that's one quick solution. trafficking on al-jazeera. a national day of mourning and mass funerals in sri lanka as the number killed in sunday's suicide attacks rises to three hundred ten. hello and welcome i'm peter told me you're watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up emergency summits in egypt african leaders discuss the crises in sudan and libya. meanwhile supreme court rejects a final appeal by two reuters journalists jailed for their reporting on the running a crisis. and scientists sound the alarm about pollution levels in the world's

largest lake. is a national day of mourning in sri lanka for sunday's suicide bomb victims the police have confirmed three hundred ten people were killed with the total expected to rise mass funerals are being held today and more than five hundred people remain injured ranging from a critical to a serious condition. i heard about he was points when i jumped into the interior and i saw them i don't. know the way the flow. i don't know what to do. and i was. just almost total on the floor. and not only a tight lipped so did. exactly the same next time there.

were also lankans did observe three minutes of silence in memory of the dead the easter sunday explosions devastated several churches and hotels targeting worshipers and tourists the police have now arrested forty suspects the government's accused of failing to act on intelligence reports that muslim fighters possibly with foreign help were planning attacks over the easter holiday let's bring in mel fernandez our correspondent as we have a conversation a monitoring a debate going on inside the sri lankan parliament would it be fair to say minal that we're kind of getting almost competing narratives here now different politicians hinting at different things. absolutely peter and that is the sad reality and sri lanka today to be honest the people of this country don't want to hear the blame game they want to know why this

happened why their lives loved ones are lying dead basically after a devastating coordinated attack on easter sunday an attack in which their family went to attend one of the holiest days on the christian calendar and ended up dead they don't want to see the parliamentarians or their lawmakers and representatives getting into the house of parliament and basically playing the blame game we've had the prime minister on a vicar of a singer addressing the house which convened a short while ago starting with a further mocking of silence to honor the dead the prime minister's saying that they would not let this country go through another thirty years of conflict saying that terrorist had can had conduct of this basically this attack he did mention that there had been reports that the parliament was going to be targeted saying that there was strong measures put into place to thwart any possible attack now the prime minister right throughout his speech was being heckled by members of

the opposition again a point towards essentially politicking by both sides of the political divide in this country and to be very honest as we've heard from the general public of this country they're quite fed up with the politicians and different people trying to play the blame game make political mileage they want to know what exactly went down on sunday on easter sunday here in sri lanka why it happened what went on who is behind it and they want to be told by their representatives that this is not going to happen again that the authorities who should be in control can basically get a handle on the situation people just faras be parliaments or. and the political leaders in sri lanka are concerned if when the sadness turns to anger if the central accusation is you knew or you maybe knew and yet you didn't tell us you

didn't protect us that means those politicians are on political thin ice i guess. there would be because as we we've heard down from the prime minister to his government cabinet spokesperson they have admitted that there were the warnings of course within that then you start getting these kind of different layers of who knew what they did with that knowledge did they take enough precautions what should have been done whose fault it is potentially of course this is not being obviously seated but there are sort of indicators yes we didn't know we didn't have access we weren't party to the information that kind of thing at the end of the day where sri lankan people are concerned does it really matter if you are someone who has lost four members of your family family members that went to a mosque to mark easter do you really want to know whose fault it is or that your

lawmakers the intelligence about it as people that are in charge of keeping you safe. failed you that's ultimately what it's turning out to be peter and particularly as we see further reports of a sensually controlled explosions more explosives being found reports and warnings of full of the attacks potential attacks being very likely people being bunkered down in their houses wondering are we going back to the dark years of the sort of conflicts where we didn't know when you left the house are you going to come back that might sound extreme but this uncertainty is what the people are coping with right now and that's where their representatives their the politicians who are the people's representatives and need to start stepping up to the base and serving their people serving them and ensuring that they are safe it doesn't matter who's

