

outlined.

What really matters now is

the extent to which we would give

practical thought to steps already

outlined to increase security and

increase the clearest -- these of

mess of our effort, primarily with

regard to domestic security,

including protecting those people

including Russian citizens, who are

lawfully resident here, and other

domains as well, which must include

financial security and the

privileges that dubious Russian

entities have enjoyed so far, in

making use of all the privileges and

services of the City of London and

the openness of the London property

market. The Kremlin is still waiting

to see whether we actually wavered.

This is this serious story, not the

tit-for-tat, and the exchanges that

are taking place publicly.

Do you

think the British government have

been hesitant to fully implement

laws on legislation that they

could've done over the last few

years?

Over the past two years

definitely, and this is part of the

problem. For main reasons the

Russians have seen the UK has

relatively weak and three

unintentionally have reinforced this

in a number of ways, not least of

all by failing to vigorously pursue

a whole raft of unexplained and

macabre murders of Russian citizens

in this country. The Home Secretary

now says that all of this is going

to be investigated. Well, good. Will

this also apply to the financial

sector, which is vital for a country

like Russia, whose system, the

system that President Putin has

constructed is based on a merger of

money and power at the very highest

levels, and a lot of this money

comes from very dubious Celsius and

from some extremely dubious

purposes. So we have on the table

some mechanisms on place that can

adjust this and the Prime Minister

has also said, quite rightly, we

would be looking at those to see

whether these measures need to be

stiffened and consolidated.

The Attorney General in the US

state of Massachusetts,

is to begin an investigation,

into claims that information

from millions of Facebook users,

may have been used by a data

company, during the 2016 US

presidential election.

A former employee of

Cambridge Analytica,

claims that 50 million

profiles were accessed.

The two companies

deny any wrongdoing.

With me now is our business

correspondent, Joe Lynam.

This seems

very complicated. Please bear with

me as I try to explain it. This is

about the protection of personal

data. It started with the creation

of an app by the University of

Cambridge. That harvested lots of

data from Facebook users, 70,000, in

fact, but in addition to that, their

friends as well so you can see how

it gets into millions. That very

personal information was then given

to accompany called Cambridge

Analytica, unfortunate that the name

is confusingly similar and they were

ordered to breach that personal

information because it was in breach

of their rules. In the last 24 hours

Facebook said it did not delete that

so they are now suspending them from

Facebook pending an investigation.

In the meantime, it is said that --

a whistle-blower has come forward

and said 50 million profiles were

harvested from this app and used to

target specific messages in relation

to the 2016 US presidential

election, pro-president Trump and

anti-Hillary Clinton messages. So we

have the Attorney General in the

state of Massachusetts saying that

she's going to watch an

investigation. She said the

residents of that state deserve

answers immediately. On the side of

the Atlantic the Information

Commissioner's office has said it is

investigating the circumstances that

Facebook data may have been

illegally acquired and used for

political purposes.

So obviously

some big legal and political

consequences, potentially. It puts

Facebook in a potentially difficult

position as well, doesn't it?

They

said they have suspended the

accounts and able not tolerate abuse

of data. They have flatly denied any

huge data breach which this

whistle-blower has alleged. And they

said users knowingly provided all of

that information when they clicked

that box to agree. And that its

systems had not been breached. Also,

the rules are changed from four

years ago. Before then you could, by

taking that box, allow the app to

use your friends friends. Now it is

just you and your data that can be

provided. Cambridge Analytica has

denied that any of the information

garnered from this app was used on

the 2016 US presidential election

and that it only receives and uses

data that has been obtained legally

and fairly.

Some stories the news

now.

The former FBI deputy

director, Andrew McCabe,

has accused the Trump administration

of acting with political malice

after he was fired, just days before

he was due to retire.

An internal review said that

Mr McCabe leaked information

and misled investigators -

claims he has denied.

President Trump called his sacking

"a great day for democracy".

An engineer left a voice mail two

days before a bridge collapsed in

Miami warning that some cracking had

been found in the structure but he

added that there are no concerns.

Officials say that the voice mail

was not picked up until after the

accident on Thursday, in which six

people were killed.

The government of Monaco has warned

the public to be wary

of money-making scams -

by crooks impersonating top figures

from the principality.

Last September, a local newspaper

reported that a person

resembling Prince Albert II,

Monaco's ruler, tried to con

a journalist into contributing

funds towards a ransom.

