this is bbc world news i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: bangledesh's prime minister, sheikh hasina, is declared the winner of the country's general election as claims of vote rigging emerge. but the main opposition has called the election ‘farcical‘ and is demanding a fresh poll. time is running out for russia to hand over important anti—doping samples — a failure to meet the deadline could see new sanctions imposed. long delays, broken voting machines and bad weather dampen the democratic republic of congo's historical elections — but will it lead to the country's first peaceful transfer of power? ringing in the new year — how maintenance work on london's big ben means the famous bell will be ringing out a little differently to mark the start of 2019. hello and welcome to bbc news.

in bangladesh the party of prime minister sheikh hasina has been declared the winner of the country's general election. but the main opposition parties have condemned the result and demanded a new vote, amid accusations of vote rigging. at least 18 people have been killed in violent clashes. our correspondent yogita laymaye is in the capital, dhaka. her report does contain some flashing images. clashes outside a polling centre in dhaka. they spot a reporter and try to stop him from filming. it was just one of the many violent incidents in bangladesh on election day. others were more deadly.

but, in large parts, polling did go off peacefully. bangladesh's prime minister, sheikh hasina, has already been in powerfor ten years. tonight, the election commission declared yet another victory for her. she has been credited with bringing development to the country and tackling islamist militancy, but her government has also been accused of cracking down on the opposition. two days before the polls, i asked her to respond. look, all the allegations they are making, but they couldn't prove it. on the one hand, they are placing allegations. on the other hand, they are attacking our party workers, leaders. the opposition has now called for a fresh election. people are being killed, people are being arrested. candidates are being arrested, and one candidate... which is unprecedented. unprecedented. these are workers from prime minister sheikh hasina's awami league, standing outside a polling booth, and this is something we have seen across the city of dhaka today.

behind me, all the political posters you can see are also from the same party. in contrast, the presence of the opposition on the streets is really hard to find. translation: i was a bit worried that my vote might have been stolen, but i did get to vote. translation: all the parties did not get equal opportunities to campaign. that is why i did not cast my vote. in one part of bangladesh, the bbc saw ballot boxes which had been filled even before polling began. those and all the other boxes were opened and counted, taking ms hasina towards a historic victory. but it is also a controversial one. yogita limaye, bbc news, dhaka. the bbc's yogita limaye joins me live from dhaka. since you filed that report has there been any more unrest? no.

since we are filed that report we have not heard of any violent incidents from any part of the country. the final result is that prime minister sheikh hasina's party has won 288 of the 300 seat in the parliament. the opposition parties, the main alliance that was standing against her have won only seven seats and even yesterday they said that this election was farcical and they were not allowed to campaign and that is why they have called for and that is why they have called for a new election. what we saw yesterday outside the polling booth as well as reports from other parts of the country where even in cases where ballot papers with the symbol for the prime minister sheikh hasina's party has been ticked off before polling began. these irregularities have been reported in different parts of the country. the election commission has said they will look into this and investigate it but it must be remembered that

this is a body that the opposition accuses of buyers. they say the election commission, even joining the campaign, did not give them position —— permission to hold rallies and disqualified from candidates with it this is a huge landslide victory, and historic third term as prime ministerfor sheikh hasina but it has been controversial. what is interesting is that the claims that have come in from across the country that you and members of the bbc‘s teams out there actually saw first—hand exactly how the vote was progressing. that is right. but it where a bbc reporter saw the ballot boxes that were filled before polling had opened, thatis filled before polling had opened, that is from the chittagong area, i must say i have been talking to people on the ground about what they are looking for and what the issues were, whether this is a free and fair election, whether or not people

in bangladesh are free to say and speak what they feel, that was one big issue. but many people here also told me that they did believe that their lives had become better under sheikh hasina's government and that is why many people said that they would vote for her. they said they had seen infrastructure development in the last ten years and that is why they were supporting her. this isa why they were supporting her. this is a leader, a controversial victory, but a leader who is popular in this country. let's get some of the day's other news. republican senator lindsey graham says president trump has reassured him he's committed to defeating the islamic state group before all us troops are withdrawn from syria. the senator was one of several high—profile republicans who criticised mr trump's decision to withdraw troops arguing it would hurt national security. the woman announced as the next chief executive

of the premier league, has told the organisation she's changed her mind. susan dinnage was due to take charge in one of the most powerful roles in british sport in 2019, succeeding richard scudamore, who is stepping down after 19 years. she hasn't given any reasons for the decision. had she taken the job, she would have been the league's first female boss. russia is expected to miss monday's deadline to hand over data from its moscow anti—doping lab. the world anti—doping agency controversially lifted a three—year ban on the country in september — on the condition samples were sent by the end of the year. a failure to meet the deadline would be embarassing for wada's leadership — and could see russia face fresh sanctions. caroline rigby has more. for years, russian athletes broke records and dominated medal tables. it was too good to be true. after russia was found guilty of state—sponsored doping on a massive scale, it became a country in sporting exile, clean athletes forced to compete as neutral at events

