i'm maura fogarty in singapore. the headlines: an extraordinary political comeback. malaysia's former prime minister, 92—year—old mahathir mohammad, wins the election and promises to get back to business. but there will be no holiday for the winners. that's the trouble with winning, we have to work. three americans released by north korea arrive in alaska on the first leg of theirjourney home. the white house hails the move a "positive gesture of goodwill". i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: from yorkshire to yangon. leeds united play in myanmar, in a tour criticised by human rights groups. and model members of the royal family. waxworks of meghan and harry are unveiled, ten days ahead of royal wedding. live from our studios in singapore

and london, this is bbc world news. it's newsday. good morning. it's 8am in singapore and kuala lumpur where the new day brings a dramatic comeback for the former malaysian prime minister mahathir mohamad. his alliance of opposition parties has won a majority in the general election, defeating the governing barisan national which has been in power for more than 60 years. 92—year—old dr mahathir came out of retirement to take on his former protege, najib razak, and the party he led for years. here he is addressing his supporters shortly before the official results were announced. the chief secretary will announce that there will be a holiday tomorrow and the day after.

cheering and also saturday and sunday. so you will have four days‘ holiday. but there will be no holiday for the winners. that's the trouble with winning. we have to work. our correspondent, jonathan head, who's in kuala lumpur, was watching the results as they came in. these opposition supporters have been gathered outside the headquarters of one of the opposition parties for hours now listening to the results being tallied by their own leaders. there have been shouts of jubilation, a real sense of change being possible, and theyjust heard their own leader, dr mahathir mohamad, the 92—year—old former prime minister, who has transformed this election campaign, telling them they now have

enough seats to form a government. against the odds, they have built up enough support. the same time, there is a great deal of fear and suspicion that some doubt if the votes had gone their way that the government might be able to the result for them. if it does happen, this is new territory for malaysia. there has never before been a transfer of power in this country since independence. they might actually achieve this historic change, it has given an incredible atmosphere, one of real excitement and tension and anticipation. we will get more analysis on the significance of the historic election result in malaysia. another major story we're covering is the release of three american citizens who were being detained in north korea. this is kim dong—chul, one of the three

men flying home with the us secretary of state mike pompeo. they've landed in alaska and are later expected to leave from anchorage. they are expected to arrive in at andrews air force base, just outside washington. and the president has tweeted that he will be there to meet them. our correspondent, stephen mcdonell gave us this update from seoul. well, it seems like they are in quite good health, according to the reports from donald trump via his twitter account. on the way back the plane stopped injapan and doctors have examined the three detainees, if we call them, these korean americans being held in north korea. apparently they're 0k. it is a stark contrast to the case of otto warmbier, people remember the american student being held in north korea and who ended up dying on his return to the united states. when they get there, by my calculation in about eight hours, donald trump says he will be

there to welcome the plane. it seems like, if his tweets are anything to go by, he is really going to try and make as much political milage out of this as possible. he will be there to greet the plane, to meet them, he has thanked his counterpart in north korea, kimjong—un, for letting these men go. he has also said that the us secretary of state has finalised the detail of the meeting and we can actually expect within the coming days the announcement of the place and location of the kim jong—un donald trump summit. the white house said the release of these three americans is a positive gesture of goodwill ahead of a planned summit between president trump and north korea's leader, kim jong—un. the president has indicated that the time and place for this summit has been agreed, without giving details. we do know that it will not take place in the demilitarized zone that

divides the peninsula. the president has been teasing the media, saying that details of the meeting will be announced within three days‘ time. president trump added he's confident about the outcome. i believe that we have, both sides want to negotiate a deal. i think it will be a very successful deal. i think we have a really good shot at making it successful. but lots of things can happen. of course, you will be the first to know about it, if it does. but i think we have a really good chance to make a great deal for the world. donald trump's nominee to lead the central intelligence agency has promised not to restart the post—9/11 harsh interrogation program. gina haspel oversaw a secret detention centre in thailand, where al-qaeda suspects were water—boarded to extract information. i would never ever take cia back to an interrogation programme. first of all, cia follows the law. we followed the law then,

