sri lanka is holding a day of mourning for victims of the easter sunday bomb blasts. nearly 300 people were killed in the attacks on churches and hotels. funerals are already under way. a state of emergency has come into force and the government is facing questions about security alerts received days before the attacks. the government blames a little known islamist group, but also says a local group could not have carried out co—ordinated bombings without international support. one minister described the government as ashamed and outraged at its own failure to prevent the attacks. the trump administration has declared that any country importing iranian oil after may 1st will face american sanctions. the us secretary of state says the aim is to halt iran's oil exports entirely, but it will also affect china, india, south korea and japan, who were given temporary waivers to buy iranian oil, to limit market disruption. older women are being exploited

by ivf clinics, who are "trading on hope" — that's according to the head of britain's fertility watchdog. sally cheshire, chairwoman of the human fertilisation and embryology authority, has accused some private clinics of using "selective success rates" to persuade middle—aged women to undergo treatment. simonjones reports. susannah botting gave birth when she was 43, but only after seven rounds of ivf at several clinics, costing her £50,000. she believes she was talked into additional treatments that she didn't actually need, and haven't been proven to work. you are there yourself anyway because you want to do the next round, you want to get pregnant. and again, i think it goes back to the hidden costs of the treatments that you may or may not need, that you just kind of go, "yes, i'll do it," because i want to get pregnant this time around. i don't want to go through another round. the fertility watchdog believes older women are being targeted by aggressive sales tactics, particularly by foreign clinics. they are trading on that hope and vulnerability because they know that most patients will do anything to have their much

longed forfamily. the human fertilisation and embryology authority says women aged between a0 and 42, using their own eggs for ivf, had a success rate ofjust 9%, unless using eggs frozen when they were younger. women a year older saw their chances of getting pregnant fall significantly to 3%. and those aged 44 and over had a success rate of i%. that equates to just two live births a year in the uk. i'm not sure it's a widespread thing in the uk, but i think there is a risk that people end up doing more than perhaps is appropriate if they are not careful, so i think the key to it is making sure they get good, professional advice about what is appropriate for them. but the regulator wants more powers to protect women like susannah botting so their hopes and dreams aren't taken advantage of. simon jones, bbc news. now it's time for the travel show. coming up on this week's programme... car—free in madrid.

this is like being a kid again! woohoo! digging the dutch masters. and it's downhill all the way in the mountains of latvia. we start this week in the spanish capital, madrid, where change is coming fast. the way people get around the city is being transformed, city officials are clearing the cars from the congested streets and opening them up to new possibilities — rentable electric scooters.

they have become increasingly popular in many european cities of late. for lots of people, it's a transport revolution they've been waiting for. for others, it's something else entirely. too many in madrid. madrid resident rafa estefania reports. look at this! electric scooters, bicycle sharing, everybody seems to be sharing means of transport now in madrid. nobody seems to use their own bikes, their own scooters any more. we've got here the electric bikes, they are being charged at the moment, and over there, a line full of electric scooters. they are everywhere. it seems that everybody in madrid is using them to move around. and they are just part of the story. faced with some of the worst

pollution in europe, city officials hope to reduce it by 40% by taking the most polluting vehicles off the road in a plan they call madrid central. meanwhile, on all the roads once created to adapt the city around the new automobiles of the time, new spaces are being created for pedestrians. gran via is the newest street from the beginning of the 20th century. tour guide pedro agreed to show me around. it's fantastic because, as a guide, i can see you from this point of view, from this place for the first time since the renovation. i've never been able to look at this building from this angle. this is because all this is new, right? it was full of traffic going around and it was almost impossible. now it is a new space for the people. excellent, excellent. all new for pedestrians, for the people, no cars. i love it.

how is it affecting you and the visitors, the fact that we've got madrid central, that we have more pedestrians on the street, less traffic? gran via or the city centre is never quiet. this is a very alive city, it's crazy, it's amazing. we can feel less traffic and we can feel a better air. it's fantastic. of course, madrid isn't the first to try to remove cars from its city centre. by working with companies offering greener electric options, there are more ways to explore the centre than ever. already widely available in cities around the world, electric scooters arrived here last summer. you feel like a kid almost. you drive around having fun and it's the joy of riding. it's a great way to move around.

