you're watching newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in colombo. the headlines: sri lanka's president admits even he wasn't told of prior intelligence on the easter day bombings and promises a shake—up of security services. meanwhile, the grieving say goodbye. the first funerals take place as dozens of children are confirmed to have been among the 321 people who died. translation: i didn't expect they would die. i'll never see them again. i can't love children like them anymore. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: he's packed up and on his way — north korean leader kim jong—un sets

off to russia for his first ever summit with president putin. the umbrella movement saw scenes like this in hong kong five years ago. nine of the protesters behind it are due to arrive in court for sentencing. it's 1am in london, and 5:30am in the morning in sri lanka, where the first funerals have taken place after easter sunday's suicide attacks on churches and hotels. the death toll has risen — it's now known that more than 320 people were killed. the authorities have blamed a local islamist group, although the so—called islamic state group has claimed responsibility. the bbc‘s clive myrie reports.

white banners and streamers today greet those entering negombo. in the afternoon breeze, they dance as if heralding a fete or celebration. but in sri lanka, white signifies death. they pray. a meditation on the life of christ and remembrance of the dead. in this house, open caskets contain four members of one family, murdered as they prayed on easter sunday. a mother, two girls and a boy aged seven. then the quiet reflection is broken. she shrieks. "my golden daughter, my small son, why are you like this?" she wails. "get up, get up!" overcome, this grandmother

still can't believe two generations of her family are gone. and next door, another house of sorrow. she shrieks. "i lost my family," says anusha kumari. and all around, her heartbreak is shared. nearby, more bodies. her husband and teenage son. this room is now a shrine. and close by, a 21—year—old daughter, to be laid to rest. so—called islamic state has claimed responsibility and anusha demands that the government gets tough on local extremists. translation: the people of this country are mad. they are fools. we need a strong leader to run this country. sri lanka needs a strong

man for it to rise. it is clear that the sense of shock and grief and loss that this woman is feeling, so many are feeling here in sri lanka is now turning to anger, real anger at the authorities for not protecting them. as he calmly walks past a child, cctv captures the bomber who destroyed anusha's life and so many others. he walks into st sebastian church. it is packed. this is easter sunday. seconds later, he detonates. on this day of national mourning, sri lanka's prime minister warned that some extremists are still on the run and may be returnees from syria. there are a few people on the run, some are on the run, so we have to apprehend them... with the explosive. he was asked how many are on the run. i don't know.

back in negombo, excavations for mass burials. the burning question after sunday's barbarity — will the killings bring this country together in grief or see the delicate balance of ethnic and religious fault lines here tear apart? it wasn't just colombo that was attacked. more than 25 people, many of them children, lost their lives in the attack at the zion church in batticaloa, that's in the east of the country. rajini vaidya nathan reports. in the town of batticaloa, they're grieving. at almost every corner, pictures hang in memory of the young lives that were lost. forjerusham, who'd just turned 13. forjohn, who loved basketball. for amsika, who was two. for the other children killed at church. they'd been attending sunday school.

this footage was filmed 20 minutes before the bomber struck. after class, some of them went outside for snacks before easter service. 12—year—old niruban was one of the children who stayed inside. "suddenly, we heard loud noises," he told me. "we looked out and saw glass and motorbikes flying around, and heard screams and shouts." at least 25 people died in the blast here in zion church. 13 were children. niruban‘s mother, krishanthi, was one of the sunday school teachers. her husband ramesh was at the church, which was packed with worshippers, when he spotted a stranger with a backpack. "the man told my husband he was carrying a camera and wanted to film inside," she told me.

"my husband said he couldn't enter and forced him to leave. as i went into the church, the bomb exploded." ramesh died, but his actions saved lives. niruban and his sister now have to live theirs without a father. i love myjesus only. and for krishanthi, now a widow, her pain is all too familiar. her parents were brutally murdered in sri lanka's civil war. her aunt died in a tsunami. in this small christian community, entire families have been wiped out. this woman lost her son, her daughter—in—law, and her 18—month—old grandson. just around the corner, we found another memorial poster of two smiling children. yesterday brother and sister sharon and sarah were buried.

