i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore, the headlines: western leaders express outrage at a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria — the un security council is to meet later. as a us aircraft carrier sails into the south china sea — we report on washington's growing concern over beijing's growing naval power. i'm babita sharma in london. also in the programme: the self—styled defender of christian culture viktor orban is set for a landslide victory in hungary's general election. and a marathon like no other — runners from around the world compete on the streets of pyongyang. good morning. it's 8am here in singapore,

1am in london and 3am in the rebel held town of douma in syria where an apparent chemical attack has caused a global outcry. scores of people have been killed and it is president assad of syria who is widely blamed. donald trump warns there will be a big price to pay. the un security council will hold an emergency meeting on monday to discuss the crisis. our middle east correspondent, martin patience reports. this was the scene at an emergency clinic in douma. medics hosing down children, after an alleged chemical attack. these pictures were filmed by activists on the ground. some children were barely conscious. this baby is alive, but struggling to breathe.

the medics are doing what they can. but they are overwhelmed, working in a war zone, without enough medical supplies. we received many patients who suffered from symptoms compatible with exposure to chlorine gas, high concentration chlorine gas. also, the symptoms were deteriorating in a fashion that is not compatible with pure chlorine gas exposure, and that is why our physicians are concerned about exposure to nerve gas in low concentration. president trump denounced the alleged chemical attack. on social media he wrote: the white house is ruling nothing out. is it possible there will be another missile attack? i wouldn't take anything off the table. these are horrible photos.

we are looking into the attack at this point. the state department put out a statement last night, and the president's senior national security cabinet have been talking with him and with each other all throughout the evening and this morning, and myself included. back in syria, government troops have surrounded douma. it is the last rebel—held town in eastern ghouta. both damascus and its ally russia describe claims of a chemical attack as fabrication. and they are prepared to take douma at any cost. this footage was shot by syria's civil defence, known as the white helmets. here, they run in to the aftermath of an air strike. they find an injured man. while the politicians talk, this is the reality in douma. martin patience, bbc news, beirut. the other main story

moving this hour: state media has confirmed that on sunday, a deal was reached between the russian military and the rebels to allow them to meet the city. douma is the last rebel held town in eastern ghouta. some 8000 fighters have been bussed out and 40,000 of theirfamily have been bussed out and 40,000 of their family members. that have been bussed out and 40,000 of theirfamily members. that is have been bussed out and 40,000 of their family members. that is the latest we are getting. another line of information coming from the afp news agency, the remarks made by the french president macron has condemned the chemical attacks against civilians in douma. he says he strongly condemns the chemical attacks on april seven against the population, adding the two leaders

shared information confirming the use of chemical weapons and they would co—ordinate their efforts at a meeting of the un security council in new york. that is coming from emmanuelle macron. more on that. —— emmanuel. that is a call he had with donald trump. the hungarian prime minister viktor 0rban has declared victory after preliminary results from sunday's election suggested he's won a third successive term in power. polling stations stayed open later than expected due to queues of voters and the turnout is expected to be at a near record level. with most of the votes counted, the national election 0ffice data suggests victor 0rban‘s ruling party has received nearly 50% of the vote, the far rightjobbik party has 20% and the socialist party received 12%. this is how it looks for his ruling party. nick thorpe in budapest has the latest. very much a party going on here at the party headquarters. in the last few minutes,

viktor 0rban has claimed victory and said it was a historic victory for his party and also said that they haven't got onto the place where they are heading yet, but they are on the right road. big celebrations here then, a historic third victory. viktor 0rban himself has being in politics in hungary for 32 years, he is the great survivor of the defeat of communism in 1990 and here he is with a third victory in a row, his fourth victory in political career. many are looking to hungary as an example of how this political wave of moving to the right across europe is taking a foothold, especially like hungary, where the main point of conversation during the campaign was immigration. that's right. he began as a liberal, became a centre—right figure and is now generally referred to as a populist or a nationalist leader, so he is symptomatic of this

move to the right in a nationalist direction in europe and i think his victory here tonight will cheer others across europe of a similar political leaning. geert wilders, marine le pen, but also in this campaign he has stressed that he wants to keep hungary in the europe, but his vision is of a very different europe, a europe of nations, not a europe with many powers centred in brussels and certainly not a europe, whereas he feels, the european commission, the european union would be lecturing him about issues like human rights and the rights of refugees, which he doesn't really accept. nick thorpe. also this hour — us officials say north korea has accepted the trump administration's demand that denuclearisation be on the agenda when the leaders of the two countries meet. pyongyang has already given such an assurance in initial talks with south korea — but according to the reuters news agency — this is the first time it's given this guarantee with washington.