commuting with our scooters has become fun. how good do you think is madrid in terms of green transportation? i would say madrid ten years ago or even five years ago was like a car—driven city and now i think madrid is becoming the biggest lap in the world and it's living a fantastic, vibrant moment so you have tonnes of different means of transportation. it's super—exciting because the city council took a very bold move doing madrid central. it's farfrom being perfect, but it's going in the right direction and people are starting to leave their cars or private vehicles at home and starting to take either public transport or one of the shared vehicles. scooter users leave them wherever they are when they get to their destination, but some people worry they lead to the streets. what would you say to those people who are a bit unhappy with the idea of having all these scooters lying around?

we are aware that the dockless system comes with a lot of benefits and some inconvenience. it's just a matter of getting used to it. it's new for everyone, including us, so we need to find together with our competitors and with the city officials ways to kind of move forward in a responsible way. this is like being a kid again! woohoo! so, what if you are a traveller going just short distances around the city centre? pick one, which is going to be better — the old public transport system or the new kids on the block? to find out, i've roped in a friend. pedro here is going to take public transport. i'm going to take one of these electric scooters. but this is not a race, so i will go steady and safe and i want you to do the same, 0k, promise? i promise. are you ready? i am totally ready. ready, go. so my first challenge is to find a scooter.

in just a few seconds, i've found one that is 30 seconds‘ walk away. it's a quick scan of the bar code and i am off to catch up with pedro. now, i've got to say one thing for the scooters — while they do take a bit more effort and concentration, they have to be more exciting than taking a bus. and if you don't know the way, you can easily get lost. but if you need to get somewhere quickly, well, it looks like i may be there first. rafa, we're here! but only just.

i cannot believe it, i arrived here literally a minute ago. are you 0k? of course. and if you're heading to spain this spring, here are the things we think you should look out for. seville‘s april fair is huge and what's more, it's not even in april this year. from may 4th, more than 1,000 tents are pitched around the fairground to the southwest of the city and for the whole week, the site becomes the place to eat, drink and dance the night away. it's a great way to get a fun flavour of traditional andalusia. the mulafest urban arts festival has become something of a fixture in madrid since it was established in 2012. it's pretty diverse, everything from tattoos to circus arts to motorbikes are celebrated here.

you'd better hurry up if you need tickets, though, the whole thing takes place just a week from now. many think spring is the perfect time to visit granada's spectacular moorish alhambra palace. in the summer, it gets incredibly hot and busy. you may have missed the best of the blossom now in its generalife gardens, but you're still guaranteed some stunning architecture without the stifling heat. and while you're in the south of the country, why not check out the restored caminito del rey in a crevasse close to malaga? the narrow walkway was reopened in 2015 after more than a decade of closure. it's more than three kilometres long and only a metre wide and used to be called the world's most dangerous footpath, but these days there is a bit more fencing to help stop you from plunging over the side.

to sweden next, and an archaeological treat that's become the most visited museum piece in the whole of scandinavia. the vasa lay in the bay of stockholm for more than three centuries before its discovery in 1956. we dropped in to meet the people whose job it is to protect the ship forfuture generations. my name is lisa mansson. i am the director of the vasa museum. the vasa is a ship that was actually built in the 17th century, but sank on her maiden voyage. so the swedish king at the time, gustavus adolphus, he needed more warrior ships so he ordered to build this very big ship that should be the flagship in the swedish navy, but she only sailed for approximately 20 minutes. a wind caught her sails and she leaned to the side and unfortunately the cannon ports were open and the water came streaming in through the cannon ports.

she got heavy and and leaned to the side and actually sank. the vasa is 98% original, which is unique in the world. there are no other ships from the 17th century of this size that are this well preserved. the reason that the ship is so well preserved is that it sank in the baltic sea where we don't have shipworms that you have in more salty water.