to blame everyone needs to be pulling together to making sure lanka safe again peter thank you. charles stratford has been following developments out of the gun boat where the mass funerals are taking place. there are at least one hundred ten people killed here at the san sebastian church in a gone bow a town that is often referred to as sri lanka's rome because of the sheer number of catholics or christians that live here it's known as the catholic heartland of the country now this morning we saw a service held and some of the dead come in to be years to be buried so many people were killed at this church that there is not enough room to bury all of them at the main cemetery they're having to find space and other cemeteries in the area the mood as you can imagine is one of incredible sorrow and shock that this has happened people here will tell you that throughout the twenty six years of the civil war they never experienced an attack as devastating and as brutal as this one

priest told me that the community were trying to forgive the perpetrators of these attacks but said obviously as you can expect that they will never forget and they are desperate for answers. it would be wrong to say people are angry here because they are literally to shocks to express that at the moment but their will say that they want answers and they want answers fast from a government that it seems did not act to prevent these attacks having had an indication that they were going to happen. the u.n. special envoy to libya has renewed his appeal for all armed groups to stop the third week of fighting around the capital tripoli has told him is the libyan national army led by after slowed down its advance on the city at least two hundred sixty four people have been killed and thousands injured since the battle for control of the capital began early in the year with. the task i've been charged

with despite its difficulty is to return to negotiations i call for a peaceful solution to stop the war. for the reunification of the libyans on a unified resolution to save their country whatever the work of the international community it will need a special libyan will to stop the war. egypt is hosting two emergency meetings about african leaders to discuss fighting in libya and the political unrest in sudan a coalition of political parties there has suspended talks with the military council for failing to transfer power to a civilian authority mohamed vall has more now from khartoum. women have been i thought the forefront of the march for change and recognition of female protesters now the nickname andraka named after the fabled movie the queen known for the little guy named lady that you put thirty years sudanese women have put up the strongest resistance against injustices and violations committed by

a despotic racist and aggressive regime they were stripped of basic rights of equality and even the right to live at times they were killed and wounded or sent to jail and crackdowns on anti-government protests that's why we decided to be part of this uprising. and women are only one of the many groups here not to feel united by a common cause. from a distance these masses loop and sound the same on close inspection it's a complete human spectrum of faces and acts on this from the four corners of africa's third largest country. this man is from one of the most marginalized and oppressed communities in the nope a mountain is reminding his people of the many wrongs they've been subjected to and his calling for a free sudan where all enjoy equality and dignity and the same yearning for a better sudan respond is this man from the southern regions. following

the protests gave me a new life and a new spirit after decades of disparate justice that's why i decided to join. people from darfur and the east where rebel groups for the government for years have suddenly found a more efficient means to achieve their goals. for the first time in the history of this country a movement has brought together all sudanese people if you look at the protest you can say all types of faces from every region and every ethnic group that they're old united around the same goal which is to change the regime and create a new sadat and there is no changes have given way to an explosion of public expression aside from the chants and speeches young artists here are using them for a couple of walls on the ferments with paintings celebrating freedom so weak so

down in its color basking in the bliss of this newly found freedom. going after a long suppressed dreams we will mostly afraid to take photos or paint outdoors so we face tremendous difficulties in that respect especially going protests painting on walls in particular presented a challenge for us i was arrested and harassed because of my support for the uprising but this is. my best way to contribute they tell us uplifting the poor is the goal of these protesters an idea they've represented through a portrait of this homeless boy who collects garbage on the streets radiating with happiness mustafa tells us his plan is to study first and within ten years to become the president of sudan. move are reporting that meanwhile highest court has rejected the final appeal of two reuters journalists jailed while reporting the or ethnic cleansing crisis while lone unsure saw who spent sixteen months in prison

after being convicted of breaking the official secrets law scott high has more now from bangkok. the last appeal for word is journalist wallow and has been rejected by the supreme court in me and more that coming down on tuesday now they heard the argument from their attorneys just a couple of weeks ago this comes three months after a lower court in yangon rejected an appeal they said the sentence would be upheld that also coming down from the supreme court on tuesday and that was their last appeal possibility now what happened since the verdict came down in september sentencing these two gentlemen to seven years behind bars and international outcry over the sentencing and also just the process particularly as myanmar marches its way toward democracy a lot of criticism for that and also just last week the investigation the two gentlemen working on one of pulitzer prize for international reporting or it is news agency their employers coming out almost immediately after this decision by