Syrian civilians at both ends

of the country have been facing

intense fighting over the last few

days, and the UN says

there is likely to be more to come.

A few miles from the capital

Damascus, regime backed forces have

nearly captured the rebel

held Eastern Ghouta,

and it is thought up

to 50,000 people are trying

to escape the area.

And in the north,

as many as 150 thousand people

are fleeing a military operation

by Turkey, aiming to push out

Kurdish forces in the town of Afrin.

Now, civilians are stripping out of

the city, desperate to escape.

TRANSLATION:

As you can see this war

has displaced people. We are hungry

and we have been walking for three

days. Thank God we have arrived

here.

TRANSLATION:

We cannot sleep, we

cannot eat, people are afraid. We

cannot sleep because of planes and

artillery.

Further south on the

outskirts of Damascus it is Russian

backed government was not fighting

rebels. Eastern Ghouta is Syria's

last rebel stronghold. Thousands are

leaving before it is too late.

TRANSLATION:

Wanted to leave three

months ago but the rebels did not

allow us, they start us.

This

shelter to the North East of

Damascus is overwhelmed. Mohammed

and his family fled as the Russian

backed forces approached.

TRANSLATION:

People were hungry,

they had been in good health and

then they became thin. The rebels

have a lot of money.

70% of Eastern

Ghouta has been retaken by President

Assad's forces.

TRANSLATION:

According to the

information we have individual units

have laid down their arms and left

Eastern Ghouta but they are waiting

for the command from the Western

patrons.

As a Syrian conflict is

into its eighth year, the end cannot

come soon enough for thousands of

ordinary civilians, who have lost so

much already. Stay with us, still to

come, clean clean-up in the clouds.

A new campaign is launched on Mount

Everest to remove some 100 tonnes of

rubbish, human waste and old

equipment left behind on the world's

highest mountain.

The headlines:

Moscow summons the UK ambassador

to confirm it's expelling

23 British diplomats,

as the row over the nerve agent

attack on a double agent continues.

US officials investigate allegations

a company mishandled Facebook

users' data in an effort to support

President Trump's election

campaign.

Pregnant women exposed to a chemical

found in common everyday items may

find their sons' fertility and that

of future generations

has been harmed - that's

according to a study.

Researchers found that male

mice prenatally exposed

to the chemical DEHP,

found in consumer products ranging

from toys to medical devices,

had less testosterone and fewer

sperm than mice that weren't.

Their male offspring also

experienced similar abnormalities.

I'm now joined by the lead

author of the study,

Radwa Barakat, who's in Chicago.

Thank you for joining us here on BBC

World News. Can you explain what

this chemical is and where it is

found?

Thank you for meeting with

me. This chemical is called DEHP. It

is used in ducks like and cosmetic

products. -- in products like. If it

enters our body it disrupts our home

on balance. So there are reason for

such phenomena is considerable, but

we focused on DEHP as one of those

making the deposits. The main study

focused on prenatal exposure to DEHP

in mice, and we found the fertility

affected in the next generation of

the mice sweep round that the next

generation of male mice has

remarkably less testosterone in

their blood. And the most

interesting part was that the male

mice bought this next-generation had

shown also similarly abnormalities

and lower fertility than the normal

mice so it is really important.

Obviously, that might cause concern

for pregnant women. What can they do

to protect themselves and their

unborn children?

We need to support

a policy calling for a reduction of

this chemical. This is so important

for the public to try to reduce its

exposure to this chemical and

similar chemicals.

We will leave it

there. Thank you very much. Sports

news now, and James Pearce has the

details.

It's been a busy day of sport,

but we're going to start

at Twickenham and a brilliant

victory for Ireland over England

in the Six Nations which gives

them the Grand Slam.

The 24-15 win was the perfect end

to the Irish campaign,

winning their third Grand Slam

on St Patrick's Day.

Catherine Rory Best was one of two

players who remain from the Irish

Grand Slam triumph in 2009. It was a

winning streak that started with

last year for flag win over England.

And it was 70 yesterday week since

their first grand slam in the old

five Nations.

I don't think I could

be much prouder of the group in the

way that they committed themselves.

Some of the work in the 22, in that

eight minutes at the start of the

second half, it was almost to the

pump and they managed to fight their

way through that period. That was

the point, really. At 21-5, if they

suddenly get momentum, there were

times when they had huge momentum,

England, they are a super site.