so thanks to the brackish water in the baltic sea, she was well kept. right now, the museum is going through a very important phase and that is focusing on preserving the ship for the future. if we wouldn't do anything, the ship is slightly moving to the side and she is sinking about one millimetre each year. we don't want to have that go on forever because there will be breakage at some point. so many people ask us, how come that we have this success since it's actually built onafailure? and i think that failure is actually something that is a part of evolution. we need to allow ourselves to fail to build success.

stay with us because still to come... it's one small step for tourism in space and one giant leap into your favourite van gogh. we've got the best things currently trending in the world of travel. and i'm in latvia, plunging headfirst down an icy hill. lucky old me. so don't go away. time now for trending travel, a monthly look at some of the best travel—related stories, pics and videos making news online. mission control: three, two, one. . . release! did you ever dream of being

an astronaut as a kid? fire! 50 years after the first moon landings, virgin galactic recently successfully tested a manned passenger flight to the edge of space, and now they have just signed an agreement to launch flights from uae, hopefully bringing those childhood dreams a step closer for those who can afford them. back on earth, las vegas has always been the home for high rollers, and now, here's a new hotel room for the very biggest spenders. it's got two floors, has a six original works of art and a pool overlooking the strip. if you're tempted, then the price tag isjust $200,000 a night, or yours for free if you've got over $1 million in credit with the palms casino. in the more traditional art city of florence, locals have formed a graffiti—busting group, the angels of beauty, to restore the city's ancient sites.

these volunteers have armed themselves with special cutting—edge lasers because traditional cleaning methods can damage the stone. the scientists say the new techniques are capable of safely cleaning any surface back to its former glory. and maybe this could be useful in helping you travel in a foreign country. this recent video from matthew brennan in china has had over 2 million views on twitter. he shows how facial recognition software is now being used to direct passengers to their airport gates. so i discovered the system when i was travelling in south—west china, in chengdu. to my knowledge, they are piloting this new system. it's not available yet in shanghai or beijing. you can't speak to it, it's only a facial recognition system where it will tell you your flight information, your flight status, whether it has

been delayed or not and how to get to your gate. the data for my face, i assume, i'd be surprised if it wasn't coming from the security check. super helpful or sinister? you decide. now, lots of you have sent us your pictures this month using the hashtag #traveltuesday. here are some of our favourites. spring is here in the northern hemisphere, and that means huge amounts of people travelling to japan to see the iconic cherry blossoms. here is a daytime shot from reiko sato of the tokyo tower. this stunning photo is from tetsuro takahashi, and this one was sent to us on twitter. remember — keep sending in your pictures. now, let's meet the travel film—makers and vloggers who have caught our eye this month. if you're in paris any time this year, then the atelier des lumieres

is asking you to step inside the artwork itself with its new van gogh exhibition. with its 140 state—of—the—art projectors and 50 speakers setting the mood for what they call a new emotional and dynamic approach to art. this hugely popular museum had 4 million visitors last year and is looking to have the same here again this year. well, that's your lot for now. but don't forget to send us your best pics, clips and stories. and who knows? maybe next time you could be trending in travel. gauja is latvia's oldest and largest national park, but we are not here this week for the peace and quiet of its lovely forests. we're here for adventure.

and it starts just south of the park in this little town. welcome to sigulda's bobsleigh track, one of the very few in the world where tourists can get the same adrenaline rush as professional racers. built under the soviet union in 1986, the track has played host to international competitions in luge, skeleton and bobsleigh rides, with some obvious success. the track is now used as a training venue for several latvian champions, but there are no competitions on today, which is lucky for me because it means i get to try it out. although, having a look, i don't really feel so lucky. first, i'm meeting the man in control of the sled, my pilot. hello there! my pilot. this is the ice track — try not to fall over. i'm christa. good to meet you. so tell me, what do i need to do? first, you need a helmet.

