welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: a win for spain's socialists, but no outright majority as talks begin to form government. but the far right makes gains too, entering parliament for the first time. sri lankans unite in grief, a week after the easter sunday attacks. prayers in the street for the 250 victims of islamist extremists. here they espoused a kind humanity — the very notion dismissed by the bombers. aid workers in mozambique say they're struggling to reach thousands affected by cyclone kenneth — as floodwaters continue to rise. and an emotional farewell injapan as emperor akihito prepares to hand over the throne

after 30 years. spain's governing socialist party has won the country's general election but failed to secure a majority in parliament. with most votes counted, the socialists have taken 123 of the 350 seats and will need the support of other parties to form a coalition. meanwhile the vox party took 2a seats — the first time the far right has entered parliament in spain. our europe editor katya adler is in madrid. spaniards today were on a mission,

crowding into polling stations. for them, this is no run—of—the—mill general election. with politics here polarised, today's vote, some here told us, was a fight for spain's soul. i'm nervous, because i want the people i support to win, but at the same time i'm kind of excited. translation: there is so much at stake in spain today, the unity of spain, the integrity of spain, the identity of spain. spain has suffered something of an identity crisis, triggered by the push for catalan independence. sales in spanish flags have shot up here over the last couple of years. now, for the first time since the death of spain's 20th military dictator, francisco franco, a far—right party has won seats — a sizeable chunk of them, it seems — in the spanish parliament. vox promises to make spain great again — that phrase sound familiar? it beats the nationalist drum, promising to preserve spanish

culture, including more controversial traditions like bull—fighting. we need to be proud about our country, in a way that we haven't been for a long, long time, defending the unity of spain, the history of spain, your values, your systems, your flag. and the link with franco that's being made? what link with franco? franco's been dead for 45 years, we weren't even born when franco died, there's no link with franco. like populist nationalists in france and italy, vox is tough on immigration, on islam and on crime, but... vox is extremely spain—centric — it is pro—bull—fighting, pro—eu, anti—catalan independence. but in this country, split left and right since the spanish civil war, vox, unlike other populist movements across europe, has failed to attract disaffected workers

who traditionally vote for the left. in fact, exit polls suggest vox succeeded in splintering the spanish right and rejuvenating the centre—left — something spain's socialist prime minister was hoping for when he cast his ballot this morning. i caught up with madrid's mayor just after she voted. she fought against spain's fascist dictator in her youth. translation: nowadays, politics in spain is angry, people are disillusioned. but i voted here in madrid in spain's first democratic elections after dictatorship. we managed to end basque terrorism — we'll find a solution to divided politics. maybe, but deep political divisions seem to have become the new normal in europe — look at france, italy, uk. if, as predicted, left—wing parties now form spain's new government, that will leave many in this country feeling alienated and resentful.

katya adler, bbc news, madrid. katie silver is at the headquaters of pedro sanchez‘s socialist party in madrid. a lot of smitten celebrations here. it's been a big windfall for the winners but also a windfall for vox, the hard right party but the biggest losers in this election, the popular party. it is to be centre—right but they have lost a lot of power in this kind of collision to the right they have made. here on the other hand, we are seeing many celebrations. three of the celebrated are david, ruben and irma. i'm loving the way you are carrying your flags. why is this a big celebration for you? because we

thought vox was going to get more votes and we are happy because we know spain has chosen, human rights has chosen, political relations have chosen. she feels that the hard right has made them feel like they are inferior. the left ear are feeling a celebration. perhaps the damage caused by the introduction and the seeming popularity of vox wasn't as bad as they had potentially predicted. and you can keep up to date with the post election coalition talks on our website — you'll also find a feature on whether pedro sanchez will be able to form a government — that's all at bbc.com/news. or you can download the bbc news app. to sri lanka now, where people have been marking a week since the bomb attacks which claimed the lives of at least

250 people on easter sunday. the attackers were islamist extremists who targeted christian worshippers in church services as well as people in some of colombo's biggest hotels. the sri lankan president has announced that he's using emergency powers to ban any form of face covering in public to ensure national security. very few church services were held on sunday as a precaution but a nationwide service was televised. clive myrie reports from colombo. seven days ago, the devout gathered at st anthony's church to mark the resurrection of christ. today, they gathered again. but this time with the army and police, a security cordon

and a sense of fear, because the sounds of screams filled the church at 8:45 last sunday morning. at 8245 today, bells tolled for the dead. bells toll the bombers may have killed and maimed, but they haven't diminished the devotion of worshippers to venerate their god, even out here on the streets. here they espouse a kind humanity — the very notion dismissed by the bombers. but some have had a crisis of faith. lighting a candle for his own family, this man had just left the church with two of his sons when the suicide bombers struck. his wife, another son and a baby daughter were still inside. "i believed in god," he told me, "but some in my family have no life.