Deserved grand slam champions. They

are well coached, well led team,

discipline, tough, they stick to

what they know, and real credit to

Ireland.

Wales finish second, just

three points scored in the fall of

the second half, 14-13 between Wales

and France. Italy ended the

tournament with a wooden spoon,

finishing bottom of the group after

losing 29-27 to Scotland. Despite

leaving for much of the match they

conceded a last-minute penalty and

suffered a seven successive defeat

in all competitions. So this is how

the final table looks. Ireland had

already wrapped up the title. They

sit pretty at the top. Confirmation

of Wales in second. If you are in

England supporter, look away now.

They set about Italy in both place.

-- they sit above Italy in fourth

place.

Mohamed Salah scored four goals

as Liverpool thrashed Watford 5-0

to move up to third in the Premier

League.

Salah has now scored an incredible

36 goals this season

in all competitions.

He also set up Roberto Firmino for

Liverpool's other goal at Anfield.

The day's earlier matches all

impacted the lower end of the table.

West Brom remain rooted

to the bottom following

defeat to Bournemouth.

Stoke remain a place above them

after defeat to Everton.

But Palace move out of the bottom

three after

a much-needed win at Huddersfield.

Christian Eriksen scored twice

as Tottenham reached

the semifinals of the FA Cup

for a second successive season.

They beat Swansea 3-0

at the Liberty Stadium.

First-half goals from Eriksen

and Erik Lamela put

Mauricio Pochettino's side a step

closer to what would be

a ninth win in the competition.

Manchester United currently lead

Brighton 1-0 in the day's other FA

Cup tie. That's all the sport. A new

campaign to clean up Mount Everest

has started with 1200 kg of waste

taken to the Nepalese capital,

Kathmandu. The aim is to lift 100

tonnes of waste from the world's

highest mountain and surrounding

region which is visited by more than

100,000 people last year. A private

airline said it would continue to

transport recyclable waste like

bottles and metal throughout the

year. I'm joined by British

mountaineer, who has been to Everest

from multiple exhibitions and has

climbed all of the world's peaks

over 8000 metres, Alan Hinkes. He

joins me from the Lake District in

England. Is it really that littered?

Not really, most climbers take only

photos, and leave only footprints.

But lots of trek actually go. Most

of the climbers who go there are

environmentally aware. But there is

quite a lot of rubbish on the way to

base camp. Not vast amounts but

there is some. The Nepalese Sherpa

is in that area are very

environmentally aware, so they clean

it up.

1200 kg is a lot. I don't

drop litter in my local park, I

would not think about doing it in

this incredible mountain range.

Unfortunately, there has not been a

proper disposal system there like we

have in first world countries so

they are getting to grips with it

now. There are lodges on the trek up

to Everest base camp, it is eight

days from the airstrip from where

they are flying this rubbish and on

that eight-day trek, trekkers will

drink bottles of beer and soft

drinks and eat things in wrapping,

and all that rubbish has to be taken

up. And at the moment a lot of it is

just piled up.

Do you find it quite

heartening that the Nepalese and the

Sherpas take this so seriously?

The

Sherpas are lovely people. All

Nepalese are lovely people. It is a

brilliant place, as nice as the Lake

District, where I am now! It is a

lovely country and I would recommend

anyone to go there, the Nepalese are

lovely people, and Kathmandu is a

fabulous region, worth visiting, it

really is.

A slight change of

subject, a Polish climbing

expedition gave up climbing the

mountain, K2, amid difficulty caused

by bad weather. Why is K2 so tough?

It is more difficult than Everest,

it is steeper terrain, worse

weather, more avalanches. It is

known as The Savage Mountain. It is

the only one of the big mountains

that has never been climbed in

winter. It is so remote, in northern

Pakistan on the border with China.

This was one of the strongest ever

expeditions led by a friend of mine.

I have been on expeditions with him

in the past, and if they can't do

it, it does not bode well, we don't

know who's going to be able to do

it.

Thank you for your company, Alan

K. Finally, from Las Vegas to

Australia, more than 250 iconic

landmarks across the globe are

turning a shade of green this

weekend to celebrate St Patrick's

Day. What else? Violin's National

Day is celebrated in more countries

than any other festival. This is

Dublin, hosting the biggest parade.

You are