0k. next...get inside the bob. sitting, hold, not only the hands, but all your body, your muscles. and we go down and that's it. all right. so as long as i've got muscles, we'll be ok. i'm in safe hands. yeah! excellent. ok, let's go! get the team together. we're about to set off 100 kilometres down a very icy hill, but luckily i've got an expert pilot. so, fingers crossed everything goes very smoothly. apart from the pilot steering the bobsleigh from the front, a team also includes pushers and a brakeman, but tourists get it easy. theyjust need to duck in and hold very tight. this track is almost 1,500 metres long and you need a pretty strong stomach to manage its 16 curves.

oh, man! woo! i think that's one of the most intense experiences of my entire life. that was like being in a very, very active, very cold tumble dryer for a minute and a half. i don't even know how long it was. that was completely insane. another winter sport that can take your breath away is this, the skeleton. imagine a luge with no brakes or steering aid that you ride headfirst. martins and tomass are brothers and they're both world and olympic champions in this sport. it's our home track and we did many runs here, i think for learning, it's great.

i agree, because if you learn and you can survive here, then you can survive everywhere. you must love this sport to devote so much of your life to it. what do you love about it? i don't like training and all this stuff, but what i love is competition, so that is the best part for me. i don't think i'm ready to try one of the full—blown skeletons, but there is a tourist version available that's a little bit more my speed. wish me luck. it's called a frog and for this one, there is no crew to make me feel safe. 0hhh! oh, my goodness! screams how was it?

so cool! the track in sigulda could now become an olympic venue too. itjoins stockholm in a bid for hosting the 2026 0lympic winter games. answer injune this year and in the meantime... oh, yeah, i could go again. right now. let's go. sadly, that's all we have time for. but coming up on next week's programme... the game's on. got his queen. mike's in norway where one

of the world's most enduring games has seen a huge revival thanks to a home—grown grand master. i would say my favourite player from the past is probably myself, like, three, four years ago. my heart's beating so fast! so, dojoin us then, and in the meantime, you can sign up to our social media feeds where you can share your travels with us and the world. until next time, from me, christa larwood, and the rest of the travel show team here in latvia, it's goodbye.

well, there is some good news on the weather front if you have been enjoying the fine weather in the last few days. we have one more day of decent weather on tuesday, a lot of sunshine around and temperatures still into the 20s. after that it really will be all change. in fact, it will cool off dramatically and we have showers and thunderstorms potentially on the way. 0n the satellite already, the picture is looking very u nsettled. you can see clouds swirling around here. weather fronts as well, patterns actually, but these weather fronts are heading in our direction and in around 24—36 hours time they will arrive and we will see downpours. first in the country's south—west and then in other parts of the uk as well. for the time being, tuesday looks relatively quiet, notjust in the uk but in much of western, north—western europe into scandinavia as well. morning temperatures are between six and 12 celsius though not as chilly as it was yesterday morning. and then in the afternoon it is business as usual. a lot of sunshine around,

warm south south—easterly wind, not quite as warm. we had temperatures around 25 degrees in the last few days and i think around 22 or 23 across southern and central areas. still making around 20 in the lowlands of scotland and just shy of 20 for belfast but another fine day on the way. here is tuesday night into wednesday and the high pressure that has been bringing us the fine weather slips away towards the east and this big area of messy weather with its weather fronts, this big area of low pressure is starting to push in. from the early hours of wednesday we will start to see rain moving into cornwall, devon, parts of wales as well, central and southern england and the midlands as well some could be downpours with thunderstorms and watch what happens through the day on wednesday. difficult to say which towns and cities will get the downpours at what time but suffice to say it will be a lot more unsettled

on wednesday compared to the last few days. scotland is still looking fine but the north sea coast may be a little on the cool side there. some cloud as well. that is midweek — towards the end of the week it really will be a big change because we even say goodbye to the mild air. the warm air is long gone but colder currents of air from the north atlantic arrive, breezy conditions as well, showers possible. so the outlook says it all, really — a lot of shower symbols here with temperatures dropping to below average for some of us and towards the weekend even struggling to make double figures across northern areas.

a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: sri lanka grieves. with close to 300 people killed in sunday's bomb attacks — the first funerals are taking place. the shock and disbelief remain raw. 0utside, shattered glass everywhere, roof tiles that are broken. and all around, a strong smell of blood and death. as the government imposes emergency powers, it's facing more questions about its failure to act on intelligence ahead of the attacks. the us threatens sanctions on any country importing oilfrom iran after the first of may. tehran calls the move illegal. as protests continue in sudan, we take a look at the role women are playing in the revolution.