church services have been held in canada following the deaths of 15 young ice hockey players in a bus crash. prime ministerjustin trudeau will attend a national vigil in the coming hours at the hockey rink where they played in their home town in the province of saskatchewan police in germany have arrested six people, over an alleged plot to carry out what's described as a "violent crime," at the berlin half marathon. the german newspaper, die welt, say the accused has links to anis amri, who was behind the truck attack that killed 12 people at a christmas market in berlin in 2016. in golf, in the past few minutes, patrick reed has won the us masters to land his first major title. reed shot a 1—under—par 71 that left him one shot clear of rickie fowler. it's reed's sixth pga tour victory — but the first major championship of his career.

the battle for influence in the south china sea is continuing to heat up. beijing has dispatched its largest—ever naval fleet to the area at the same time as a us aircraft carrier heads there too. beijing has accused the us navy of "trespassing" in the south china sea, while washington has called china's construction of military outposts there ‘provocative. rupert wingfield hayes reports from on board the us aircraft carrier, theodore roosevelt. pilots describe what we are about to do is trying to land on a postage stamp. in the world of aviation, there is nothing harder. in the middle of the south china

sea, the crew of the uss theodore roosevelt, is calmly going about what is a pretty extraordinary business. it is not what they are doing that has brought me out here, it is where they are doing it. we are about 300 nautical miles north—east of singapore, over there is vietnam, over that way is indonesia and the philippines. somewhere north of here, a chinese fleet has been spotted sailing south. these satellite photos taken at the end of march show 40 chinese ships heading to sea. in the middle, the clear outline of an aircraft carrier. it's china's first operational carrier. the largest fleet china has ever sent into the south china sea, and it's a demonstration of beijing's growing naval power and intention to challenge america's dominance. on board the uss roosevelt, the strike group commander is unfazed. there is no doubt that aircraft carriers make a statement where they go and statement there is that we are a professional

navy and we are here operating as we think everybody else should as well. and we will continue to do so. we will continue to oeprate in the maritime and the commons throughout the world, exactly right. but the geography of the south china sea is changing, literally. two years ago we filmed these huge new islands being built by china on three coral atolls. the latest photos show those islands are being turned into advanced military outposts. i asked the commander of the us fleet of how concerned he is. unfortunately i think we are left with a wait and see, without that clarity of what exactly is the intent of the establishment of such a significant military presence that can really influence the freedom of navigation throughout the south china sea. it will be a long time before china can challenge this sort of us naval might directly.

but china's neighbours have seen its intent and they know beijing will never sail away across the pacific ocean. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in the south china sea. now, a 30th consecutive newspoll survey in australia shows prime minister malcolm turnbull‘s conservative government trailing the labor opposition. it's an embarrassing milestone for mr turnbull, since he used the 30 opinion—poll benchmark to justify ousting his predecessor tony abbott in 2015. the bbc‘s phil mercer in sydney told us what this could mean for mr turnbull. malcolm turnbull has said that he regrets making those comments about tony abbott's performances in the opinion polls when he was ousting the former leader, back in 2015. tony abbott is still agitating, he is still in parliament,

he's a backbench mp, would he be able to mount a challenge against malcolm turnbull? many people in australian consider him to be yesterday's man. there are other potential candidates, but no one leaps out at the moment. what we have is the prime minister malcolm turnbull saying that he regrets making those comments three years ago, he says it is business as usual and that he is the man to deliver lower taxes and more jobs to australians. quite clearly, his government has become bogged down, wages growth here is pretty sluggish, the scandal over mr turnbull‘s former deputy barnabyjoyce, who was forced to resign in the last few months. also the citizenship saga in australia has been a great distraction for the government, several mps had been found to be dual nationals, that is in breach of the constitution and has affected the government as well, deflecting

from its economic message. when you think of opinion polls, in many countries it is just a bit of passing interest, a snapshot of the public mood, but here in australia, rightly or wrongly, they are an integral part of the political theatre. government mps believe the government might lose the next election, he might have to look over his shoulder. still to come on the programme: discovering new species in the depths of the ocean — i'll be speaking to a marine scientist who's been part of a pioneering expedition. hundreds of foreign runners compete in the pyongyang marathon — but half the number taking part last year. 55 years of hatred and rage

as theyjump up on the statue. this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power, the power to influence. today is about the promise of a bright future, a day when we hope a line can be drawn under the bloody past. i think that picasso's works were beautiful, they were intelligent, and it's a sad loss to everybody who loves art. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm sharanjit leyl in singapore. i'm babita sharma in london. our top stories. western leaders express outrage at a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria. the un security council is set to meet later. as a us aircraft carrier sails into the south china sea, we report on washington's growing concern over beijing's growing naval power. japanese police have arrested a 73—year—old man suspected of keeping his son in a cage for more than 20 years in sanda. the man is reported to have said he'd locked him up because he had mental problems and was sometimes violent. the cage was just one metre tall. that story is popular on bbc.com across asia. let's take a look

at some front pages from around the world. the south china morning post reports on a tweet by donald trump predicting that china will take down its ‘trade barriers‘. as a potential trade war looms, the president sent a message saying that he and chinese president xi jinping will always be friends, no matter what happens. a stark picture showing the destruction of mosul on the front page of the new york times. there's also another story that facebook founder mark zuckerberg is preparing for the hot seat with two days of questioning at the us congress. the paper says it will be like a dreaded final exam as he tries to get congress to focus on the company's new privacy and anti—abuse measures. and the singapore straits times has an article on america's crumbling infrastructure. it makes a big contrast to singapore's infrastuctu re, where most things seem to be shiny and new.

now, what stories are sparking discussions online? the hip—hop musical hamilton has won seven 0livier theatre awards at the royal albert hall in london. the show, which premiered on broadway in new york in 2015 is about us founding father alexander hamilton. it had a record—breaking 13 0livier nominations, including best new musical and best actor. a team of scientists has just returned from a pioneering deep—sea expedition of an area where no man has ventured. the scientists have been mining the rich seascape for living treasures, diving 500m to 2km deep, off the southern coast of west java. the team of 30, led by professors from singapore and indonesia, discovered new species and learned more about the earth's biodiversity. earlier i spoke to dr tan koh siang

from the tropical marine science institute at the national university of singapore about their discoveries. well, it is a place where there is not much really known about the deep waters over there. it is not unexpected to find new species and we have found probably already nine or ten, and we expect to find more. all right, well, tell us a bit more about these discoveries. well, it is easier to determine whether they were new or not, the bigger things. there were some crabs and shrimps, also because our team consists of quite a number of people who study crustaceans, so they were able to determine... they have been given quite cute nicknames, darth vader and the ice cream cone worm, as well as things

like sea cockroaches. i have to say i hate cockroaches, but what is so interesting about these creatures? well, they are scavengers. the darth vader cockroaches are scavengers of the ocean and they tend to live in deeper waters, they are big and they look like darth vader. we are seeing some of the footage of the expedition and shows how a lot of the sludge from the bottom of the sea is brought up and how you and many of the researchers are basically sifting through. it is essentially like looking for a needle in a haystack, tell us a little about the challenges of the expedition. how difficult is it to go so deep down in the ocean? the difficulties are mainly to do with looking through the mud, the deep sea, deep waters, tend to be full of mud and the creatures live on the mud.

so inevitably, when we bring them up, they will be mixed up with the mud and we have to sieve it. not also, these depths, between 200 and 2000 metres, where we went, the equipment that we use has to be right for that depth. so we use corers, trawls and dredgers. india is increasing its patrols along the border with china, after a tense stand—off between the two countries last year over a strategic plateau called doklam. it's claimed by both china and the himalayan nation of bhutan. anbarasan ethirajan reports from the capital thimphu. bhutan‘s natural beauty is breathtaking. it is often described as the last shangri—la, but of late, there is an undercurrent of tension here. the problem is not inside bhutan but along its borders. doklam, a remote but strategic

plateau between china, india and bhutan. india says any attempt by china to build a road there will be a threat to its security, but for bhutan, it was a wake—up call. doklam was insignificant until it became the controversial issue was a few months ago. most bhutanese do not even know where doklam is, the majority have never been to doklam, and it became a matter of contention and discussion only after it blew up as a controversial issue between india and china. with the tense stand—off between chinese and indian troops, many in bhutan are worried that it could trigger a war between the two asian giants. but after weeks of hectic diplomacy by the indian and chinese leadership, the tension diffused. bhutan has been under indian sphere of influence for decades but the doklam issue has divided this country,

especially since they want the country to chart out its own independent foreign policy. they do not want to be influenced by china, which is in the northern direction, and india, which is in the south. india's influence in bhutan is huge. the tiny himalayan nation is largest beneficiary of india's foreign aid. hundreds of indian troops are stationed in the country. it is a tough balancing act for the bhutanese government, which is refusing to comment on doklam. words do not actually resolve this issue with china at the earliest, that is what i feel. after that, we may be able to move forward to a planning committee, or otherwise this problem is going to reoccur again, and we cannot afford to have two superpowers lock their horns at the doorstep of a peaceful nation like bhutan. many here in thimphu argue that india could have shown restraint

and avoided a face—off with china. they think it might have an impact in bhutan‘s attempts to solve a long—standing border dispute with beijing. the last thing they need is indian and chinese armies squaring up to each other on the border. anbarasan ethirajan, bbc news. there are marathons in many cities across the world — london, boston, athens — and then there's the one in north korea with just a few hundred tourists competing with the locals. the bbc‘s rahuljoglekar has more. it is a regime that keeps everyone on their toes. welcome to the fifth annual marathon in north korea, which got off to a running start. more than 400 runners from across 43 countries took part. under the watchful eye of the country's founder, kim il—sung, some runners were happy to be photographed as they ran through the streets of the capital city. at its peak, 5000

western tourists used to travel to north korea for the race, but america has imposed a travel ban last year. the ongoing backdrop of nuclear tensions between north korea and the us may have also kept runners away. the race welcomed disabled competitors for the first time. all the races were won by locals. for a government that is in the headlines, usually for dramatic missile tests and bizarre funerals. this image of athletes running calmly on the streets of pyongyang are relatively normal for the regime. almost too normal, some would say. you have been watching newsday. that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. hello. for much of the week ahead, our air is coming from the east

but don't worry, it doesn't look particularly cold, as we'll see. not so much sunshine in the week ahead as we enjoyed in cornwall, though, on sunday. it looked pretty nice too in inverness, broken cloud and sunny spells. scotland and northern ireland will see the best of the sunny spells as we go on through monday. some fog around to start the day, it could be quite dense in places, that gradually clearing. through east anglia and south—east england, a lot of cloud here, patchy rain and drizzle. 0n through the day, thatjust shunts a bit further west towards the midlands, maybe parts of wales late in the day, and some spots in south—east england. scotland, a few showers developing. not everybody will catch one. if you do, it could be on the heavy side. temperatures for the most part around ten to 14 degrees, could be quite misty and murky throughout the day. some eastern coastal parts of northern ireland, some spots on the north sea coast as well. an area of rain expands to cover more of england, parts of wales, some darker blue, some heavy bursts developing as well as we go into tuesday morning. as monday begins, it

will be fairly chilly. less so on tuesday morning. frosty, so not a worry as we go through this week. as we look at the big picture for tuesday, low pressure to the south of us. it's around that spiralling we see some wet weather systems occasionally, like the one we start off with on tuesday. high pressure in scandinavia. the flow of air means it is an easterly flow coming into the uk but look at the colours here, they're not baltic blue, the air‘s not coming from siberia, actually the eastern mediterranean so it's certainly not cold there. so as we go through the week, temperatures for many of us will be at or slightly above average, but there is one significant exception with cold air coming across the north sea, the north sea coast, it will be chilly, single figure temperatures. some rain at times this week, not all the time. some drier and even sunnier moments to be enjoyed too. this is how tuesday is shaping up. we start off with that wet weather system, with some heavier bursts of rain, slowly moving away from england and wales towards parts of scotland. the north—west of scotland holding onto the fine weather for the longest. some sunny spells, there could be some heavy and maybe thundery showers into parts of england,

especially south—west england and south wales later in the day. as we go on to the week, cloud, single figures. elsewhere, temperatures could be as high as 17 degrees. drier, brighter weather at times as we go through this week, and it looks like a pretty decent wet week to come here in north—west scotland. bye— bye. i'm babita sharma with bbc news. our top story: the un security council will meet in emergency session later to discuss the apparent chemical attack in syria. scores of civilians are reported to have been killed. president trump has warned the syrian government that it would have a big price to pay for the atrocity. hungary's eurosceptic prime minister viktor 0rban has won sunday's parliamentary election. his fidesz party has won nearly 50% of the votes counted so far. and this video is

trending on bbc.com. several hundred foreign amateurs have competed in the pyongyang marathon, but turnout was half that of last year. the annual race is part of celebrations marking north korean founder kim il—sung's birth in 1912. there were 429 foreigners competing on sunday, compared to more than 1,000 who raced last year. and the top story here in the uk: the home secretary amber rudd, has rejected claims that the rise