i pray to god he will heal them." meet his four—month—old daughter, lakshika — her tiny body badly burned. her mother and older brother are in intensive care. three reasons, perhaps, to lose faith. in all, 19 children ended up at this hospital after the bombings. many others died. this child is five years old. her brother and grandmother are dead at the hands of one of the suicide bombers.

her throat, badly scarred by the blast, will recover, but how scarred is her mind? she still hasn't been told her relatives are dead. this is the alleged mastermind behind senseless murder, zahran hashim. and this is the result of his conspiracy, the bombing of saint anthony's. hashim died blowing up a hotel, while his father and two brothers, co—conspirators, are now dead after a police raid. today, we were allowed inside the still damaged st anthony's church. members of the sri lankan navy trying to clean away the stain of violence to restore this house of god. they reckon it will be about a month, maybe two, before this place is handed back to the people for worship. and what happened here is destined to be passed down the ages, along with all the other acts of religious intolerance that blacken history. this country will move on, like others darkened by fanatics. and the fervent hope is that the trauma of one week ago will unite sri lanka rather than divide it. clive myrie, bbc news, in colombo.

and we will have more on that emergency power being introduced to ban any form of face covering. let's get some of the day's other news. indonesian officials say more than 270 polling staff have died because of being overworked during the election earlier this month. the country's election commission says many more fell ill because of fatigue. the latest vote combined two ballots in one day, which meant many hours of counting by hand often outdoors in high temperatures. there've been calls for a change to election procedures. in tripoli, house—to—house battles have dominated weekend clashes between libya's government forces and troops loyal to commander khalifa haftar. haftar‘s libyan national army, which is allied to a rival administration in eastern libya, mounted an offensive on tripoli

three weeks ago, but has failed to breach defenses in the city's south. tens of thousands of people in hong kong have taken part in a demonstration against a planned change to extradition laws that could allow suspects to be transferred to mainland china for trial. hong kong's government wants the changes to be approved before july. but opponents see the proposal as a sign of beijing's increasing influence over the territory and say it will put its freedoms at risk. heavy rains and winds continue in northern mozambique in the wake of cyclone kenneth.floodwaters are rising and rescue workers are struggling to reach remote areas. up to 2 meters of rain are expected in the coastal town of pemba. 5 people have been confirmed to have died but that figure is expected to rise. the bbc‘s lebo diseko has this update from the country's capital maputo. heavy rain is expected to continue to fall over the coming days in the north of mozambique.

the wfp, world food programme, telling me that they expect the remnants of cyclone kenneth could dump twice as much rain as cyclone idai did in the coming days. they're also expecting a quarter of their yearly rainfall over just these next few days. in the province of cabo delgado, one of the most northern provinces here, the united nations have been evacuating here after several houses collapsed and in the neighbouring province nampula, there have also been more evacuations. we are not sure of numbers yet but we are hearing it could be in the tens of thousands. the real fear is that the area affected by cyclone kenneth was much more sparsely populated than that

affected by cyclone idai and the fear is there could be pockets of people or even whole villages that are in very difficult to reach, remote areas. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: kenya's eliud kipchoge beats a field of 40,000 to win the london marathon in the second fastest time ever. nothing, it seems, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government to build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident.

for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year war for them. they've taken the capital, which they've been fighting for for so long. it was 7 o'clock in the morning, the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is bbc news. our top story this hour: spain's socialists come out on top in the country's election. they're celebrating into the night, but prime minister pedro sanchez‘s party faces an uphill struggle to form a government. returning to the aftermath of the bomb attacks in sri lanka now, where emergency measures are due to come into force monday — banning sri lankans from covering their faces. the law is being seen as aimed at muslim women.

what effect will that law actually have? ben schonthal is a professor in asian religions at the university of 0tago in new zealand. then, thank you so much for your time. first of all, this ban on face coverings, it's been seen as a ban on women wearing the veil. why do you think sri lanka would have introduced a law like that so soon after the attacks? first of all, i wa nt to after the attacks? first of all, i want to start by voicing my deepest sympathies for everyone in sri lanka at this time. it is important to note a few things. first, muslims in sri lanka have beenjust as appalled as anyone else in fact some of the loudest condemnations had come from muslims. there is a danger here in this act that it could e—zine as a unilateral action targeting not these violent fringe groups ——it

could be seen. —— notjust targeting these violent fringe groups but muslims in general. a group has faced —— that has faced a considerable amount of that in recent yea rs. considerable amount of that in recent years. the design behind the ban could be perceived as targeting muslims generally as opposed to targeting some of these fringe groups and in the past when proposals like this have happened in parliament or by other groups, the spirit was one of targeting muslims. in this particular case, i haven't seen in this particular case, i haven't seen the text of the bill yet but that's certainly the danger now, that's certainly the danger now, that it could be perceived that way. there is likely a security element to it, the introduction of this law, but it could actually have the opposite effect? could it ostracise muslims and make it more difficult for them to potentially co—operate

with security services? absolutely. my with security services? absolutely. my feeling about these sorts of measures are that the most effective responses are those that work towards generating trust and a sense of mutual responsibility among sri lankans of mutual responsibility among sri lanka ns of of mutual responsibility among sri lankans of all backgrounds. let's not forget this particular group who committed the attacks were reported to security months, if not more than a year ago, not by the police or government officials but by a concerned muslim communities themselves. if the goal is to stop another attack of this type then certainly the best measures will have to include ones that cultivate trust and inclusiveness among the island's muslim community and doesn't lead to further alienation. we can already point to certain initiatives you can already see on the ground in sri lanka, recently, a select committee of parliament has introduced a declaration outlining the amount of points designed to

enhance religious harmony and communal on the island, things like dialogue and trilingual education. that is i think a productive step. there have been a lot of meetings and steps taken by religious groups and steps taken by religious groups and religious leaders around the country. i think we have also been —— which have also been steps putting in the right direction. no doubt a really difficult time for sri lanka and there is a lot of other things that sri lanka are doing. thank you for your time. thousands of people in eastern canada have been been forced to evacuate, because of flooding. the provinces of ontario, new brunswick and quebec are worst affected. more than 6,500 residents were forced out of their homes, near montreal, after a breached dyke following heavy rainfall. caroline rigby has the details.

this is the result of heavy rains and melting snow. spring flooding in eastern canada has already affected thousands of people and properties. this dam at bell's falls in quebec is dangerously overcapacity and authorities have ordered anybody downriver to evacuate but such warnings come too late for the residents of one town near montreal. more than 6.5 thousand people were forced to leave their homes after floodwaters reached eye to sending a five foot surge of water crashing through the area. the canadian capital 0ttawa through the area. the canadian capital ottawa and montreal are among the places which are declared states of emergency. and hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to the most hard—hit regions as residents do what they can to shore up their houses. my basement is flooding because the power is out as of

today. my backyard is planning —— flooding, too, because of the swamp. canada's prime minister has visited some of the affected areas, even filling up sandbags but it will take more than a planned photocall to solve the problem whichjustin trudeau says is a result of climate change. with climate change, we will be seeing more and more of these extreme weather events more regularly. we need to think about adaptation, mitigation and how we will move forward together. in some places, the waters are starting to recede allowing people to assess the damage but with more rain forecast over the coming days, others can only watch and wait. for the first time in more than 200 years, a japanese emperor is about to resign. on tuesday afternoon emperor akihito will enter a ceremonial room in the imperial palace in tokyo and formally give up his throne. under japan's constitution emperor akihito is not allowed to retire, so the government had to pass a special one—off law

to allow him to do so. rupert wingfield—hayes reports from tokyo. in a lush forest on the western outskirts of tokyo, the japanese emperor is on a final, solemn mission. standing before the vast tomb of his father, 85—year—old emperor akihito has come to tell him that he is relinquishing the throne. 0utside, crowds have gathered with shouts of "banzai", as the emperor and empress pass. this is one of the very last public appearances that the emperor and empress will make before the abdication, and you can see the huge number of people that have turned out this morning, thousands of them, for this last opportunity to see the emperor and empress in public. it gives you a real sense of the genuine love, affection and respect that is felt by people here for emperor akihito, and gratitude for the way that he has carried out this very

difficult role over the past 31 years. they do so much good for the country. you see them in the news, doing this or that for the good of the people, and it really takes you here. i think that's why. translation: i am not from the generation that experienced the war, but the emperor is the one that has kept the peace injapan throughout his reign, so i wanted to come and see him to show my gratitude. i wanted to tell him thank you. quiet and modest he may be, but in his 31 years on the throne, akihito has revolutionised the japanese monarchy, comforting people in times of disaster and distress, and reaching out a hand of reconciliation to the countries japan invaded and brutalised under his father.