side by side. they were just 11 and i2. both love to study. still, on the wall in their house, their homework calendar. "i'll never see them again," their mum told me. "since they've been gone, all i can remember are their smiles and laughter. they won't come back again. that's the reality." ten years after the civil war ended, this community is once again burying its dead. these graves have barely been dug, just like the lives lost had barely been lived. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news, batticaloa. we will go back to sri lanka later in the programme. let's take a look at some of the day's other news. a second large tremor has hit samar island in the philippines,

after a first earthquake in the northern luzon province on monday caused several buildings to collapse north of manila. rescue operations are under way to free trapped people. officials say at least 16 people are known to have died. china has been celebrating the 70th anniversary of its navy with a huge military parade. it took the chance to show off its military muscle with new guided missile destroyers, nuclear submarines and an aircraft carrier, as president xijinping ramps up the country's presence in the disputed south china sea. president trump will make a three—day state visit to the uk at the beginning ofjune. the president and first lady will be guests of the queen. they will attend a ceremony in portsmouth to mark 75 years since the d—day landings. mr trump is also due to have official talks with the british prime minister, theresa may, at downing street. north korea's leader kim jong—un is heading to russia for his first ever meeting with president vladimir putin. chairman kim's security and protocol staff have been spotted making final

preparations in vladivostok for the upcoming summit. the kremlin has confirmed the two will meet on thursday in the city which isjust over 100 kilometres away from the border with north korea. the bbc‘s sarah rainsford reports. they have been sprucing up vladivostok, preparing for a summit that russia wants to reflect its status as a serious global player. vladimir putin will host the leader of north korea at this college campus to talk nuclear weapons, among other things. kim jong—un‘s armoured train will roll into this station. though the special service from pyongyang isn't being announced here and there is no obvious fuss yet among the locals. 17 years ago kim's father made the same journey to see the same man. then vladimir putin was trying

to renew an alliance that had flagged after the soviet collapse. now he wants russia to help negotiate an end to its neighbour's nuclear ambitions. two months ago donald trump's efforts to do that collapsed, but analysts here argue mr putin is looking to revitalise the diplomatic process, not undermine it. i don't think putin would try to pour fuel into this fire. i think putin wants russia to be a constructive and responsible player. russia... it is not in russia's interests to see another crisis surging on the korean peninsular. seven time zones east of moscow it isn't hard to see why. this place is full of visitors from china and crowds of tourists from south korea. the border with the north isjust over 100 kilometres away as the crow flies.

from here in vladivostok, north korea is very close and russia definitely doesn't want a nuclear—armed state right on its border. but these talks are important politically, too. they're about vladimir putin stepping in and engaging with pyongyang after donald trump's efforts have stalled. people here welcome that, worried about an unpredictable nuclear neighbour. yeah, it is a bit unsettling and it does make me a bit uncomfortable i guess when i think about it. the timing suggests kim jong—un is travelling here because he now needs russia to push his case with america. russia has always argued that maximum pressure on pyongyang won't work, so this is vladimir putin's chance to explore that first—hand. the sri lankan prime minister has been trying to assure the nation and others that the government had

been taking the necessary measures to bring the situation under control. ranil wickremesinghe warned there's a possibility of further attacks by suspected radical islamists in the country following the suicide attacks which left more than 320 people dead. i've been speaking to shobhana xavier — she's an expert in global islam and assistant professor at queen's university's school of religion in canada. i asked her if she thought the so—called islamic state group was involved. as i've been following the news very closely and talking to people, it seems that is has made claims and taken responsibility for this. we haven't seen much further in terms of any of the individuals who are participating in these events. it's either claiming or, you know, pledging allegiance, as we have seen in other instances. so i think we are still waiting. but a lot of experts are thinking that because of the mass scale and the way it was organised, it is likely that there could have been individual actors that were localised that perhaps had some international or transnational connections, and we're waiting for more of that information to come out in the coming days.

now, we know there are many communities here in sri lanka — of course, the muslim community is tiny, theirjust really about 10% of the population here. what can you tell us about the community here — they've also been targets in the past, haven't they? they have been. a year ago there was growing — as i was referring to — anti—muslim sentiment, muslim businesses, muslim sacred spaces have been attacked, and they've been mainly attacked by those that have espoused buddhist nationalistic ideologies, that hold sri lanka as an island that should be predominantly buddhist in nature, right, this is part of what had also impacted some of the tensions that were with the tamil communities that led to the civil war that we saw. with the muslim community, we have similar tendencies of this emerging again. so, for instance, the community in batticaloa where one of the zion churches was attacked, that's a predominantly muslim province, and as muslims go on the island they are very diverse, there is the sunni muslim population and different variations of practices.