we follow the law today. i support the law, i wouldn't support a change in the law. but i will tell you this, i would not put cia officers at risk by asking them to undertake risky controversial activity again. residents of hawaii's big island are being warned of further explosive eruptions from the kilauea volcano in the coming weeks. for the last few days rivers of lava have run through residential areas and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. the us geological survey warns that more violent eruptions could shoot out so—called ballistic blocks weighing up to several tons. the former manchester united manager sir alex ferguson is out of intensive care following surgery on a brain haemorrhage. a club statement said the 76—year—old is to continue his rehabilitation in hospital near manchester. ferguson retired as united's manager in 2013 after winning 38 trophies during 26 years in charge.

this father and son have been paraded by police in their home made space suits after allegedly trying to trick businessmen out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in delhi. they claimed to be able to sell fake magical plates to nasa. the plates were meant to generate electricity from thunderbolts. however the dodgy spacesuits gave it away. let's get more now on our top story, the dramatic election victory for malaysia's veteran leader mahathir mohammad, who at the age of 92, has defied all odds to become the country's prime minister. tricia yeoh from the institute for democracy and economic affairs in kuala lumpur says it was an unexpected

result for pollsters. it has been a long and sleepless night for myself and many malaysians anxious to look at the results. the results did not come in untiljust a few hours ago. the election commission took its time to announce. yes, none of the pollsters and pundits predicted this. you basically saw the opposition coalition, pa katan ra kyat, sweep parliamentary seats, state seats throughout the country, defeating the incumbent barisan nasional, that has been in power for more than 60 years. that is a very long time. their dominance over the malaysian political scene has always been seen or considered to be undefeatable. this is the time when the citizens actually rose up and spoke up against what they felt to be a corrupt government, a compromise through many huge

scandals, you saw basically 222 parliament being swept by the pakatan rakyat. —— parliament being swept by the pakatan harapan they took more than 120 seats, if you count the various opposition parties that are going into coalition against barisan nasional... if i could interrupt very quickly, the odds were stacked against the opposition alliance. they would have been in malaysian elections, especially with the redrawing of boundaries recently, how was the opposition able to pull this off? you are right. the recent redelineation conducted by the electoral commission, which was largely seen to be in favour of the barisan nasional ruling coalition, would have affected even more, i think what the opposition was able to do was to change this despite the redelineation that took place. several factors would have to be

examined as we look closer into the numbers. the first of which was the way dr mahathir came back from retirement to head the opposition coalition. his presence alone was a huge determinant. he managed to entice some of the biggest names of the old guard to support the opposition for the very first time and also convince many of the malay muslim voters and perhaps more establishment type voters to switch their affiliations at the last minute. the second i suppose would be the huge corruption scandal that najib has been involved in or allegedly involved in in the last two years. it is being investigated by multiple countries around the world, including the us department ofjustice. that gained traction,

especially in the urban seats. let's get more on another of our top stories. three american citizens released from north korea are on their way home with the us secretary of state mike pompeo. kim jong—un agreed to release the men ahead of historic talks with donald trump. balbina hwang, a visiting professor who specialises in east asian security at georgetown university, says the men's release is a necessary step. it is certainly an important prelude to the historic summit, if it occurs, between president trump and the leader of north korea. most certainly it is a necessary step to such a summit occurring. you say if it occurs. by all sounds it seems it will be occurring. we hear that we have the place the date, we just haven't been given the details yet. yes, of course. it is being cautious

for necessary reasons. because we all know that these things can go wrong. i think it is important to be cautious. we never know, for any sorts of reasons, why these things might not occur. it is important to be cautious. we saw donald trump initially saying that if things would not go the way he wanted them he would walk out. is this going to be a summit, a meeting, what can we expect as a result of it? i think it is important to understand is that the release of these detainees was an important prelude, but, understandably, it is also because expectations now are very high. north korea did this for important reasons. it is a diplomatic success, but now expectations are that much higher. now the expectations are high on the north korean side. but also of the world. now president trump

will have to deliver. this means that now the united states will have to deliver on everything. that is, really now, the united states will have to do deliver on everything else that north korea will expect on peace, on removing all the sanctions, on providing the peace treaty that north korea expects, the removal of us troops, probably, ending the alliance is probably what north korea expects. this is very high expectations. were getting breaking news from the middle east. syrian air defences are said to have confronted israeli rockets on syrian territory. in the meantime the israeli military are

saying, they are accusing iranian forces on the syrian side of the go half heights of shelling israeli forces. a number of confrontation is taking place and a lot of increased tension following the us pulling out of the iran deal and a lot of retaliation going on. a few lines coming out of the middle east and when we get more we will bring that to you. you're watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: why this visit to myanmar by the english football club, leeds united, continues to divide opinion. also on the programme: a view of the future, from the world of art. we explore a new exhibit at london's victoria & albert museum. i, nelson rolihlahla mandela, do hereby swear to be faithful to the republic of south africa. after six years of construction and numerous delays, the channel tunnel has been formally

opened by the queen and president mitterrand. but the tunnel is still not yet ready for passengers and freight services to begin. for centuries, christianity and islam struggled for supremacy. now, the pope's visit symbolises their willingness to coexist. roger bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile in underfour minutes. memories of victory, as the ve celebrations reach their climax. this night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. this is newsday on the bbc.

i'm in singapore. i'm in london. our top stories: in a dramatic comeback, the former malaysian prime minister, mahathir mohamad, has won a majority in the general election, defeating the governing party which has been in powerfor more than 60 years. three americans released by north korea have arrived in alaska on the first leg of theirjourney home. the white house hailed the move a "positive gesture of goodwill." that story is popular on bbc.com. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the straits times is leading on the historic malaysian general election. its front page says the opposition party, pakatan harapan, has won enough seats to form a majority government, with the result confirmed by the election commission. the south china morning post reports on a new hotline being set up between china and japan. the paper says it's part of efforts to strengthen ties between the two countries and help prevent military clashes at sea and in the air. and finally, it's t0

russia with love, according to the arab news. it says youngsters in the middle east and north africa now believe russia is their biggest non—arab ally, replacing the united states which has fallen out of the top five for the first time since the survey started a decade ago. the italian multi—millionaire owner of the english football team, leeds united, has told the bbc he doesn't regret taking the club on a controversial trip to myanmar. the team has faced widespread criticism for travelling to a country whose military is accused of ethnic cleansing of rohingya muslims. andrea radrizanni denied he was putting his business interests over the reputation of the club. 0ur myanmar correspondent, nick beake, spoke to him in yangon. the day yorkshire came to yangon.

a hard—core of leeds united fans made the 5,000—mile journey to myanmar. a choice of destination which plunged the club into a political row in light of the country's persecution of muslims. undeterred, the visitors posed at one of buddhism's holiest sites. the club's owner, andrea radrizanni, claims the trip is about using football to bring communities together, and not just helping his commercial companies. what do you say to people who say you're more interested in making money than the reputation of your football club? we're not making any money out of this game. but you say you've got business ventures in myanmar. yeah, but with other companies. but of course, there a re different interests, i have a good relation with the president of the federation, and we are starting a project

for different yea rs on the football pitch as well as on the media, and we are happy to visit our fans. leeds have been given a warm welcome by excited burmese fans unaware of the controversy. well, the match now underway, but what happens tonight on the pitch doesn't really matter. the more significant outcome is to the reputation of leeds united football club. for the record, an all—star myanmar side beat this inexperienced leeds team, but many question the wisdom of walking into such a politically sensitive arena in the first place. nick beake, bbc news, yangon. the countdown is on here in the uk. we are just nine days away from the royal wedding. prince harry will marry the actress meghan markle at windsor castle on saturday the 19th of may. we'll have special coverage on the big day itself. as part of the build—up, we received a rather special visit at our studios in london.

i felt like i was looking at the royals. it was quite scary. that is perfectly fine. imagine a future where intelligent robots help with your laundry and provide company in our often isolated worlds and cryogenics is a reality. 0ur arts editor, will gompertz, went to explore the future at a new exhibition at london's v&a museum. this is brett, a robot at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence research. the idea is he's supposed to do all those household chores that we can't be bothered to do, except he's not very good at them, and that is the opening message of this exhibition. that intelligent robots are coming, but they're still a long way off. but that's not stopping designers from making technology

that they hope will elicit from us a human type emotional response. meetjibo. hey, jibo. i want to give you this flower. will you tell me a joke? sure, i've got one. what did the zero say to the eight? nice belt. that's an old joke. will you take my photograph, please? here we go. three, two, one. jibo's designed not just to give you information but to manipulate your feelings, whereas this piece of technology over here is designed to manipulate your body. you strap on these muscles into an area where maybe you're feeling a bit weaker and it actually gives you extra strength. and so this exhibition asks, as we integrate technology more and more into our daily lives, does it change what it actually means to be human? in fact, this show asks more questions about the future than it provides answers. take this state—of—the—art driverless car, for example. are we happy to delegate those life—and—death decisions, which have to be made on the road, to what is basically a computer? and maybe even bigger than that, are we happy to give away liberties which we have fought for for generations to technology?

and then, of course, there is the biggest question of them all, what chance is there of eternal life? that's a question this part of the exhibition seeks to explore, with anti—ageing pills and brain scanners. all hopeful and optimistic, but perhaps this is the most realistic option, at least at the moment, the cryonics institute. this is the kit of parts you need for a shot at immortality. it has to be applied by someone else, obviously. there's a drug which gets placed in the heart, there's an ice bath, there's a cpr machine and then you get put into this white casket and sent off to deep freeze. and then, at some moment, maybe a millennia away, this body can come out, be thawed and who knows, be a sentient human being, when all the future that is described in this exhibition is the past. you have been watching newsday.

stay with us. walmart is betting big on india, taking a controlling stake in the country's biggest online retailer. we'll tell you why. iranian forces in syria

by the end of the morning, the last of the rain has cleared away from eastern parts of england, so looking dry for the rest of england. some cloud around, some holes in the cloud allowing sunshine to come through and these temperatures across—the—board now are pretty close to the average for the time of year, so there's a particular warmth out there. heading out and about on thursday evening or coming back from wherever

you've been, still a few showers in north—eastern area of scotland and into the northern isles, but they will continue to fade. elsewhere, what showers have built up are continuing to fade away, and the cloud that's developed is going as well, so a lot of dry and sunny weather to end the day. it does mean under clear skies thursday night into friday morning with a ridge of high pressure temperatures drop away even further, low single figures for some on friday morning. the ridge of high pressure not staying around too long as this weather front starts to push it out of the way on friday, and it means strengthening wind across the uk, particularly close to this rain band coming into northern ireland and feeding outbreaks of rain into west of scotland, parts of wales and south—west england. very slow—moving weather system, though. ahead of that, although some cloud's going to increase, there will be sunny spells but there will be that strengthening south south—easterly wind. the weather front does push on through friday night into saturday, by saturday maybe lingering into north—east scotland with rain at times and maybe showers in eastern england. dry weather elsewhere but further showers pushing into the south

and south—west and south—west england, wales and maybe into northern england. catch one of these and it could be heavy and possibly thundery. temperatures haven't changed much but if anything by the time we get into sunday they could go down a little bit further. bye bye. i'm kasia madera with bbc world news. our top story. malaysia's former prime minister mahathir mohamad makes an extraordinary comeback. the 92—year—old who defeated the governing coalition came out of retirement to take on the party he himself led for years. the results are being described as a political earthquake. three americans released by north korea have arrived in alaska on the first leg of theirjourney home. the white house hailed the move a "positive gesture of goodwill" ahead of a planned summit between president trump and the north's leader, kimjong—un. and this video is trending on bbc.com her royal likeness! madame tussaud's reveals their meghan markle waxwork — which will be displayed next to prince harry before the royal wedding on the 19th of may.

that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: bmw is to recall more than 300,000 cars in the uk