akihito is a huge figure, and so he created a new role for the emperor, and that was as the nation's chief emissary for reconciliation, criss—crossing the region, making gestures of atonement and contrition, remarks of remorse, basically trying to heal the scars of the wartime past. at times, this has brought conflict with right—wingers at home. there were violent protests ahead of the emperor's historic visit to china in 1992. his steadfast support for pacifism has put him increasingly at odds with the country's political elite, particularly with prime minister shinzo abe. everything is quite subtle when it comes to the emperor, but clearly emperor akihito and shinzo abe have frosty relations. they totally disagree about the wartime narrative. akihito has, you know, referred to the tragedies of the war, and the need for pacifism. abe is trying to rehabilitate that era and promote a stronger military role forjapan.

at 85, akihito is now increasingly frail. for nearly a decade, he has been pushing to hand the throne to his son. on wednesday, he will get that wish. crown prince naruhito will become the 126th emperor of japan. it must be a very emotional day. more than 40,000 runners have been taking part in the london marathon. the men's race was won by eliud kipchoge from kenya, who crossed the line in the second fastest time ever recorded. a kenyan athlete took the women's race as well, brigid kosgei tookjust two hours and 18 minutes to reach the finishing line.

they say they accepted the highest number of entrants this year. hello there. a weekend that began with wind and rain ended on a relatively quiet note across most parts of the uk. that is how we start the new working week, with some dry weather for most of us. western areas will see some rain, and that will slowly spread eastwards over the next few days. could be some fog patches to contend with, and for a time, butjust for a time, it will turn a little bit warmer. this is what's going on — the view from space, the satellite picture from a little earlier on. you can see a few stripes of cloud pushing in from the west, but all these frontal systems making very, very slow progress, so this monday morning really only dragged across the far west of the uk. elsewhere, high pressure in charge, very light winds, hence we have some mist and fog patches around. they should tend to clear

through the morning, and in most places monday will bring some spells of sunshine. best of the sunshine likely to be found across scotland. but remember, that front in the west still dangling its way down into northern ireland, west wales, the south—west of england, with some patchy rain at times. here, relatively cool — 12 in belfast, 13 degrees in plymouth, but come further east we'll be up into the mid—teens, maybe 18 or 19 degrees across some parts of scotland. then we go through monday night, and we'll continue to see these areas of cloud and patchy rain in the west. perhaps some heavier rain reaching northern ireland later in the night, elsewhere some clear spells, some mist and fog patches, also some low cloud rolling in from the north sea. most of us not having a particularly chilly night, maybe parts of eastern england and eastern scotland getting relatively close to freezing. so we get down into tuesday, and it's more of the same, to all intents and purposes. still some rain in the west, heavier rain for northern ireland, maybe fringing into northern scotland, the far west of wales and cornwall later in the day. further east some spells of sunshine, and for many of us tuesday will be the warmest day of the week, with highs between 17—20 degrees. i say tuesday will be the warmest day of the week, because that warmth is not going to last.

as we move out of tuesday into wednesday, this front which will have been in the west eventually moves its way eastwards, taking cloud and showery rain with it. the rain will be quite sporadic, quite on—and—off, there's some uncertainty about how quickly this band of cloud and rain will slide its way eastwards. but ahead of this band of cloud and rain, this frontal system, there will still be some holding on across the south—east corner. temperatures here could get close to 20 degrees. but behind the weather front, this is where things start to change. it turns much cooler and fresher from the north—west, that cooler feel extending to all parts on thursday, and by friday it could potentially feel very chilly indeed, with northerly winds across the uk, and showers for some of us.

this is bbc news. the headlines. spain's governing socialist party have won the most votes in the general election, without securing a majority. prime minister pedro sanchez‘s party now faces an uphill struggle to form a government. the far right party vox has entered parliament for the first time with 2a seats. emergency measures to ban sri lankans from covering theirfaces are coming into force on monday. the announcement said people's faces should be fully visible to allow identification, but the niqab and burka that muslim women wear weren't mentioned specifically. the easter sunday bombings killed at least 250 people. aid workers in northern mozambique say they've not yet been able to reach many of the people affected by cyclone kenneth three days after the storm hit. save the children said roads were impassable because of rising floodwaters and helicopters had been grounded.