we have a lot of suffis in sri lanka as well that tend to be definitely pluralistic and practice religious interfaith by sharing spaces, sharing sacred spaces. so muslim communities, although small, are immensely vibrant, they are diverse, they are politically involved. one of the important things to remember is also muslim is an ethnic marker in sri lanka. so though muslims speak tamil, they have chosen to identify as muslims in order to have representation. so this has worked differently from the tamil community, who would identify linguistically as being tamil, wheras muslims would identify as muslims, ethnically as well. shobhana xavier from the queen's school of religion in canada. you're watching newsday on the bbc. will be returning to sri lanka shortly and finding out more on the

suspects and the investigation ——we will be. the stars and stripes at half—mast outside columbine high. the school sealed off, the bodies of the dead still inside. i never thought that they would actually go through with it. one of the most successful singer songwriters of all time, the american pop star prince has died at the age of 57. he was a great musician and, you know, a genius. for millions of americans, the death of richard nixon in a new york hospital has meant conflicting emotions. a national day of mourning next wednesday sitting somehow uneasily with the abiding memories of the shame of watergate. mission control: and lift-off of the space shuttle discovery with the hubble space telescope,

our window on the universe. you're watching newsday on the bbc. i'm kasia madera in london. sharanjit leyl is in sri lanka. as more families are preparing to bury their loved ones, there are more questions about intelligence warnings that weren't passed on. sri lanka's president says prior intelligence on the attacks wasn't even shared with him and promises a shake up of security services. let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. the south china morning post has the details on the parade marking 70 years since the founding of china's navy. it follows beijing beefing up its military presence in the south china sea, much to the alarm of china's neighbours as well as the us.

the philippine daily inquirer leads on the latest on the earthquake that struck the main philippines island of luzon on monday. more than 90 people are believed to still be trapped beneath the rubble. and the international edition of the new york times leads on france's renewed efforts to identify and return artwork stolen during world war ii. french authorities have faced criticism for not doing enough to identify stolen pieces of art in the country's collections. nine leaders of hong kong's 2014's pro—democracy 0ccupy movement are expected to arrive for sentencing at west kowloon magistrates‘ court a little later today. earlier this month, the defendants were found guilty of public nuisance and incitement charges, which carry a maximum jail sentence of up to seven years. the bbc‘s stephen mcdonell is in hong kong at the court. as you can see behind me, no doubt,

the supporters of these nine pro—democracy protest leaders have already been gathering outside the court complex here in west kowloon. in the coming hours they will find out the fate of those who are judged to have been responsible for those mass protests in 2014, which became known as the umbrella movement, and which locked down the heart of hong kongin which locked down the heart of hong kong ina which locked down the heart of hong kong in a failed attempt to bring about direct election of this city's leader. now, the prosecutors here have drawn considerable criticism from the pro—democracy cab for relying on an obscure colonial to charge these nine people. because this was a sort of cherry pick, this law, to obtain a maximum punishment for them and the thinking is that this is to send a message for anyone who might be considering having these types of protests in the future. the pessimistic outcome and,

really, one which is quite probable is that today they will receive jail time and it could be for several yea rs. time and it could be for several years. now, whatever people in hong kong think about the protest movement, the umbrella movement, and its goals and how was carried out, many people think this is a little house for doing something which, really, is just house for doing something which, really, isjust gathering in house for doing something which, really, is just gathering in the street and calling for democracy, something that many people here in hong kong think is crucial to the way of life here. something that makes this city work. and, u nfortu nately, makes this city work. and, unfortunately, which is slowly deteriorating in recent times. steven mcdonnell outside the court in hong kong. we will be back with them later. for the first time, a new malaria vaccine is being tested in the field. it's the culmination of more than three decades of work and cost a billion dollars to develop. malaria kills 435,000 people every year — the majority of them children. a large—scale pilot has been launched in malawi. but it will also be rolled

out in ghana and kenya in the coming weeks. victoria wahonda reports. the world could finally be getting closer to winning the fight against malaria. it's all thanks to a new vaccine, the first of its kind, which is undergoing a large—scale pilot in malawi. the rts—s vaccine attacks the malaria parasite, with initial testing indicating it reduces cases by 40 cents. the world health organization, expected to be a crucial step in combating the disease, will receive the vaccine before they are two years old. the aim is to immunise 120,000 infants to reduce the number of deaths. currently, a child dies from malaria every two minutes. the pilot will roll out to ghana next week, while

kenya will follow suit in the next weeks. victoria wahonda, bbc news. polls have now closed in the indian election‘s super tuesday — the third phase of the country's marathon seven—stage general election. with nearly a billion eligible voters, the logistics can be quite daunting. but, as the bbc‘s tim allman explains, election officials are determined everyone — and i mean everyone — can take part. this is a man who takes his civic duty very seriously indeed. a priest who lives in a remote forest temple, he walks nearly a kilometre to his polling station. a polling station set up for him and only him. it is often described as the world's biggest exercise in democracy. 900 million eligible voters, around 1 million eligible voters, around 1 million polling stations. officials had to travel through nearly 70 kilometres of line investor jungle

