no isn't our muslims are local muslims attacking other communities so that's sort of a field that we've never moved into and hopefully that's not what's happened here but i think there's a real risk that if it if it does have an islamic caste or if it does have been a assist jihadi like motivation it's absolutely crucial that the government and all political and civil society leadership do everything to ensure that local muslims who have shown great perseverance great calm great maturity in the face of attacks on their communities over the last few years that they not be targeted in any kind of reprisals that they not be blamed for the work of others who for which they should not be held responsible again many thanks. across all the developments coming to us out of colombo and the areas surrounding it so do stay with us here on al-jazeera in the meantime let's tell you what we've got coming up the next fifteen minutes iraq is working to better accommodate millions of tourists visiting one of

his biggest religious sites. the spotlight is on this year's beijing international film festival but some of china's biggest notably absent from the red call it's. the right to quote house. adequate who decides. housing is not just about four walls and a roof it's about living in a place where you have peace security and most important dignity un special rapporteur. talks to al-jazeera. the place where decision makers opinion leaders and journalists come together every year. on his conversations on global affairs and the future of the region. the thirty al-jazeera for. in a region full of contradictory. genders and deepening decides. with an arms race

loosely. where is the gulf headed with the rainy an influence on the rise saudi influence on the decline. and the khashoggi crisis. the gulf from crisis to decline of strategic influence this april twenty seventh and twenty eight in doubt. how have you changed since you were seven. charting the lives of the children of apartheid over twenty one years each story reflecting a history of dramatic social and political change twenty eight hours south africa part one on al-jazeera.

newsstand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. a reminder of your main news so far this hour in sri lanka a government minister has told al jazeera that several suspects have been taken into custody after a shoot out and another explosion and follows a series of bomb attacks earlier on sunday which killed more than two hundred people and injured over four hundred more several church. tells were targeted

across three cities the police say the attacks were coordinated the prime minister has called for an emergency meeting of the government. thousands of worshippers have turned to join pope francis for easter mass in some peter's square where he talked about the sacred holiday commemorates the resurrection of jesus christ after the crucifixion. dear brothers and sisters i heard with sadness use of the horrendous attacks which on this very day sunday have brought mourning and pain to churches and other places and true 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 and 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 fire that engulfed. this week has forced worshipers to find other places to celebrate their easter holiday.

parishioners who normally celebrate easter mass at the historic paris cathedral that moved to the nearby sent church isn't expected to be open to the public for at least several years the french president and i know michael is pushing for a quick reconstruction. we're getting reports of an army camp in mali coming under attack the campus in the town of which is northwest of the capital bamako it was reportedly. to the ground the attackers may have killed several soldiers our correspondent joins us live from nic what else do we know. well peter right now the forces in the neighboring area are going from house to house they say combing the area to try to root out any attackers as you mentioned in your intro this attack took place early this morning at five o'clock in the

morning taking the hundred so soldiers in that town by surprise it started with heavy our artillery fire and then mortars and a source close to al jazeera tells us that the scene is as the scene of disaster the camp is completely destroyed burned to the ground we're also hearing reports that some of the soldiers may have been. taken hostage by the attackers twelve or so four have been confirmed by the military dead this is a blow to mali and its government and security forces have been under attack just yesterday one of one u.n. peacekeeper an egyptian u.n. peacekeeper was killed on a roadside i.e.d. in oh the death toll is really increasing here that violence is intensifying meanwhile in bamako the government resigned on thursday as political infighting continues and it really brings in about this it type peter is it happened just four

hundred kilometers away from the capital bamako and no one has claimed responsibility yet but we suspect that a group will take responsibility in the hours to come peter nic thanks very much now at least twenty eight fighters have been killed in fighting between rival forces in libya some of them working for. the warlords others aligning themselves with the u.n. backed government in tripoli now the city's only functioning airport has now been reopened after nearby fighting force it shut down fifteen have to fighters were killed on saturday along with. all the forces aligning themselves with the un government in tripoli al jazeera as mahmoud head is there. under cover of forces to libya's you and it continues the government advance in what it would be so east of the capital. they're trying to push forces new

into world and have to how to veins are unable. civil military units joined together in a number of flash points to form a defense called on facing have to his forces south of tripoli government warplanes targeted have to his forces locations near the end city and around eighty kilometers south of troop. that. your forces providing fire support to our ground operations you know me is trying to flank our forces from the back but they have failed in the face of the strength of our fighters and the experience of our fighters it has become a war of attrition so the city is as good as controlled by the. military sources with the un recognized government they're preparing to launch an offensive in the next few days to retake the former international airport they want to push to disguise has been a shared a strategic supply point for have to his forces involved in the fighting southeast

of the capital some analysts believe forces loyal to the tripoli government have an advantage as they try to hold off have to advance the strengths. our inability to understand the area national. forces under stand tripoli southern parts of tripoli the western parts of tripoli where the clashes are taking place they understand. the local the local roads the local deserts the backyards off of the battlefield and as we've seen there hasn't been. any long or stable. advance by those locations since. the you and recognized government is accusing pastors forces of committing war crimes by targeting residential areas with heavy weapons. two weeks of fighting

has forced thousands of civilians to leave their homes. the military general prosecutor in tripoli issued arrest a warrant against hefted and other military officers there to accuse of targeting get his attention areas including an airport the only operational airport in the city the latest move on tripoli by have to his forces has derailed a peace conference that was due to be held this month in the city over the dam is libya has had two competing administrations since twenty fourteen and violence has followed among their raver armed groups many libyans now feel that the next few months could bring even more into stability. tripoli. voting has started in the runoff election in ukraine between the incumbent president petro poroshenko and the political novice a comic lot of me as a landscape the latest opinion poll suggests selenski is leading publishing co by

almost forty five percent the election is a decisive one for a country of forty four million people with selenski proposing direct talks with russia to resolve the conflict in eastern ukraine robin for us to walk as our correspondent in kiev this hour robin is this a bread and butter election issue led thing or is it just a referendum if you will mr poroshenko. i think it might be the latter peter i think the ukrainians have decided that this is this is it they had enough of petro poroshenko and this is going to be a protest vote against him perhaps not an emphatic we support the law. but a protest vote to give petro poroshenko and against everything that he rightly or wrongly is seen to represent yes he has led this country in its war against russia

russian backed separatists in the east and in the attic sation by. russia of crimea and he's prevented ukraine from splitting up he's been quite good on foreign policies had the western powers support ukraine and push on those with those sanctions on russia even got videos visa liberalization for ukrainians and yet they see horace sankoh as part of the problem they didn't deal with corruption properly and so a lot to me is the lenski is this guy who comes along with an amazingly successful t.v. series playing a fictional president that promises to solve the problem of ukraine and all its corruption and ukrainians from from from the east in the west russian speaking and ukrainian speaking ukrainians everyone seems to be getting behind zielinski despite the fact that he has zero political experience robin thank you. the iraqi city of kabul is planning a major expansion of a key religious site to cope with

a growing number of pilgrims thirty million people visit the shrines of hussein on our bus each year. reports now from kabul. this is why millions come here each year to see the shrine of the most revered and mom and shia history imaam hussein. with more than thirteen thousand employees some say it's a city and it's growing every year to take you through a sign for me with the current stable security situation in general that's the foundation is contributing to establish more expansion projects of the school to observe more visitors to the holy sites the house and this is in order to maintain a momentum of great services and encounter. with. at the friday prayer service an approved representative of the highest shia authority in the country grand ayatollah ali sistani delivers a sermon. after mecca in saudi arabia this shrine is considered the second most

important place of worship for shias among hussein is buried in the shrine behind me and next to him lies the body of his eldest son along with seventy seven others who died in the battle of karbala in six eighty a.d. now that's believed to be the starting point of the divide between shias and sunnis that continues fourteen centuries later. this area will be added to the shrines already extensive grounds within the next two years. completing an ambitious six year project. it is being built to accommodate another ten million visitors annually. to him on the same foundation has also opened a hospital here for cancer patients from around the world are treated for free there is a long wait list for perspective patients but the foundation hopes with increased revenues it can also be expanded. what are shammy is one of the business owners within the grounds of the shrines who has witnessed the rapid expansion he has been

renting the store for the past twenty years. and it could muster up for. the more expansion of down around the shrine the more visitors it will attract and that will also mean our businesses can expand it will generate more money for the whole city . people from around the world come to see these holy grounds in their millions each year for the iraqi government religious tourism is the second highest source of income after all while. the number of visitors is increasing each year because many believe iraq security is improving that means the country's revenue is to door such a party al jazeera karbala. china's film industry has grown rapidly over the last ten years making it the second biggest in the world. hollywood this week's beijing film festival is meant to showcase its rise catrina new from beijing barring. the

journey of a chinese musician in the one nine hundred forty s. kazakhstan opened this year's beijing film festival the lady the composer wasn't chosen because of its acting or special effects but because it aligns with china's political and economic priorities the film was produced as a part of its belt and road initiative. titles from other participant countries iran and hungary also featured. as chinese celebrities took to the red carpet big hollywood names and wouldn't notice the absent the capital's best of all is seen as who are the homage to communist party leadership rather than the art of filmmaking . beijing has intensified its crackdown on films which don't align with socialist values. or ship is that obviously a hurdle for the film industries development but filmmakers have gotten used to it is like dangling in handcuffs you can still does well with your hands tied. movie celebrating seventy years since the founding of modern china was spotlighted while

canadian film in god i trust was suddenly disinvited due to political reasons many have claimed chinese tensions with canada over the detention of errors mung one. oscar winning film the favorite was pulled over its betrayal of lesbian relationships that i will not do china's movie industry has exploded into yet over nine thousand schools were erected twenty alone but in recent months production studios have practical power lies all thanks to a tax evasion scandal involving one of the country's biggest. last july actress families disappeared from public view following a group of nations a false contract and types of asian a crippling sweep of the thai industry followed. many in the industry have complained some went bankrupt and had to retreat from the industry is

a double edged sward it's punished those who should be and those who shouldn't be it out there was very negative impact on the industry. but it's not all bad news for chinese cinema goers the slowdown in domestic production has led to a quiet loosening of restrictions on foreign films and at the closing of the festival it was foreign films which dominated the temple of heaven awards danish maybe a fortunate man took on best picture the wandering earth china's second highest grossing film of all time received the award for best visual effects katrina new al-jazeera teaching. this is al jazeera. these are the main developments so far is from lankan government minister has told al-jazeera that several suspects are being taken into custody after a. and another explosion that follows

a series of bomb attacks earlier on sunday which killed more than two hundred people and injured more than four hundred more several churches and to tolls were targeted across three cities. therefore it is saying the attacks were coordinated the prime minister called 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 with sort of immediate notice 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 anthony's church all of them being lined up in body bags of the huge number of fatalities just at this location. thousands of worshippers of turned out to join pope francis for the easter mass in some peter's square in the vatican a way to talk about sri lanka the sacred holy holiday commemorates the resurrection

of christ after the crucifixion this year's holy festival maad by violence. and. dear brothers and sisters i heard with sadness the news of the horrendous attacks which on this very day sunday have brought mourning and pain to churches and other places intra longa 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 event the. voting has begun in the runoff election in ukraine between the incumbent president petro poroshenko and the political novice he's a comedian the law to me as a lenski he plays the country's leader in a comedy program based opinion polls suggest mr selenski is leading mr potter shanku by almost forty five percent the election is a decisive one for the country with

a population of forty four million people with mr selenski proposing direct talks with moscow to resolve the conflict in eastern ukraine those are the top stories up next as people in power have the news out for you in about twenty five minutes see that. in australia more women are being locked up than ever before what's driving this alarming development one i want to. leave block behind by one zero zero. as there are nine hundred million indian voters decide who should be the next leader how vulnerable are they to the kind of social media manipulation that has recently been seen in europe and the usa and its growing anxiety about the impact of fake news on ministers information on the world's largest democracy we've been

to invest. as far as crime goes not much happens in. a sleepy drew district in the heart of the south indian state of. ny so when police constable muhammad his smile received an urgent phone call after noon in may two thousand and eighteen he didn't quite know what to make of it. reported that a mob had taken four child kidnappers hostage and was threatening to kill them.

but some schools. public. hundred to two hundred people gather at the. villages told the constable that they had received messages would be the war whatsapp that a child kidnapping gang was heading for their village. the message is what accompanied by a video that showed two men on a motorcycle abducting a child who was playing on the street. it was enough to cause panic and mayhem. you'll know. what. a lot. of never said. they were just. to hear your voice give it all there's a couple good we don't. all just go for the action hopefully within the law and the

public at a couple of things will pull itself out of the goal. which is. why constable a smile was able to save the day here things did get out of control in the rest of the kind. over a period of four months in two thousand and eighteen more than thirty people were lynched across india after similar rumors about child abductions began circulating on what side. these killings were eventually dubbed the whatsapp lynchings by the media. among law enforcement officials. chief of police remarks with a computer science degree he was one of the first to recognize what was happening i understand that the mall on the videos where did fix them are not real beatles but

these we do as an image just with making these religious form into mobs wielding mobs and they were trying to restrain strangers who walked into the village there's this fear there was this mass hysteria we wanted to understand the origin of this we do because they were going on but unfortunately we could not get to the origin of this videos because of the traceability problem because what has this and went and corruption and you cannot get to the origin so even today we have absolutely no idea about where these videos originated from. eventually it emerged that the video in question was doctored from an educational video made by an angel in karachi pakistan tried to raise awareness about child kidnapping. with just a little editing the video became a weapon in the hands of unknown troublemakers. so we had to do something and we

had to do something very quick. when you have a faceless criminal when you don't know who is you know creating this panic or who is spreading these malicious messages then the only option you have a story reach out to the community and up build them not to share them not to make them go. so that's precisely what we did people read not a read of the fake. they were not aware of misinformation and the potential it hard to incite winds and but if the actions of free and others have helped raise awareness about the potentially deadly consequences of spreading malicious just information few people fully understand the broader threat that fake news poses to indian democracy. in the capital of the north indian state of bihar housings of people have assembled to

watch prime minister modi launch his campaign for reelection in the state the excitement is palpable. oh. wow. behind the scenes of this festive unlike most experts have been sounding the alarm bells since the last general election in two thousand and fourteen india's political parties including the prime minister's hindu nationalist party jump up party. have emerged as masters of digital manipulation. most of them including the opposition congress now have a social media wing but critics believe that the b.g.p. steam better known as the id cell is far more organized so i reached out to them and all requests for interviews were quickly denied but there are three pozen id

cell volunteers spread out across the stradley and i hope some of them would be billing to discuss bad work to figure. out the starter. motor. is what they are trying real hard liquor filled up with the bombers outside. then in a stroke of good luck i ran into money which he had the id sell for the state of bihar there often accused of dishing out misinformation in an attempt to sway voters a charge that body image lee brushed aside i want to pull this stunt on it will be your project on what our psyche but then we call the individual if you don't just give us both your part the door busters usually if they don't make it up any of the up their brand of overlap or not it was the fake government you could look me. up

but he explained that he had personally overseeing the setting up of pozen of whatsapp groups each with nearly two hundred fifty members. verbs loops a which if you don't watch a little bit you'll watch a bit from the official legal and didn't come across your facts you have been on top of. the media want to like make up you would know what the cool facts they brought up are the year i'm fulfilling the will in tears to mock them say i am. a little. over two hundred thirty million people use whatsapp in india and many of them have been added to potus and groups that disseminate misinformation and provoke sectarian tensions nobody understands better how this works than twenty five year old shivashankar saying a whistleblower who was a key member of the beach police data analytics department until he suddenly quit a year ago the editor of the party getting thirty fourteen elections was centered

on developers who are dotted and on the wall are good there's not a multiple message unlike jack who heard i don't at the party want to find if you look at messaging today it's all about how you're going to save the gulf illusion of the got to get out of fighting us focused on how they're all going to nationals and are one of the children going to start to go the country and how they're going to save you from all of the fun with all of these up and struck the economy. that the body is going to do basically a liar. and manipulate them into what is. just based on emotion that. critics like sharon allege that the b chippies shifting narrative is contributing to the flood of misinformation on the battlers called the book he now consults with a group of opposition politicians in the state of bihar helping them devise a digital strategy to counter the b.g.p. which is miles ahead in the game. because you know just that i'll be sure clinical

death. penalty unemployment this best fix on me going to. go to an official wrangle shiver my ledge is that when he was with the b.g.p. he was tasked with collecting a large amount of personal data to profile voters these. would then be used to add people to different whatsapp group chats based on their interests all their prejudices. saw a lot of big donors in the public domain that's provided by the election commission of toast the biggest one is the one who were to rule. each other they live in that household information and they were going on in a large part of her do you can get people's cost and religions just with their mean because if it's a muslim name you know that person is probably a muslim so we just don't you can get to sixty five seventy percent accuracy brit this you can also make up other dust sets including say electricity bills which give you a good idea of social context actors because workers are to usually has

a higher electricity bill because they have air conditioning plus you have things like four not bush that other available surprisingly is a leader in the uk if you can back up back to the anecdotal then you basically have a direct to be to message people based on their cost their religion their each group and to belong to the lack of data protection laws in india means that such methods are not strictly illegal. but she was disturbed by the kind of an ethical micro-targeting he witnessed the problem arises when you start using the exact same of the liberty dollar to basically create a divided society and the people what started happening is that there is a very concerted effort to create a divide between hindus and muslims to create a divide between groups be to be as ready specific kind of messaging they're going to get across they want to get across the messaging that muslims will overtake the population number for this group but the thing is just because the messaging goes to such a small subset of people that do or didn't do or what i am to believe that decision

to take is if you can profile people and identify what kind of message and they're likely to believe you can skew that delist better fix the evidence best for kind of messaging campaign it doesn't happen instantly it's not one piece of news that's going to convince you of something but if you're bombarded with news point to do specific directions for months on end it does start to feel. these messages stargate minority religious groups or individual politicians journalists and activists. but the problem of fake news it's not limited to whatsapp. its parent company facebook has nearly three hundred million users in india and that's by default plays host to an organized ecosystem for disseminating misinformation. in two thousand and eighteen a b.b.c. analysis of some three thousand facebook pages from a town found a pretty dominant trite when narrative a nationalist ideology aligned with the b j p on sites spreading fake names at the

heart of the spoken ice ecosystem up artists and influences like because spine day i started a facebook in which i mean known as i suppose which is one point six which is words biggest fan. and i've got more readers which i don't want to the name because we will again we've got to get it but it's more than six. with facebook now cracking down on pages that share misleading information because careful not to reveal too much but with his boss reach he can often ensure that certain posts go viral while some experts insist he's part of the b.g. . he denies it i don't have any such formal role in the party but people nor mean since i've been in wards of last fifteen years or so in the scheme. so it's like ad hoc if you have to. broadcast from others or a call from somebody in the party or the system most this is how we need to do.

to achieve this he has an army of volunteers at his disposal mostly they're all the stewards so i normally see them for a. whole sensibility and home willing to help. if they're willing to help they're willing to learn also. something to make graphics out of so i give them either from my pocket one or two thousand something for the internet i asked some of my corporate friend to give them a job. not create any content himself he has been accused of sharing misleading information and the dude is that idling boy is a. few doesn't. call him a fee. just to. make sure there's credible these laws. in a now deleted post which we were able to pull up with the help of

a web tool called wayback machine because she had a claim that the number of running refugees living in india had risen to one hundred ten million people in fact the official figure is close to forty thousand but because the writing has our refugee group that are largely muslim this fed into the preexisting bias in indian society against muslims so therefore the. over twenty one thousand times before it was officially taken off. for facebook proving its credibility in its largest market is crucial two weeks before the election began facebook banned hundreds of pages linked to the idea of the congress and the beaches. but the volume of misinformation on social media networks is so high that technology companies just cannot keep up this explosion has led to the birth of one half a dozen fact checking networks like news co-founded by products and for two years

now since i am a small team have consistently debunked fake news in a nonpartizan way owning them more than a few enemies along the way is not the cheapest possible place to make an office because we have a shoestring budget so the security cameras that you see you know people if anything funny is tried being recorded so it is for our own safety. it's a few days after indian air force planes hit a target inside pakistani territory and pretty extreme is neck deep in verifying false claims circulating on social media about the attack. when he said said. that it would i think. devastation after the estradiol want to. be found videos of. all of that. and saying that you know this this is the only.

news following the money has become increasingly important one way of doing this is trick track how much individual pages are spending on facebook ads. from. one point one point two groups then in one week the. of course there are bitter feelings there's actually accelerating the moment as the elections approach one one thing that we need to do is that we need to go to some of the smaller pieces which are not you know which big thing they're not being sort of monitored and we want to see if there's any and that his book has approved which has an element of misinformation. news recently established that seventy percent of the money spent on political ads in a particular week had come from pro b.g.p. pages nonetheless it's clear that not everyone is ideologically motivated the ones

that are running the website and making money in the financial motivation is greater in my belief for example there's this guy his name is that we should measure and used to create probably more. videos and he saw that the bias to pull here so he jumped to the other side and started and i believe if there were different political circumstances in the country and if we had to create a different kind of content to make the same amount of money they would. rise amongst a handful of known fake news creators in india is wildly popular website by really in india often carries blatantly false stories with a decidedly anti b.g.p. stance the website was recently suspended but as this one was being made its associated page was still active on facebook and had over a million phone or was he agreed to meet us in new delhi and was confrontational from the start they're not going to have his body image underneath this.

little other money website but i don't know part of the bus or by those who are there or vote. was that i knew what i would wear you know a new muddy business model i'm going to. lose more than me he proudly posts pictures on social media with several leaders from the opposition. congress including with the party's president raul gandhi but denies any formal association then i bring up allegations that he deliberately creates fake content up. to c b b c to put website. up with a good example the if it knows the job. so i do in may two thousand and eighteen one of his posts went viral on facebook it claimed that former indian prime minister manmohan singh who belongs to the congress party had been declared the first of fifty most honest leaders in the world in an american survey.

many chalis longer beatrice i make many. people are. sort of in many. many occupant of side but a liar. bush i thought it would have you again it doesn't work this doesn't work that if. i may go a manicure. i'll tell you about america. how much like a big shake peddlers of misinformation continue to operate with impunity in india the easier we'll ability of datasets with personal information ensures that their content is talking to their audiences who are already primed to believe it to be

over six hundred million indians are connected to the internet as politicians started this rapidly growing constitution see the country's laws have not kept pace successive governments have failed to bring in a personal data protection law believe us draft of this law will now only be discussed in parliament after the ongoing polls. houses of kilometers from new delhi in the french city of toulouse security analyst baptist robots has given indians yet another reason to demand more stringent protection laws. better known through his twitter pseudonym eliot alderson he describes himself as the worst nightmare of the beach a piece. for me to use. to finish the open. question a year ago that the prime minister's. with sending users

personal details without their consent to an american behavioral anality company called clever tap this included specific such as age profession and other voter id details. could quickly. don't. give up on the play just one more. signal to. wallace in a very big company close specific. value nouvelle vague. and do very. shortly after baptists revelations the b.g.p. confirmed directly to him that clever tap was using the data from the normal app

for. the company remains elusive about the nature of this analysis all our e-mails and calls to them went unanswered. their website provides a few clues. liverpool would all approach is to make relationship marketing. simple and easy for marketers for example a little fee. in a campaign. should receive the message the when you know what what do i use that the message should go to and what the actual message is being automating all three of these. baptist such behavioral analysis raises a few important questions. that people value. you to do.

because he's known for. his information and i can't force under pressure to not just. switch when i don't know the. question. and i don't. there is a sure loser protest group a professing control criminal who secured first by due to no tolls on a check and on one quick point on i mean down the other detroit show on the horn quickly don't don't miss it a child in your pool one day i will show if the trip her uncle john boehner the president is he's going to give that. it's nearly impossible to quantify the damage that such social media manipulation may inflict on india's democratic process but if we are to protect and preserve our

constitutional right to freely elect on the does without fia all favor then my fellow citizens will have to demand accountability from those who lead us and from those who mislead us. bank.

hello there we've had a lot of flooding in the north of argentina recently so we not have this weather system his just remained over the top of us and over parts of. that has given us a phenomenal amount of rain in the city of resistance you know we've seen one hundred forty millimeters of weather but elsewhere in the cheka region we've seen over two hundred millimeters of rain so we've seen an awful lot of wet weather there's also been reports of calls floating down the streets thanks to all that floodwater now the really bad news is that that system is going to stay with us during the course of some days of yet more heavy rain and potentially more flooding still to come gradually not just a little bit further northwards on monday but still there's the risk that anywhere within this region could see some more very very heavy rains but it was the north you can see this area of town here that's just drifting its way across the bahamas that's giving some of us some shop showers we're also likely to catch one or two over parts of cuba as well to the south of all of that there's a fair amount of cloud at times a one or two showers but to the north of that system it's looking generally clear

as i have ana we should be up there around twenty six in the sunshine and force in mexico city will be hovering at about twenty seven as we head through the next couple of days for north america we've seen some severe weather in the east that system is clearing away there still a fair amount of cloud there to come for sunday. the weather sponsored by category . this is al jazeera. hello and welcome i'm peter dhabi you're watching the news our live from our

headquarters here in dough are coming up in the next sixty minutes. really really sad day for all of us shock and agony in sri lanka more than two hundred people were killed in multiple blasts on luxury hotels and churches during easter sunday service. the police have now arrested several suspects as a sri lankan minister tells al-jazeera the violence brings back memories of the civil war. hospitals across the country scramble to care for more than four hundred people injured during the coordinated bombings. in first gear walker in kiev as ukrainians decide whether a comedian is worthy of becoming the next commander in chief. explosions more than two hundred killed and over four hundred injured

a violent easter sunday in sri lanka where a series of attacks brought back memories of the civil war which ended a decade ago the defense minister says the police have arrested at least seven suspects and a nationwide curfew is now in place police say the attacks were coordinated and happened. different different locations they targeted worshipers during easter sunday church services on people at five star hotels at least thirty five foreigners are believed to be among the dead they happened at sites in the capital colombo to suburbs and demagogue a nearby in a gumbo and in the eastern city of batticaloa al jazeera is mel fernandez is standing by for us live at the st anthony's shrine one of the church the attacked in colombo will have multiple reports and real time reaction but first laura but many begins our coverage with the latest was one blast so violent it ripped through the roof of this church in the heart of the capital the floor covered in remains of the roof who had ample art was this video posted

online shows the moment of the blast was sometimes these charges popular with locals and foreign tourists after the explosion shock and disbelief. there was i heard the explosion in the roof fell on us we took the children and ran out from the rear door but when they came to the hospital i saw my brother in law and son on the ground. three separate churches bombed on easter sunday one of the major celebrations in the christian calendar. witnesses say the explosion here was so powerful it shook surrounding buildings but it wasn't just christians targeted so were many other people and tourists as part of a much wider operation they are the casualties we build them for that we transported them to their national hospital and then we have been advised to come

to their shangrila forms also rips through five star hotels. in the heart of the capital and all close together are the shangri-la cinnamon grand prix hotels and the centonze shrine church st sebastian church no gumbo and zion church in batticaloa were targeted also the tropical in hotel in the suburb of to have allah and the eight attack was in demo to god sri lanka's prime minister running a single says here take action me see dreama rock i would like to express my condolences to the families of victims and those injured in the attacks that took place i strongly condemn these attacks the targeted religious sites and luxury hotels we will take stern actions against all those who are responsible regardless of their stature. this is the largest coordinated string of attacks in sri lanka in recent

years and so far no one has claimed responsibility was. hundreds of injured people are being treated in hospital friends and families of some victims came to this hospital in colombo to find out what has happened to them . with many people dead and widespread damage people here are asking who did this and why. they are. joining us live correspondent. who's reporting from the center antony's shrine one of the churches attacked in colombo what's the latest information from the authorities what are they saying about this. the latest we've heard about the arrests of some people that's after the demo to get a blast deferring reports that the blast which occurred at a housing complex a sort of a government housing complex at which point the police and military authorities

were trying to zero in on one of the suspects there was an explosion we also heard reports of a possible potential gun an exchange of gunfire and at the end of that we're also hearing that three police personnel were left dead in that attack overall what we're hearing the death toll at two hundred seven so far of course given the sheer scale of these attacks the explosions of severity and the for russia snus of just the damage you can just imagine what it did to the hundreds of people that were packed in at the churches as well as the three restaurants in the five star hotels in colombo so fairly sort of a heavy toll be the in terms of life or even in terms of injuries peter. i think as well now we've been hearing from the relevant government or the security

or thorough says let's just have a listen to what they've been saying that. i oscillate fool. us the government. for a really. strong inquiry and find out lisa's possible behind these acts and are sort of punished him mercilessly because only any murders can be a leg. and in parallel to that minimal as the authorities move quite quickly it has to be said towards their investigation with these seven or several arrests and detentions what's going on the aftermath of what's going on is still very much happening because you've got active crime scenes and you've got dead and injured people still in the hospitals. that's right peter i mean absolutely heart wrenching scenes like a short while ago at the moment it's all gone quiet behind me outside of the sun

anthony's church but just a little while ago there were hundreds of people willing at the top of their voices basically because they had been given a chance the families who were looking for missing loved ones who were allowed to look at the fatalities from this church they were all brought out in body bags and lined up before they were taken away and many of these families just you know hoping against hope that it wouldn't be but ultimately when they did identify their loved ones absolutely motionless see that all of those people and dozens of dead moved just a short while ago obviously taken. to complete the procedures that will be required so people still are many not knowing where their loved ones are we had of the scenes where family members clutching for to graf's on on forms in a desperately trying to show workers we've been the scenes asking for help in

identifying if their loved one was among the fatalities because they have done the rounds among the hospitals haven't had any information so just hoping against hope that they might not be among the fatalities so those some of the more. difficult things that happens will have to be dealing with and coping with but worst of all for the authorities to find out what exactly went down and who exactly is behind this deadly coordinated attack peter mayle thank you very much. earlier we spoke to silver sri lanka's minister of economic reforms and public distribution he says the attack is something never seen before even during the civil war. this is absolutely coordinated attack something that you have not seen in this country before we run when. we roll on through to the start of court again to get back at least the first time that. people who are

really doing this country have been. so we do we are hard to fight this shock to be exposed to. hang a thing we never expected. to get to the bottom of it and. not stop. before we get to get to the bottom and find out who did this and peacekeeper and we sat down face for. we we don't want to exclude going that our born one group means only one hundred prices based on sound but. you know. made up stories to prove to make the situation worse

than it is. that he said he simply had that very unusual decision. to social activist mohammed hisham in colombo via skype he works with several interfaith organizations and accompanies a delegation from the sri lankan association of islamic feel logins to hand over a letter of solidarity to the archbishop's office mamma to some welcomes the news i just share with your thoughts at this time. i think the first of all it's we all i was shocked and devastated because we've seen attacks our boss who saved nazi columbus oh read it years ago who are you in the height of the civil war today what happened was totally unacceptable and each so shocking that these people are willing to teach him to target these same essential values and based on pushy and also at in place to snap people around the most i think up the first thing is that it's a shocking kind believe it's happening to ranger lagat and i must say that

everybody all communities including the muslim community janet i mean community and this is the police going to be all out be shocked and those that we be very much condemned what happened and we should be we out all extending our story got to go on our christian brothers or sisters because at some moment of grief at the event viewer should be dashed or charlie there has been no claim of responsibility is that significant in your mind it is it is because you know what he's battling needs then level of precision he dumps of a coordinated attack which is the neatest surgical insane step and yet it's also down simultaneously marty by the locations that they've been very difficult to believe that somebody and i mean those few people who may have gotten to that what do they really just extreme ideology maybe any had any doubt.