The chief executive of United Airlines has described the passenger who was forcibly removed from an overbooked plane as “disruptive and belligerent”, and told the airline’s employees that they “followed established procedures”.

The airline has been vilified after aviation police officials violently removed a man from a plane at O’Hare international airport in Chicago on Sunday, in an incident captured on video by several passengers.

In one clip, posted by Audra Bridges to Facebook, guards could be seen aggressively grabbing then dragging the passenger down the aisle of the plane, which was bound for Louisville, Kentucky, as other passengers shouted, “Oh my God”, and, “Look what you did to him”.

In a letter to United Airlines staff, CEO Oscar Munoz said he was upset to see and hear about what happened but that he supported his employees.

“The situation was unfortunately compounded when one of the passengers we politely asked to deplane refused and it became necessary to contact Chicago aviation security officers to help,” Munoz wrote in the letter obtained by CNBC and other news outlets.(guardian)…[+]

Britain has failed to win G7 backing for new sanctions on top Russian and Syrian figures, but the US secretary of state warned that President Assad’s days in power were numbered as he headed to Moscow for talks.

G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy could not reach a consensus on a call by the British foreign minster Boris Johnson for targeted sanctions, and said there must be an investigation into last week’s chemical weapons attack in a rebel-held town before new measures could be adopted.

America’s top diplomat Rex Tillerson, who has flown from the Italian summit to Moscow for talks with Russia, nevertheless warned that the Assad government was “coming to an end”.

“Russia can be a part of that future and play an important role,” the US secretary of state said. Or, he added, it could maintain its alliance with Syria, Iran and militant group Hezbollah, “which we believe is not going to serve Russia’s interests’ longer term”. The G7 blames the Assad regime’s military for the chemical attack last week, and ministers have strongly supported US missile strikes that targeted a Syrian airbase believed to have been used to launch the attack.(guardian)…[+]

The twin bombings of Coptic churches in Egypt on Psalm Sunday are expected to give fresh impetus to a two-day visit by Pope Francis later this month, partly aimed at showing solidarity with the country’s beleaguered Christian minority. A three-month state of emergency began on Monday at 1pm following the attacks in Alexandria and Tanta, which killed at least 47 people and injured more than 100. The bombings were the latest in a string of attacks on Copts in recent years. The measures, the first state of emergency since president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seized power in 2013, will increase the powers of Egyptian security forces.

Islamic State claimed two Egyptian suicide bombers were responsible for the blasts and threatened further attacks. Sisi warned that the war against Islamic extremists would be “long and painful”.

Amid angry claims of inadequate protection for Egypt’s Christian minority, Gharbia province’s head of security was sacked, according to state television.

“At the highest level, a lot of attention and care is given to this issue. But the problem is at the local security level,” said bishop Anba Angaelos, the head of the Coptic Orthodox church in the UK, speaking before Sunday’s bombings.(guardian)…[+]

Fears that Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House is threatening a new era of protectionism have prompted a joint defence of trade from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation.

Warning that the role of trade in the global economy was at a critical juncture, the three multilateral bodies said the opening up of markets had been good for growth but admitted that action was needed to help “left behind” individuals and communities.

Their report said technological change rather than trade was mainly responsible for the job losses in certain sectors in the west but accepted that the surge in protectionist sentiment in hard-hit communities was justified.

It noted that “adjustment to trade can bring a human and economic downside that is frequently concentrated, sometimes harsh, and has too often become prolonged. It need not be that way. With the right policies, countries can benefit from the great opportunities that trade brings and lift up those who have been left behind.”(guardian)…[+]

A senior White House foreign policy official has pushed a plan to partition Libya, and once drew a picture of how the country could be divided into three areas on a napkin in a meeting with a senior European diplomat, the Guardian has learned.

Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump under pressure over his past ties with Hungarian far-right groups, suggested the idea of partition in the weeks leading up to the US president’s inauguration, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. The European diplomat responded that this would be “the worst solution” for Libya.Gorka is vying for the job of presidential special envoy to Libya in a White House that has so far spent little time thinking about the country and has yet to decide whether to create such a post.(guardian)…[+]

Nearly five years into the trial of a German neo-Nazi gang who went on a killing spree against immigrants, relatives of the victims have become so frustrated with the police’s inability to untangle the case they have turned to a an unlikely profession in search of clues: architects.

Forensic Architecture, a London-based organisation started by architect Eyal Weizman have previously investigated war crimes in Syria, Palestine and the former Yugoslavia, using modern technology to search urban areas for evidence. “If a pile of rubble is what’s left of your crime scene an architect may be better qualified to analyse it than [the police],” Weizman said. For the 11th anniversary of the death of the ninth and final victim of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground attackers, Weizman’s researchers have turned their attention to the case of a western European state allegedly colluding in a brutal crime.(guardian)…[+]

A truck has driven through crowds on a shopping street in Stockholm and crashed into a department store, killing two people and injuring others, security officials have confirmed. Police said they were treating the incident as terror-related, and issued a warning for the public to avoid the city centre following reports by local TV stations that shots had been heard in the area.

The public radio station Ekot initially said three people had been killed after a haulage vehicle drove into crowds on Drottninggatan, the largest pedestrianised shopping street in the Swedish capital. Police later said there had been at least two confirmed fatalities.

Photos on social media showed the truck crashed into the corner of the Ahlens upmarket shopping centre with its cab on fire. Swedish broadcaster SVT said shots had been fired after the crash, and video footage showed hundreds of people running from the scene. A witness named as Anna told local Aftonbladet news: “I saw hundreds of people run – they ran for their lives. I turned and ran as well.”(guardian)…[+]

Two former heads of Israel’s powerful domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, have made an impassioned and powerful intervention ahead of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the country’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in June.

One of the pair warned that the country’s political system was sunk in the process of “incremental tyranny”.

Ami Ayalon and Carmi Gillon were speaking ahead of a public meeting at a Jerusalem gallery which is threatened with closure for hosting a meeting organised by the military whistleblowing group Breaking the Silence, one of the main targets of the rightwing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

During his recent visit to the UK, Netanyahu also asked Theresa May to cut UK government funding to the group – a request that baffled diplomats as no direct UK funding exists.(guardian)…[+]

Indian police are reviewing reports of missing children to try to identify a girl who was found living in a forest with a group of monkeys. The girl, believed to be 10 to 12 years old, was unable to speak, was wearing no clothes and was emaciated when she was discovered in January and taken to a hospital in Bahraich, a town in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India.

She behaved like an animal, running on her arms and legs and eating food off the floor with her mouth, said DK Singh, chief medical superintendent of the government-run hospital. After treatment, she has begun walking normally and eating with her hands.

“She is still not able to speak, but understands whatever you tell her and even smiles,” Singh said.(guardian)…[+]