like the olympics. but, in the seychelles in september, the world anti—doping agency changed all that. it made the controversial decision to lift its ban on russia, on the condition that, by the end of the year, it hand over data from this moscow laboratory at the centre of one of the biggest ever scandals in sport. with the deadline almost up, the chief of the country's anti—doping agency called on president vladimir putin to intervene. translation: we are on the brink of the abyss, and i ask that you protect the present and future of sport. the present and future generations of athletes. the kremlin says it is in contact with wada. translation: the director

unfortunately is not completely aware of the work that is currently in progress between the russian side and wada, who are in moscow. he just does not know the details. in the meantime, cooperation is ongoing. but now, senior wada officials privately admit that the deadline is unlikely to be met, and that could see further sanctions against russia, and its athletes once again banned from international competition. polls have officially closed in historic elections in the democratic republic of congo. but the vote has been marred by long queues and broken voting machines. four people are also reported to have been killed in election—related violence. voters have been choosing a successor to presidentjoseph kabila who has been in office for 17 years. louise dewast has the latest from kinshasa. a warning — this report contains some flashing images. the counting of ballots has begun

after a day of chaotic voting in several polling stations. here, where more than 6000 people registered to vote, people had to wait for seven hours. translation: there were no machines, no electoral lists displayed. there is nothing here and there has not been all morning. elections were meant to start at six o'clock until 1700 and no—one has been able to vote yet. start at six o'clock until 1700 and no-one has been able to vote yet. no information at all. we are waiting. even at midnight we will be waiting. we will vote, we must fulfil our right. president joseph kabila himself was able to vote. his allies hope his chosen successor, will win. is the day to pay tribute to mr

kabila for his strong way of organising. he has to face so much. but opposition candidates have suppressed concerns —— expressed concerns about the mismanaged electoral process. translation: can you all in good faith with what you have seen today, seriously say that he will win the presidential election? if he wants to dream, let him dream. people here are very aware that this election could be flawed. that the vote could be read in favour of the ruling party's candidate. presidentjoseph in favour of the ruling party's candidate. president joseph kabila has repeatedly said that these elections will be free and they are but not many here believe him. the worry is that president kabila wants his chosen successor to be in power

so his chosen successor to be in power so he can keep pulling the strings behind the scenes and then run again in the next elections. regional observers are watching these elections but european and american observers who concluded previous elections in the country lacked credibility have not been invited. violent incidents have been reported in the east where over1 million voters have been excluded from the poll. if these long—awaited elections are not seen as credible, this could trigger violence and ultimately worsened the humanitarian system in this conflict ridden country. a lack of stability here could destabilise the entire region. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: fifty years since the moon landing and the race to space continues — we take a look at the anticipated events. the most ambitious financial

and political change ever attempted has got underway with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we're going to use money we picked up in belgium today and then we'll be in france, and again, it'll be the same money. it's just got to be the way to go. george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his oxfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. i think it looks good. just good? no, fantastic. that's better. this is bbc world news.

the latest headlines: the main opposition party in bangladesh is calling forfresh elections, after prime minister sheikh hasina secured a third term in power. there have been widespread claims of vote rigging. earlier, i spoke to christine fair from georgetown university's edmund a walsh school of foreign service. she's been an election observer in bangladesh in the past. she told me she was "absolutely not surprised" that there were claims of vote rigging. for the past year and a half or so, sheikh hasina has been doing everything he could to basically fix this electoral outcome. you know, elections are never rigged

on the day of election. there's a lot of preparation that goes into effectively rigging elections as she's done, and so there's just, regrettably, nothing surprising about this at all. what makes you say that, that there's been so much preparation over a period of time? a number of things. she has been very draconian in putting into place new legislation, that essentially criminalised any sort of criticism of her government. over the last year and change, there have been a number ofjournalists and civil rights activists that have been detained, disappeared, we don't even know where they are in many instances. she's also used a really curious war on drugs. ya ba, which is this caffeine mixed with amphetamine coming out of myanmar, she's been waging this war on this particular drug and curiously, seems as if many of her political opponents turns out to be the people