the supreme court saying that they will continue to fight for their journalist behind bars and that they are part of a police setup. when we come back on the other side of the break more on what to expect in the phase of india's stock of general election. and the last time the police in northern islands have made another rest of the killing field winning journalist lie rim a key. ally was still got plenty of spring wolf in central eastern pasta fit this guy down a little bit towards the west lots of clouds piling in not just from land sea but also just pushing in from the south so we are going to see temperatures starting to fall away from london and paris been no before we get to the middle part of the week twenty two twenty three. every thirteen the madrid is still dull grey adderall

the wet so it could parts of spain and portugal and you can see into just around the. alps just pushing over towards southern parts of france well there is a bit late we do still have a fair amount of clout and some right which extends all the way across into austria but. is that the berlin and for warsaw and also for kiev nice temperatures will pick up as we go through wednesday basis out of europe looking fine and dry for the vice partly based places a cloud towards the back say i was also west and lots of heavy rain around you see some heavy rain just coming into france southern parts of france although there is still see some damn weather and it clouds a returns or rather wets across a good part of the british isles and madrid will struggle to get to twelve degrees celsius in the heat of the day meanwhile some of that cloud and rain will affect northern parts of africa we will see some wet weather coming through northern areas of raka and gradually algeria. sponsored by countdown and.

i really want to get down to the nitty gritty here the reality where they are on line. and that is plan split in our global federation and it is really fight to get you for that or if you join us on sound people are free now they can speak up their mind this is a dialogue everyone has appoints to talk to us in our live you tube chat and you too can be in history join the colobus conversation on how to zero. if you want to tell jazeera remind us of our top stories so far this is a national day of mourning has been held in sri lanka for the victims of easter

sunday bomb attacks at churches and hotels mass funerals are being held for some of the three hundred ten people killed. egypt is hosting two emergency meetings of african leaders to discuss fighting in libya and political unrest in sudan. one other story myanmar's highest court has rejected the final appeal of two reuters journalists jailed for reporting the ethnic cleansing crisis. spend sixteen months so far in prison after being convicted of breaking the official secrets law . the police in northern ireland have now arrested a fifty seven year old woman in connection with the killing of a journalist last week lyra mckee was shot in the head during a riot in london derry a dissident republican group calling itself the new ira has admitted responsibility for the killing of the twenty nine year old award winning reporter two teenagers also arrested were released without charge voting has begun in the third and largest phase of india's seven phase general election the prime minister narendra

modi voted in his home state. modi is aiming for a second term in office the election is seen as a referendum on modi's five year rule five jamail has more from the northeastern state of. these are just a few of the tens of millions of people voting in several parts of india on tuesday including prime minister narendra modi in this third phase of india's seven phase election now here in assam though it may be the last time almost four million people can cast their vote that's because their names don't appear on the national register of citizens it's a list created to distinguish between indian citizens and illegal migrants from other countries now much of the focus has been on ethnic bengalis they've been in this region for centuries they and their families but in recent decades illegal migrants have also come from bangladesh now the government is cracking down the rights groups say issues such as typos on documents and missing papers it's qualifying a large number of actual citizens they accuse the government of targeting bengalis

in order to get votes from local assamese groups but those same groups accuse both the government and opposition of playing politics with the issue they say the land and resources of this region are meant for them now anyone whose name is not on the register can appeal to illegal tribunals but if they fail they face possible imprisonment and even eventual deportation the philippines has been hit by a second earthquake this time on the southern island of some ah no casualties suffered reported further north rescuers continue to pull victims from the rubble following the quake on monday the six point three magnitude tremor killed at least fifteen people and injured dozens on the island of luzon. the united states is offering a reward of up to ten million dollars for information on how to disrupt funding for hezbollah the u.s. state department names three lebanese businessmen who fund the party's armed wing the lebanese based group received support from iran which the us government calls

a state sponsor of terrorism in previous years this fellow has generated about one billion dollars annually through direct financial support from iran. international businesses investments donor networks and money laundering activities the group uses these funds to support its moyen activities throughout the world which includes the development of militias to syria in the support of assad dictatorship and to yemen in support of the rant aligned who rebels. the u.s. is demanding all countries stop buying iranian oil or face sanctions on iran exports a little more than a million barrels a day with the majority of going to china india south korea and japan washington announced last year that it would impose sanctions on any country importing oil from iran but offered waivers to some key trading partners the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei who says those waivers won't be renewed when they

expire next month iran has reacted by threatening to close the strait of hormuz export route south korea has since reacted to pompei as announcement saying negotiations with the u.s. to extend the waiver on the way he also said the u.s. the united arab emirates and saudi arabia will ensure sufficient supplies of oil but riyadh appears to contradict that saying it won't immediately step up its output roles jordan now from washington. the u.s. says its efforts to impose a worldwide embargo on iranian oil is already working in the last eleven months the trumpet ministration says iran has lost about ten billion dollars in oil revenue all this says washington to punish the han for what it calls the government's quote aligned ways the trouble administration and our allies are determined to sustain and expand the maximum economic pressure campaign against iran to end the regimes

destabilizing activity threatening the united states our partners and allies and security in the middle east these demands are not just coming from the united states government and many of our allies and partners they are similar to what we hear from the iranian people themselves the u.s. imposed oil sanctions on iran in may two thousand and eighteen after it withdrew from what president donald trump called the ineffective iran nuclear deal the u.s. wanted to cut off iran's ability to support hezbollah and who the fighters as well as send aid to governments in syria and venezuela last fall when oil supplies were tight the u.s. gave several countries permission to wrap up their existing iranian oil purchases by no later than may second but now the u.s. says supplies are plentiful and so the five countries still importing iranian crude china india turkey japan and south korea no longer have a reason to keep buying from terre han to conduct these transactions one almost

always nice to participate in the financial markets and we intend to enforce the sanctions we don't lay out sanctions that we don't have any intention of encouraging countries to cooperate with analysts say it's important to look at the impact sanctions could have on ties between the u.s. and other countries for example how sanctions could derail current chinese american trade talks but analysts say it's just as important to consider why the white house considers saudi arabia in the. why did arab emirates and not other oil producing nations key to making the iranian embargo work i think that actually feeds into this narrative of this very close relationship that the president trump hassle with the saudi royal family and of course the united states is again this is the president who looks at issues from a transactional standpoint state department officials won't say just how soon after may third that the u.s. will impose sanctions on countries still buying oil from iran but they are adamant

they say the only way to get iran to change its behavior is by imposing an embargo and the only way to make certain that the embargo works is to impose sanctions on other countries even if those countries happen to be the u.s. its friends rosalyn jordan al-jazeera the state department iran and pakistan have agreed to set up a joint security force groups operating near the border the decision was made during the first official visit by pakistani prime minister imran khan zain bus robineau from tehran a handshake that could signal the beginning of a new power dynamic in the region. pakistan a nuclear armed nation iran one of the biggest oil producers in the world they both have problems that together may be easier to solve it. perhaps the most important agreement reached was a pledge to fight armed groups along their border together and. we are going to form a joint rapid reaction force to fight terrorism at the borders of two countries.

both countries have experienced attacks this year that both said were carried out by groups based on each other's soil and both of accuse the other of not doing enough to fight armed groups khan defended his country's record said he would not let attacks divide the two nations and pakistan we have suffered more terrorism than probably any other country and the pakistan military and pakistan intelligence agencies. for appreciation must be made to to do these. security agencies the way the deck of terrorism in pakistan and overcame it he also promised closer intelligence cooperation that we would not allow assad to be used by anyone against anyone in running first trip to iran is pakistan's prime minister was an opportunity for both countries to lay out an ambitious agenda. energy rich or ron will supply pakistan with natural gas and more electricity

they'll expand trade with a barter system even plan to build a rail link to connect iran islamabad and istanbul. this kind of public display of diplomacy is uncommon between iran and pakistan islamabad has for decades been a closer ally of saudi arabia and the united states but this prime minister even as a candidate has been an open critic of washington's foreign policies. and despite continued warm relations with riyadh pakistan's pivot to to her own signals a desire to make a new friend of an old neighbor on hans' invitation president rouhani said he intends to visit islam abroad as soon as possible following nine eleven pakistan emerged as one of america's closest security hours but after taking office u.s. president donald trump said he considers pakistan a safe haven for terrorist organizations iran and pakistan have both had strained relations with trucks america but even still prime minister hans bold and public embrace of iran is likely to raise concerns and the white house saying basra the

old zero. scientists are alarmed the russian government plans to allow increased levels of pollution in the world's biggest lake is like by car that contains twenty percent of the planet's fresh water. reports russian government leaders say they can better protect the lake by increasing permitted levels of waste. the fragile line between water and ice marks the entrance to the world's largest and deepest lake when the ice melts the water is so clear that fish and freshwater seals can be spotted with oxygen one and a half kilometers down near the bottom made by karl has a unique ecosystem found nowhere else on the planet but human activity on it six hundred thirty six kilometers long show us has increased and so has pollution every year more than one and a half million tourists visit the baikal natural park which lacks a proper sewage system to deal with their waste. or like to

a woman has lived here for nineteen years he recalls how not long ago he would drink water from the lake without boiling or filtering it. before i would go to another village and i would see one or two birds now i can see twenty or thirty if not more if there are tourists on every bird who need to go to the toilet i don't think disposing of it in the right way it all goes into the lake therefore it's not recommended to drink water an area water treatment plants around the lake are outdated or broken the ministry for natural resources sas it wants to build twenty one new ones but to make the plan feasible the amount of harmful waste discharge into the lake needs to be increased greenpeace's among environmental groups concerned at the potential harm to the lake so are some russian scientists. we sorry the norms they are proposing are unacceptable and they should be view them according to the latest technologies there is only one why do you still need to

build clean in the cities but better ones researches are trying to find out why sponges unique to baikal are dying at an alarming rate and if a large amount of value and wheat a change in the fragile ecosystem russia's government didn't respond to our request for comment but the website of the ministry of natural resources says the new wastewater standard is based on scientific research and by colors better protected than any other lake in the world people were drinking this water straight from the lake just a few years ago but drinking this now would definitely make you sick scientists fear that what is known as the world's cleanest lake and its largest freshwater reserve is rapidly losing its value for humankind. scientists say it's not too late to turn to tight they say while water by the shores is polluted water deep into the lake remains as pure as it was millions of years ago they're urging the government

to invest in better technology so the levels of harmful substances don't need to be raced not only for russia's future but to preserve one of the planet's important sources of water stop fast and al-jazeera led by russia. ok let's recap your top stories for you so far today a national day of mourning is being held in sri lanka of the victims of the easter sunday bomb attacks at churches and hotels mass funerals are being held for some of the three hundred ten people who were killed forty arrests have been made in connection with the attacks local t.v. news in sri lanka have been showing a closed caption video this is it an attacker entering one of the churches of course there's a fever that most fear in sri lanka these are the who did what when how well resourced these people were or were not and also scrutinised fallen on the existing

divisions within the strength and leadership the politicians in colombo after its emerged that the authorities were told there would be an attack imminently but they apparently chose not to take that any further mel fernandez with the latest. we've had the prime minister. had had. reports that the parliament was going to be. rejected the final. reporting. cleansing crisis.

being convicted of breaking the official secrets law egypt is hosting two emergency meetings to discuss. the political unrest in. the un special envoy. groups to stop. in the capital tripoli. sixty four people have been. injured since the.

ok and i really could be what does it mean to be an arab american today comedian rami yousif joins the string to discuss he's new to series about family and identity and will be sharing your comments and questions with rami so tweet us or leave a comment in our live you tube chat and you too could be in the stream. that has a growing cultural shift in america muslim identity being forged by millennial these first generation twenty's and thirty's muslims grew up in the wake of the september eleventh twin towers attacks feeling as if their entire identity focused on being good muslims so comedian robbie used to fix.