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 espouse 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 thirty years. hello and welcome. spain's governing socialist party has won the country's general election but failed to secure a majority in parliament. with most votes counted, pedro sanchez‘s party took 29% of the vote and will need the support of other parties to form a coalition. there was a collapse in support for the conservative popular party, which took 17% of the vote. meanwhile, results from vox mean a far right party is set to enter parliament for the first time since the 1970s.

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. 0ur news reporter katie silver is at the headquarters of pedro sanchez‘s socialist party in madrid and sent us this update earlier. a lot of celebrations here. we've been hearing screams like, "ista, ista, espana socialista!" it's really been a big windfall for psoe. also we've seen a win as well for vox, the quite hard right party, but the biggest losers in this election is partido popular. it was particularly, it used is to be basically centre—right but they have lost a lot of power in this kind of coalition to the right that they've made. here, on the other hand, we're seeing many celebrations. three of the celebrations, celebrators rather, are david, ruben and irma.

tell us, you are... i'm loving the way you are carrying your flags here. why is this a big celebration for you tonight? because we thought that fascism was going to get more votes. by fascists, you mean the vox party? we mean vox, the party, yeah. and we are happy because we know that spain has chosen human rights, has chosen human rights, has chosen political education, has chosen public health. she feels that the hard right has made them feel like they're inferior, but they're equal. the left here are feeling the 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. 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, he just left the church with two of his sons when the suicide bomber struck. his wife and other son, and a baby daughter were still inside. "i believed in god," he told me. "but some in my family have no life. i prayed to god he will heal them." meet his four—month daughter, lakshika. her tiny body badly burnt. her mother and older brother are in intensive care. three reasons perhaps, for someone to lose faith.

now, these are the babies. in all, 19 children ended up at this hospital after the bombings. many others died. deduni 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 saint anthony's church,

members of the sri lankan navy tried 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 through the ages, along with all the other acts of religious intolerance, a blackened 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. 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 two meters of rain are expected in the coastal town of pemba. five 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. well 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 and they're also expecting a quarter of the yearly rainfall over just these next few days. now in the province of cabo delgado, that's one of the most northern provinces here, the united nations has been evacuating people after several houses collapsed, and in the neighbouring province, nampula, there have also been more evacuations. we aren't clear about numbers yet — we are hearing that it could be in the tens of thousands. but the real fear is that these areas, the area that was affected by cyclone kenneth, is much more sparsely populated than that affected by cyclone idai, and the fear is that there could be pockets of people or even whole

villages that are in very difficult to reach remote areas. almost 1,700 people have been evacuated from homes in the canadian province of quebec, where melting snow and heavy rain have caused widespread flooding. many rivers in the area are close to bursting their banks, and more rain is forecast for the coming days. 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 bells falls in quebec is dangerously over capacity and authorities have ordered anybody down river to evacuate, but such warnings come too late for the residents of one town near montreal where more than 6,500 people were forced to leave their homes after floodwaters breached a dyke, sending a five—foot surge of water

crashing through the area. the canadian capital 0ttawa and montreal are among the places which have declared states of emergency. and hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to the hardest—hit regions as residents do what they can to shore up their houses. my basement is currently flooding because the power is out as of today. my backyard is flooding too because there's a swamp back there, so i'm pretty much surrounded except for a little bit in the front. canada's prime minister has visited some of the affected areas, even filling up sandbags, but it will take more than a carefully planned photocall to solve the problem whichjustin trudeau says is a result of climate change. with climate change, we're going to see 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 floodwaters are now starting to recede,

enabling people to begin to assess the damage. but with more rain forecast over the coming days, others can only watch and wait. caroline rigby, bbc news. do 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 help 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 world news. the latest headlines: 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. sri lanka is banning face coverings following the easter sunday attacks that killed at least 250 people.

let's stay with that story now. earlier i spoke to professor ben schonthal, an expert in asian religions, about the possible repercussions. you know, ithink you know, i think it is important to note two things. first, muslims in sri lanka have been as horrified and outraged as everyone else and in fact some of the loudest condemnations of the attacks have come from muslims. there's a danger here with this kind of act that it could be seen as a unilateral action targeting not these violent fringe groups that committed the attacks, but muslims at large, and that that could add to feelings of prejudice and alienation that are already there for a group that's faced a considerable amount of that in recent years. so i think, you know, 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, you know, the spirit was one of targeting muslims. i think in this particular case it's — i haven't seen the text of the bill yet, but that's certainly the danger now, that it could be perceived that way. there is likely a security element to it, to the introduction of this law, but could it actually have the opposite effect? could it ostracise muslims, and make it more difficult for them to potentially co—operate with security services? absolutely. so, i mean, 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 all backgrounds. i mean, let's not forget that this

group, 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 concerned muslim communities themselves. so, 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. sudan's military leaders and the opposition coalition have agreed to share power on a transitional sovereign council. the two sides held positive talks this weekend on the body that will oversee the transition back to civilian rule. it is not clear whether this will be enough to satisfy protesters who have been demonstrating since president 0mar al—bashir was deposed earlier this month. catherine byaru hanga reports from khartoum. a small group of opposition leaders and military personnel have been holding closed—door meetings at the presidential palace here in khartoum, just to the right of me.

the military council which took over from former president 0mar al—bashir in a coup has promised to hand over power to civilians. what we understand from the negotiation so far is that both sides have agreed to form a sovereign council. it will be made up of civilians and soldiers. this council will act as the highest level of government, in a transitional period leading up to elections in sudan. the civilian power in the transitional period is expected to come from a legislative council and an executive or cabinet council that will run the government here in khartoum. but there are also other key issues that still need to be hammered out, for example, how long will a transition period last, and who will take over key ministries like finance, security and foreign affairs? but, more importantly, how are the demonstrators going to react to the new

negotiated government? the scottish national party is to send a leaflet to every home in scotland making the economic case for independence. the party leader and first minister, nicola sturgeon, told the snp spring conference that the last three years had shown beyond any doubt that the westminster system was broken. ms sturgeon has already said she wants to hold another referendum on scottish independence by 2021. 0ur scotland editor sarah smith reports from edinburgh. she came to tell them what they've all been so eagerly waiting to hear — that she is ready for another scottish referendum. the party has now got a new economic policy they think could win them independence, so the campaign starts now. we must have the choice of a better future. scotland must have the choice of an independent future. she and her party are buoyed by polls suggesting voters are moving their way. support for independence

is already up. 0urjob now is to get support for independence surging, and make sure that no westminster government can ever stand in the way of scotland's right to choose. before anyone can choose, the uk government has to agree to holding a referendum. nicola sturgeon set out what the real challenge now is. she has to demonstrate there is a real desire for another independence vote if she is to try and force the westminster government to allow one. all the troops are ready. the country's ready. it's time for change, this brexit nonsense has gone on far too long. do you really think there will be a referendum in the next couple of years? i believe so, nicola sturgeon has set that out in her plan. the party are getting ready, with plans to deliver a brochure on independence to every household in scotland this summer, but they can't say for sure when any vote might be.

sarah smith, bbc news, edinburgh. the former us republican senator richard lugar, one of washington's most prominent foreign policy voices, has died in virginia aged 87. he was awarded the presidential medal of freedom in 2013 by barack 0bama. the former president said richard lugar‘s legacy was the thousands of missiles, bombers, submarines and warheads that no longer posed a threat. 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. 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, and 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 and that for the good of the people, and it really takes you here. i think that's why. translation: i'm 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 the hand of reconciliation to the countries japan invaded and brutalised under his father. akihito's a huge figure, and so he created a new role for the emperor, and that was as the nation's chief emissary on 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.

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. brigid kosgei tookjust two hours and 18 minutes to reach the finishing line. 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 trying to push in from the west, but all these frontal systems making very,

very slow progress, so this one on monday morning really only draped 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 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 is more of the same, to all intents and purposes.

still some rain in the west, heavier rain for northern ireland, maybe fringing into western 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 isn't 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, and there is some uncertainty aboutjust 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 warmth holding on across the south—east corner, so 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 some 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