that she's targeting, even though in one case it was a member of her own party, that his constituency is on the border of myanmar and it turns out he was very heavily involved in the trafficking of this drug, and yet the state was very slow to respond to him, when it was very aggressively targeting other people suspected of trafficking. so the list is just endless. the relentless persecution of critics of her government, the criminalising of criticisms, and then i think, most importantly, she's been relentless in targeting her opposition. they've been raided by police, they've been arrested for no good reason, they've been beaten up and they've been attacked. so this has been an outcome that has been certainly anticipated by bangladesh watchers like myself and of course this comes on the — this is the 2014 election, was another election

that was deeply flawed. all of the international observation programmes basically eschewed it. in some sense, bangladesh has become a one party, indeed, one woman country and she's taken a page from her father who also tried to turn bangladesh into a one party country. and you'd like to think she would have learnt the lessons of her father. as everyone knows, her father was assassinated. so it's hard to see any glimmer of light for democracy in bangladesh for any policy—releva nt future. here in the uk, the department for transport has defended its decision to award a contract worth millions to a shipping company that's never done any business. as part of the government's preparation for a no—deal brexit, seaborne freight has been contracted to transport goods vehicles between the english port of ramsgate

and ostend in belgium. a bbc investigation has found the company has no trading record and no significant assets. joe miller's report contains some flashing images. these are the large ferries that will carry thousands of lorries across the channel to relieve congestion at dover in the event of a no—deal brexit, as soon as march. but while two large international shipping firms have been awarded contracts to provide extra crossings at locations like portsmouth and plymouth, one british business has been handed millions of pounds by the department of transport on the promise of reviving this terminal with a regular route to belgium. ramsgate's commercial port has been dormant for the best part of five years. currently, no large ferries depart from here. but the government has given almost £14 million to a firm called seaborne freight, which has never sailed a vessel and has no significant assets, to get a regular service up and running injust three months. as of a couple of months ago, the company's total share capital was valued at £66.

and this is seaborne freight‘s website, which says it serves the needs of cross—channel freight traffic, and claims that freight ferry services operate between ramsgate and ostend, even though there is as yet no such service in operation. one local councillor told me that he believes seaborne is in no position to provide any service. as a conservative, ifeel that as a shell company, which is a company that exists just on paper, it is a complete waste of money, of £14 million taxpayers' money, to provide what will be an unsustainable service across the channel here at ramsgate. the department for transport acknowledges that seaborne freight, which was set up by seasoned shipping industry figures, is just a start—up, but insists it was carefully vetted. and the company's chief executive is adamant that it will have ships to provide a service in time for brexit day on 29 march. but when we asked them to name the vessels it would use on the route, the company declined to do so.

a campaigner who opposes the use of ramsgate as a commercial port had a simple question in response. if you have ships, you can name them, but everybody in the industry does not believe seaborne freight has any access to ships at the moment. the government hopes it won't have to resort to contingency plans. it prefers a negotiated exit from the eu. but regardless of whether seaborne's services are ever needed, it could keep some taxpayers's money. another example, say critics, of a failure to plan properly for a no—deal brexit. 2019 marks 50 years since the moon landings, and could it also be the year spaceflight companies start making good on their promises? the bbc‘s global science correspondent victoria gill talks us through the highlights we're most anticipating in the months ahead. into the 19, it will be 50 years

since the apollo 11 mission first sent people to the surface of the moon, and while it might seem like the heyday of the space race on that one small step for man is something to reflect on with nostalgia, the year ahead is set to bring us some pretty exciting space developments. it will start on new year's day, when nasa's new horizons spacecraft will zoom past and capture some shots of a distant world at the outer reaches of our solar system. that will make the mysterious objects, that is 1.6 billion kilometres beyond pluto, the furthest world ever observed up close. a little closer to home, the us space agency's insight atlanta will begin to listen for earthquakes on mars, or technically mars quakes.

by on mars, or technically mars quakes. by studying the deep interior of mars, the mission hopes we can learn how other rocky worlds, including those on the moon, actually formed. speaking of which, the moon is very much on the exploration and gender for india and china's space. just in time for the apollo 11 anniversary, india will take a shot at birth‘s only natural satellite, with a mission consisting of an orbiter, a lander, and a roving vehicle that will shift and study the lunar terrain. and there will be china's endeavour to send the first ever spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon. and it is set to be a milestone you for human space travel. both boeing and spacex will be space shuttles they will use to fly astronauts to the international

space station. missions are expected to blast off with paying customers too. the ticket will be a snip, at around 0.25 too. the ticket will be a snip, at around 0.2 5 million us dollars. —— us$0.25 million. it's been more than a year since the famous bongs of big ben were paused to allow essential maintenance work to be carried out, but new year's eve in london wouldn't feel right without those iconic chimes. thankfully, the british parliament has made sure that big ben can still sound for such important events. tim muffett's been finding out how they'll make the bells ring at midnight, here in london. typically, it is 399 steps to the top of what is surely britain's most commonly missed a building, but refurbishment of the elizabeth tower, which houses began, means that right now the journey is quicker. it is a huge privilege

obviously to be able to do this. the fabric of the building suffered bomb damage during the second world war. there have been various repairs since then and this is the first opportunity we have had really to ta ke opportunity we have had really to take it apart from top to bottom and doa take it apart from top to bottom and do a thorough job on take it apart from top to bottom and do a thoroughjob on it. take it apart from top to bottom and do a thorough job on it. work began early last year and is due to last until 2021. it has meant scaffolding incitements, instead of familiar sights and sounds. a lot of the tourists are very upset by it, they may become to london to see the band, but at the end of the day, time has come for maintenance, u nfortu nately. time has come for maintenance, unfortunately. almost 160 years, the hammer that strikes big ben has been activated by the great clock. —— for almost. with the original clock mechanism currently off—site being restored, he is the challenge. how do you allow the world's most famous bell to be struck on special occasions? we made the obligation

that this bell would be made available for all national events, like remembrance sunday and new year's eve. in november, this device made its debut. it is a computer system that is linked to a gps. out of ice on—side picks up that signal and tells the moto2 start to run, allowing the hammer to strike. —— motor. that is exactly what happened on remembrance sunday and worked extremely well. to come midnight on new year's eve, will it happen? yes, it will happen. yes, i am nervous but nerves are good because no show that you care about something. the sound of one year ending and the new year beginning. the important for any refurbishment to silence. —— too important. that is a reassuring sounds. you're watching bbc world news, life now. —— bye for now.

hello. as we head into the final 2a hours of 2018, the weather is looking pretty quiet with high pressure dominating. this was the scene as the sun set on sunday in st andrews, beautiful colours there. and as we head through the final day, that high pressure keeps us largely dry and settled during new year's eve, quite a bit of cloud on offer. there could be a bit of rain in the north—west, particularly for north—west scotland. now, here is the area of high pressure that's holding onto our weather, here's the weather front approaching from the north—west. fairly tightly packed isobars in the north, so quite a windy spell of weather developing for northern parts of scotland on new year's day. —— of scotland on new year's eve. we've got some rain working through into the west, but it will become increasingly light and patchy as it moves its way further south across scotland. elsewhere across the uk, we're looking at a largely dry day, spells of sunshine breaking through after a misty,

murky start to the day, and again, it's still mild, so temperatures around about ten to 12 degrees during monday afternoon. if you're heading out new year's eve evening then, most of us again dry, with a few clear spells, there could be the odd spot of rain just pushing south into central parts of scotland, but that rain will be easing. so if you're hoping to catch the fireworks, it is looking dry for the majority of the uk. pretty cloudy conditions out there for a time, but as that front weakens as it pushes south, it'lljust be a band of cloud sitting across parts of northern ireland, into wales, and central england first thing on new year's day morning. now, for most of us, it is still going to be reasonably mild. but things are turning colder from the north and that's all down to the fact that this cold front is pushing its way south during new year's day on tuesday. it will be fizzling out, so reallyjust a band of cloud, not much rain on that front. high pressure still the dominating force, but it's not really until tuesday night into wednesday that we see all this cold air really packing in from the north and things will feel quite different by then. but this is new years's day on tuesday, more sunshine

will develop across scotland, northern ireland and northern england too. further south, we keep some slightly cloudier skies. that breeze coming in from the north introducing some cloud across north—east scotland and eastern parts of england too. so temperatures in aberdeen only around 7 degrees or so. we're still looking at ten to 11 degrees celsius down towards the south and the south—west of england. moving through then into the overnight period and that's when we see some frosty conditions developing. the blue colours on the map indicate where we'll see the lowest of the temperatures tuesday night. not quite as cold around some eastern parts of england with a little more cloud around, but as we start 2019, things are set to turn colder, the frost returns, but there'll be plenty of sunshine on offer during the day. bye— bye. this is bbc news, the headlines: the main opposition in bangladesh is demanding fresh elections as p sheikh hasina has secured a third term as prime minister of bangladesh in what is being described as a landslide victory. the main opposition has called the election ‘farcical‘ as claims of vote rigging emerge, and is demanding a fresh poll. the clock is ticking for russia

to hand over samples to the world anti—doping agency — a failure to meet the deadline could see new sanctions imposed. wada controversially lifted a ban on the country in september on the condition samples were sent by the end of the year. millions of people have cast their vote in the democratic republic of congo's historical elections. voting is reported to have been mostly calm, despite long delays, broken polling machines and bad weather. now on bbc news — this year royal air force