to set up in the western province of gujurat. —— line investorjungle. he was given a warm welcome. he has been the sole voter here for nearly 20 years was not and then he got down to the business at hand. he wouldn't say who he had voted for, but when the returns come back it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out. translation: i live here, deep inside the forest. there is just this one polling station here. and the government spends a lot of money on it. i've voted here today and hence this station has a turnout of 100%. they ask everyone to cast their valuable votes so there's 100% voting everywhere. job done, he returns to work at the temple stop at two words are do spring to mind — postal vote. tim allman, bbc news.

postal vote indeed. but it would be quite the same, would it? and you can find out more about all the stories we've covered online — just go to bbc.com/news. now let's return to sharanjit in the sri lankan capital, colombo, shara njit. and you are in a country that is in morning. that's right. it really is a third day of mourning for many sri lankans. we know yesterday, tuesday the 23rd, was an official day of mourning. we saw a loss of the mass funerals take place. in fact, there are so many funerals take place. in fact, there are so many people that require being buried that they have had to do it in batches. insecurity is very tight. as you can see behind me, it is brightening up, it is a third day, wednesday, since those attacks took place. and people are coming to terms with the shock and horror and the grief of it all. we know that there's still a heightened sense of

alert here. there are still threats that we had the prime minister on about yesterday in the press conference. we have been hearing of va ns conference. we have been hearing of vans are filled with explosive, they we re vans are filled with explosive, they were potentially going to hit new targets. it is the tragedy and the horror, they simply don't make sense. we leave you with some of the pictures of the day of remembrance. singing. in this small village almost every house has one funeral.

you cannot find a single person who is without tears. everybody is crying. there is a change on the way, it's certainly going to feel a lot cooler, but not really until the end of the week. today, wednesday, it's actually not going to be too bad. temperatures could still get up to around 20 degrees but some of us will need our brollies. there are showers on the way, there could be some thunderstorms too. a lot of cloud on the satellite image, these are weather fronts, they are heading in our direction and for the rest of the week, we will see a succession of weather fronts approaching us and those will be giving showers. we can still see quite a lot of orange and yellow, that is basically the temperature of the atmosphere. it's what we call the air mass. some warmth there but the colder current of air across the north atlantic, that won't reach us until probably friday, that's when we will really notice the temperatures tumbling. here's first thing in the morning on wednesday, temperatures of ten in the south, six in the north.

showers going right from the word go across cornwall and devon. much of the west country into wales as well. some just about nudging into the midlands by around lunchtime. but by two or three in the afternoon, notice that the south coast is actually clear of the showers so the sun may come out again. quite a changeable day from showers, back to sunshine. those showers will continue to drift northwards into the lake district, eventually later on in the afternoon. those temperatures still managing to get up to around 20 degrees but where you have the cloud and the showers, it's going to feel quite a bit cooler. maybe around 14 or 15 degrees. you can see those blobs of blue, the showers move northwards as we head into wednesday evening. eventually, that warmth or what is left of it will waft away towards the east and this colder air will reach us. thursday and friday, that's where we see those temperatures tumbling away. here is thursday, again showers in the forecast,

a little bit more widespread, and some of us that didn't have the showers on wednesday may get them on thursday. temperatures only 13, 14, 15 degrees. throughout the country, whether you're in the south or the north, may be some sunshine thrown in there. here is friday's weather forecast. breezy as well, showers, could be the odd crack of thunder as well, really feeling quite cool, i suspect by the time we get to the weekend some northern areas might be struggling to even make double figures. the outlook into saturday and sunday is a showery one. temperatures in the south of around 12—14 degrees. maybe 10 or 11 in the north.

i'm kasia madera with bbc news.

our top story: anguish turns to anger in sri lanka as more details emerge of the prior intelligence the country had on sunday's attacks. even the president says he wasn't briefed about the warnings, and has promised sweeping changes to the military and security services. setting off for another summit — this time north korean leader kim jong—un heads to russia, where he'll meet president putin for the first time. and this story is getting a lot of attention on bbc.com: campaigners opposed to president trump say they're planning a major protest when he comes to the uk for his first state visit injune. mr trump's working visit last year also attracted large demonstrations. this time he'll visit buckingham palace as a guest of the queen. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the other top story in the uk: