police then why. do we make sure everyone. and home depot and want people to congregate in any one place. and we are to be sure. it will be. two people or groups then goes back to the room can for. my. useless warn. everybody two to three away from crossbows. kind we run for people to go through that stuff about everybody please to repeat the model longing. to out of bounds should scream at home for their own freaks to. be so i can shut down free will. we we don't want more troops going without blowing one we will build

more reprice based on. a made up story. who who. works there is all that we cities when we have the very our movie rather extraordinary. sri lanka's minister of economic reforms and public distribution how should a silver on the line they're telling us that they do have some suspects in custody in the aftermath of various bomb attacks thank you for being with us on al-jazeera . let's bring in alan keenan who is in london he is the sri lanka project director at the international crisis group al and we've just been speaking to the minister who tells us that they do have some suspects in custody the scale and sophistication of these attacks we've seen it's unprecedented in sri lanka.

from there we'll figure out who the who the organizers were but you're right as the minister was saying this is this is the these are the worst attacks. has ever seen probably than even in the war certainly in terms of terrorist attacks. alan given that there was such a ferocious and long civil war there presumably intelligence services have the experience and capacity for a very thorough investigation into into the background of the group behind this. yes there's no question about the competence of the sri lankan police and intelligence services when they want to find out who committed a crime they are almost always able to do it the question the problems we've always had is is there the political will to find the right culprits so let's hope in this case there is and that whatever evidence is uncovered is you know is presented in its true form and not spun for political agendas and i think more generally i think

you know if we are now at the getting to the stage where there are suspects and there's evidence produced. i think the hope is that the sri lankan government and the government officials will make it clear to the public that whichever community the perpetrators come from is not and should not be targeted there should not be reprisals there should not be sort of vengeance taken on the on the wider community because this is unfortunately been the case in sri lanka and other parts of the world as well of course where sort of a community is blamed for the acts of criminal acts of some particular members so there's been a lot of volatility even after the end of the war there's been a whole series of attacks on christian churches and also on the on the muslim community most recently a week almost a week of violence last year against muslims so there's a lot of tension in volatility a lot of fears across all communities about what the other communities are up to or might be up to so i think it's

a time for calm and hopefully the police and security for apparat. political leadership will send clear messages to the whole of sri lanka to keep calm and take things step by step in and wait to to act in you know according to the law and based on evidence and i mean ask you more about the politics what might we see in terms of political fallout and is there a growing concern about a potentially deteriorating security situation in the country. well. on the latter point i don't know i mean let's hope this is a one off let's hope that nothing like this ever happens again and that those responsible are brought to justice quickly and correctly accurately the political context is one of increasing sort of infighting in the governments sort of which has paralyzed their ability to actually. carry through the various reforms that they promised when elected in two thousand and fifteen we had the constitutional

crisis and attempted constitutional cool in october november december of last year even after that was was resolved tensions remain very high between the president's wing of the government and the prime minister's wing of the government and the various parties that represent this infighting and paralysis and uncertainty has been seized on by the opposition led by the rajapaksa family the family of the former president mahinda rajapaksa and his brother former defense secretary go top iraq park so who would like to be the president and as announced his intention to run for president for president and they have been talking a lot about the deteriorate what they see is a deteriorating security system situation and you know and paralysis and ineffective governance and so this this attack happening in this context could well be seized on by those forces to say as they've been saying already it's really needs a strong tough effective leadership security oriented leadership with less respect

or less concern for human rights and more success. concern for defense and security so that's one possible spin i think we could be seeing on today's events. from the international crisis group thank you feel inside. well there will be plenty more on the sri lanka attacks still ahead on al-jazeera to stay with us. that's what's of dry weather on the cards for the northern parts of asia we do have a sarabande of cloud you can see it here just drifting its way southwards but it's not really bringing us too much in the way of heavy rain that we do see is gradually breaking up so just a few bits and pieces are left to it as we head into monday and as they worked its way away from us the temperatures will be rising so tokyo for twenty four so will ads twenty six and forcing beijing we should be up at twenty seven there is more

wet weather building though that is working its way out from the southern parts of china and it looks like shanghai will see some of that as we head into chews day the southeastern parts of china is generally more unsettled at the moment you can see a good deal of cloud with us for monday good deal of wet weather as well and then that gradually extends its way eastwards for tuesday to the south about though is hong kong should be fine a temperature of around thirty degrees heading down towards the southeast and parts of asia plenty of sunshine here for many of us and quite a few showers as well in some spots i think for the philippines we're looking at largely draw a weather a few showers are likely in the south of the country and also a force in thailand cambodia vietnam is also looking largely joys for the south where most of the showers are there over parts of somalia stretching across towards the southern parts of borneo plenty more for monday and cheating.

in syria citizens are collecting evidence you know a lot of it built a shot of crimes committed against civilians moved out of syria six hundred thousand pages of material so that one day they can bring the assad regime to justice it puts a she will face on the charges it's a dead human face but this issue with syria witnesses for the prosecution on al jazeera. hello again i'm mr reminded of the news this hour. top story in sri lanka and a government minister has told al jazeera that several suspects have been taken

into custody after a shootout and another explosion and follows a series of bomb attacks earlier on sunday which killed at least one hundred fifty six people and injured over four hundred more several churches and hotels were targeted in three cities. police say the attacks were coordinated and the prime minister has called for an imagined see me saying of his government. thousands of washed as of turned out to join pope francis the easter mass and some pieces square where he talked about sri lanka the sacred holiday commemorates the resurrection of christ after his crucifixion as you know this year's holy festival has been mobbed by violence. dear brothers and sisters i heard with sadness the use of the horrendous attacks which on this very day sunday have brought mourning and pain to churches and other places intra longer i would like to express my heartfelt closeness to the christian community attacked

while gathered in prayer and to all the victims of such cruel acts of violence i entrust to the lord all who so tragically died and i pray for the rooted in all those who suffered because of this tragic about it. let's bring in get one cannot select an oxford via skype is a human rights lawyer and the legal director of verité research in sri lanka dan we've been hearing numerous accounts of what happened in sri lanka but the one thing in common is shock absolutely and i think i heard some of the other speakers saying these attacks were completely unprecedented and i agree with that it's unprecedented in terms of the scale of the violence and the in the nature of the coordination but also in terms of the pattern that we see as far as the targets you can see these were christian places of worship while there have been attacks in place of worship in the past which are much more small scale we've never seen these types of attacks so the motivations behind the attacks also appear to be

specifically targeting duties of lucia which is something that is completely unprecedented it shouldn't all dan we spoke to a minister earlier who said they now have suspects in custody are you confident that they will face justice. well i think there is a strong possibility that the investigations will continue and we'll hear more about the plot and the plan behind these attacks there is a chance that justice will be served but it's very difficult to predict what will happen in the after market particularly in the context of the possible racial or ethnic identity of the attackers and what it means for the group or the community they come from so it's very difficult to speculate about what will happen next but as i said i think it is important to reflect on the fact that this is a completely unprecedented event in terms of the local context because we have not

seen attacks of this nature this kill against the places of worship which of christie or. begs the question as to whether this context is entirely local and with the attackers were motivated by local fault lines intentions or there is something international or regional. can as you say it's difficult yet to speculate on the motivations of these perpetrators or this group but are you personally concerned as as someone who works within the realm of human rights about the possibility if a mentoring division or disharmony in the aftermath of these attacks. absolutely i think this is a very strong possibility there's a lot of and sentiment that is that is disseminated particularly of via social media they'll be militant groups that could capitalize on these events but we have to bear in mind that these and the targeted. were not from the british

majority they were from the christian community and of course there were lots of others that were targeted by virtue of the fact that little details were also targeted but the places of worship kristie are so it really is bizarre and be here and we can't really figure out what exactly was going on in terms of the motivation . as you say absolutely in the aftermath there that could be opportunism particularly by militant groups to to cost the muslim community has denounced them in perpetrate a group and and i can anticipate a lot of social media hate speech following these events than let me finally ask you this as a straight line can how you're feeling us morning absolutely plextor i think the speakers before me. suggested that these of these are not the type that

attacks that we are seeing before even during the the tree decay and war that we have that the civil conflict the the nature of the coordinated sophisticated attacks are really unprecedented and i'm still trying to piece together what what could motivate these attacks and i think it's too early to really speculate on what will come next. in oxford a human rights lawyer that thank you for being with us on al-jazeera. you were. moving on now and voting has begun in the runoff election in ukraine between incumbent president petro poroshenko and the political novice comedian that to me is a lenski the latest opinion polls suggest that zelinsky is needing part by almost forty five percent the election is a decisive one for the country of forty four million people with the lenski proposing direct talks with russia to resolve the conflict and eastern ukraine well

our correspondent robin forrester will could joins us now live from a polling station in the capital kiev robin beyond his suggestions of direct discussions with russia what more do we know about selenski as potential plans for ukraine. very very little the whole campaign has been the substance from this latest he can confide his campaign it's been something of that unprecedented nature the way it's been conducted so sure video and posts viral videos very very little in terms of engagement with policies and discussing his platform for a future ukraine and certainly no engagement with any of the other candidates and i think this is really a big concern for many who are worried about what is in the state presidency it looks like but they also those ukrainians who will be voting for him today are hoping that his approach is going to be a little bit more soft

a little bit more in terms of the way they see themselves petro poroshenko who is the incumbent president has very much emphasized ukrainian nationalists of my culture and religion which has fallen flat with a lot of ukrainians and he's failed really to deliver on his message of of fighting corruption and bringing about real changes in the country but poroshenko supporters . i would say that actually has been a safe pair of herds he's he's managed to at least freeze the conflict that's ongoing in the east with with russian separatists and with russian forces save the country for breaking up it's going through a very traumatic period over the last few years and having european with and western partners all saw it in its battle against russia but that seems somehow not to have worked in. this. who plays

a fictional president now has an opportunity to make fiction reality now that he's standing for the top job the question is whether he's got any ability to really run this country given his lack of experience robin forrester walk live for us and care frank you for that update robin. now we're expected to find out later on sunday who the protest leaders in sudan have chosen to take over a transitional government they're doing that to put pressure on the ruling military transitional council so it hands over power to a civilian led government thousands of demonstrators have been staging ongoing protests outside the army headquarters former president omar al bashir was removed in a coup earlier this month while a court in algeria has summoned the former prime minister and current finance minister in an investigation into the alleged misuse of public money hundreds of thousands of algerians are holding rallies calling for wider political change after

president abilities beautifully stepped down earlier this month. while the fire that engulfed not to don earlier this week has forced wishes to find other places to celebrate the easter holiday. parishioners who normally celebrate easter mass at the historic paris cathedral have moved to the nearby stained st church not saddam isn't expected to reopen to the public for at least five or six years french president emanuel lakhan is pushing for a quick reconstruction. hello i'm a star in doha with the headlines on al-jazeera. and sri lanka a government minister has told al jazeera that several suspects have been taken into custody after another explosion and shootout it follows a series of bomb attacks earlier on sunday which killed at least one hundred fifty

six people and injured over four hundred more several churches and hotels were targeted and three cities i can police say the attacks were coordinated and the prime minister has called for an emergency meeting of his government people do not want to sort of assume that it's over very much the response of the law enforcement authorities the police curfew that's been brought into effect we sort of immediate neuters are all part of trying to get a handle on the situation so everyone hoping for the best hoping that we've seen the worst if you can look just over my shoulder we're seeing some of those fatalities at this in and for these church all of them being lined up in body bags of the huge number of fatalities just at this location and thousands of years of turned out to join pope francis the easter mass and some pieces square where he talked about trey lanka the sacred holiday commemorates the resurrection of christ

after his crucifixion. so. dear brothers and sisters i heard with sadness the use of the horrendous attacks which on this very day easter sunday have brought morning pain to churches and other places and i would like to express my heartfelt closeness to the christian community attacked while gathered in prayer and to all the victims of such cruel acts of violence i trust to the lord all who so tragically died and i pray for the rooted in all those who suffered because of this tragic about the voting has begun in the runoff election in ukraine between incumbent president petro poroshenko and the political novice comedian draw to me as a lenski the latest opinion polls suggest that. by almost forty five percent the election is a decisive one fed the country of forty four million people while those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera the inside story do stay with us.

he promised to stick to his term limits as president the referendum is underway that could lead to egyptian leader tell since the stay in office being extended and he could also be granted press of that howard's so is egypt headed towards a complete authoritarian rule and one of the consequences both at home and in the region this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm richelle carey millions of egyptians are headed to the polls to vote on a constitutional referendum that could keep president of delphi power until twenty thirty the move has received overwhelming backing from parliament supporters say he has stabilized egypt and needs more time to finalize economic reform if passed the president would be able to appoint top judges expand the role of the military and create a post of vice president but rights groups are concerns he's consolidation of power will lead to a crackdown on dissent there is a lot to unpack here will began with a report from al-jazeera to see just what's at stake. president i'll deliver to his sisi was sworn in last year after winning his second term in office the vote was mobbed by claims of irregularities a crackdown on activists and potential challenges a few months earlier sisi had said he would not seek

a third term but the egyptian leader seems to have changed his mind beginning on saturday voters will take part in a referendum that could extend cc's term in office by two years and allow him to stand for another six year mandate effectively keeping him in office until twenty third. the movie's a departure from the two thousand and eleven constitutional declaration that limits presidents to two four year terms egypt has completely eliminated opposition it's an environment of repression and fear people are terrified to to to vote to express dissent just in this in the lead up to this vote more than one hundred twenty people have been arrested for campaigning for the for the no vote sisi rossa prominence after the two thousand and eleven uprising in two thousand and twelve he was appointed minister of defense by egypt's first democratically elected president

mohamed morsi a year later sisi deposed morsi in a military coup and eventually became president while consider dating his grip on power his government has a rusted thousands of activists and opponents many facing death penalties the trials were widely condemned by human rights groups as a travesty. over the last few years a predominantly loyal parliament has introduced a series of reforms expanding the military's influence the referendum is also asking people to vote for a provision that declares the military the guardian and protector of the state the opposition is calling for boycott our dream and hope to have a president elected once every two terms i've gone to and what sisi is will is not without challenges he faces armed groups in the sinai peninsula who have launched

attacks against security forces and international calls for political reforms but the general turned politician seems defiant he's launching mega projects across the country and hoping to be able to fix an economy in tatters and win the trust of the people but i'll to zero. let's bring in the panel joining us from cairo on skype this time they called us non resident fellow at the true answer to for middle east policy from one to head of the egyptian revolutionary council and again on skype from tunis the same balmy egypt researcher for amnesty international welcome to all of you thanks for joining us we appreciate it let's talk i'm going to talk start with you timothy what do you expect voter turnout to be in this referendum. i don't think that the numbers will

be very substantial there were some lines such as a polling stations before the open this morning. and there are some rumors and reports circulating now that people are being given food to to go and cast a ballot but overall i think that most egyptians take this as a done deal and and so there isn't really much concern about participating in the outcome of some opposition groups have been encouraging voting no. and people have been and respond to that but it's still not on the scale that would i think filter non-traumatic lee body agree with that assessment and that maybe voters do they feel like they even actually have a say. not a tour life think if experience shows. that. the vote means nothing under general sisi since twenty thirteen we had presidential elections a so-called presidential elections in march twenty eighth he and four years prior

to that and each time the voter turnout was extremely low and there is no transparency or is no way of knowing whether the votes have been rigged or people's voices have been taken into account votes are rigged for all we know last time he says he won by one so-called ninety seven percent this is the stuff of dictatorships and people know full well the sound of the rule of this general the voice and the vote means nothing so i believe the voter turnout will be extremely low and if we're told it's not it's because again the media is playing to the children of the the military regime and hussein a similar question to you before we get into the nuts and bolts of what this referendum actually would do what are the concerns of amnesty international about

the vote itself in egypt. so we are concerned with the process because it is happening during these awards to crackdown on freedom of expression in egypt so in recent history we are talking about a time where people are being arrested for voicing zero opinions on extremely non political matters you are talking about time where women are being arrested just for the frustration was rampant sexual harassment in egypt we're talking about time more young people being arrested for supporting a football club we're talking about a time where there is absolutely no acceptable form of expressions that is not sanctioned by its stated we're also talking about time where protests are that was was extremely heavy handed we're talking about time where people know can be sentenced to life years or in some cases twenty five fuse or even to this for participating in protest so our concern is that this is happening supports happening in a time where there is unprecedented crackdown and restrictions are free to express

and train for simply and and we've also seen reports are saying that there are literally thousands of day mains on the enter net that have been blocked as well is there any type of outlet for dissent at all. i mean this is there isn't an easy outlet for voicing dissent the streets are closed all forms of written and t.v. and media are available to most egyptians are completely controlled by the state one way or another the state has been cracking down on online spaces step by step i mean of course the opposition have been developing different tools to communicate menzi will continue to do for the tools to circumvent censorship but the state is also applying huge amounts of resources that could go to celine menu for egypt's economic co social problems into a controlling and restricting online media what that means for online media news.

timothy so along the way like the steps that this referendum had to take to get to the public there are twenty two members of parliament who voted against it that's it do you have a feel for if there are more members of parliament that really are opposed to it but don't feel that they could vote that way. i mean undoubtedly there probably are amongst the five hundred thirty one that voted for it some that personally would prefer that it not go forward but keep in mind that most of the people who are in parliament have been brought in as state loyalists have been brought in to participate in pictures networks of the regime it's not it's not a serious political institution with a lot of pull with a lot of politically aware membership or seriously politically gauge membership there are a handful of active parliamentarian's and we saw some of that in the in the articulation of opposition to this amendment but for the most part this is not

really an institution that is actually that political despite its spend its formal constitutional role so even people that support it see see a first do you think that. this is that the turn that they anticipated. i mean i think that if we're going back to people's court it's easy in trying to it seems there's been years increasing levels of disillusionment with him . there are people who believe that he would run for president of course and he said that he wouldn't but he did there are people that believe that he would amend the constitution to extend his time in office and he is about to. there's a continual kind of sense of disappointment amongst certain sections of his supporters some are still diehard of course. but also what's probably done the most to damage his popularity is not even the political issues but actually the economic situation the purchasing power which if he has collapsed as the pounds value was

has collapsed since particularly since twenty sixteen the removal of a lot of subsidies has increased the cost of living to magically as well so people are under enormous economic pressure and they're not see any sort of relief up until this point and so i think that's really actually done more than the political crackdown to damage his reputation and support ok so let's pick up on that economic point my hoss so it may be damaging his popularity to a certain extent but might that also be a recipe for a leader who wants to take more power to try to say i can fix this give me more time is that something that that would resonate with with a population that says yes we actually want our our leader to have even more power . the story that's being sold to gyptian is the narrative that's being set out by the media propaganda machine of the regime is yes he needs more time he

can provide security and stability and the story that's being sold to the west that he is the best. of egypt's security and the fight against terrorism but in reality since twenty thirteen egyptians have seen enough of the regime to realize he's been there in power for long enough for them to realize that the economic situation is deteriorating for the vast majority of egyptians the cotton subsidies this is biting very hard on employment is high and so is inflation the egyptian pound is worthless but above all i believe we have military economic empire we have deep seated corruption so what the numbers may look like over the like over the next couple of years is.