this is bbc news, the headlines: australia's governing coalition is close to an outright victory in the federal election. with a few seats to declare, scott morrison's liberal national party adjust to sheet —— seats short of what they need to control parliament. the opposition leader bill shorten has conceded defeat. austria will have a snap election, following the resignation of the leader of the far—right freedom party over corruption allegations. in a national tv address, the country's chancellor listed other scandals involving the freedom party and said the latest revelations had been the last straw. leaders of nationalist parties gci’oss leaders of nationalist parties across europe have promised to reshape the parliament. the italian deputy prime minister matteo salvini addressed the crowd.

now on bbc news, a special programme exploring what happened to a catholic priest who helped to end the civil war in sri lanka — finding father francis. on the 10th of may 2009, in the midst of the shaun ley can civil war, finding father francis, a catholic priest wrote a desperate letter to the pope, criticising the sri lankan government and begging the catholic church for help. ——in the catholic church for help. ——in the midst of the sri lankan civil war. soon after, he disappeared without a trace. to his holiness, the sri lankan government is waging the sri lankan government is waging the war to eliminate the tamil nation.

it isa it is a genocidal war. iam not i am not unaware that this they have not been killed, that is for sure. is he dead or is he alive?

st patrick's college, northern sri lanka. father francisjoseph st patrick's college, northern sri lanka. father francis joseph first came here as a school by. after being ordained as a catholic priest, he came back to become a teacher. —— a schoolboy. eventually, becoming the school's principle. today, his legacy looms large. mostly his whole life was spent in st patrick's. it was 1988, i entered the school and father francis would come to me with a smiling face and that face is still remembered. even though he was the rector of the college, he knew everybody. he knew students by name. it was during father francis's time at st patrick's when a civil war

will break out between sri lankan military and the tamil tigers who we re military and the tamil tigers who were fighting for a sovereign nation. it would last 26 years and 100,000 people would be killed. this man was standing with father francis on the school balcony when the bombs began to fall.

father francis was an ardent supporter of tamil independence but he never picked up arms. words were his only weapon. but he was ready to discharge them without fear or favour. towards the end of the war, he would depend on open letter to the pope, criticising both the sri lankan government and the catholic church. it is unfortunate that the church in sri lanka doesn't have the wisdom and guts to air her views

forcibly and unequivocally regarding the ongoing war. i cannot imagine it happened to him. i hope he is alive. the government should explain to us where he is. we would have a chance to meet him and give our love and remember him for his great service. if not, he has died, then we can remember him and pray for the soul. moses arulanandan, now in his 90s, is the cousin of father francis. he has been to the local court and even the united nations, both without success.

a few years after retiring, a princess of —— a principal of the school in the early 90s, father francis moved and he would spend the next ten years. it had become the headquarters of the most powerful and ruthless rebel group. the liberation tigers. known as the tamil tigers. by now, they were controlling large parts of the north and east. atrocities were being committed on both sides and tens of thousands of people had already died. during the war, he was worried about the safety of the people. died. during the war, he was worried about the safety of the peoplelj know father francis is a little boy. the favourite food that he likes is, what you call it? hard oiled eggs. because he told me, it was his

mother who every day wanted him to have an egg. —— hard boiled. it was boiled. he continued the tradition evenin boiled. he continued the tradition even in the college. i remember him asa even in the college. i remember him as a man who would be happy to share what he feels about things. ordinary people see the church in the tamil homeland as a powerful, highly organised institution...” homeland as a powerful, highly organised institution... i feel like that letter came from his heart. it is not anything that is exaggerated but he was experiencing what he saw. forced east by an advancing sri lankan army, in 2008, the crew undertook refuge in a bunker here, to the left of the church house,

alongside both tamil tiger rebels and civilians. this is believed to be one of the last known photographs of father francis. now, a place of peace and reflection. but a decade ago, it was ina bunker reflection. but a decade ago, it was in a bunker under these bloodstained hand, that father francis and his illustrious letter, begging his pope for help. during the last days of war, father

francis and more than 300,000 tamils went into the country's eastern sandbank and so—called no fire zones. shells and bullets followed them. the un says up to 40,000 of those people perished during that final phase and countless others we re final phase and countless others were catastrophically injured. this woman was there with her husband was tops she was five months pregnant.

her twins died before they were

born. the toll of back on the sandbank, a decade on, still looking for their loved ones. all of whom followed father francis to an uncertain fate.

atan at an army checkpoint, this woman's son—in—law surrendered under the guidance of father francis. taking her daughter and grandchildren with him. she has not seen them since. she regularlyjoins thousands of protesters along with friends of father francis, too much of the streets of northern sri lanka, demanding answers. amongst them are many children who are forced to become soldiers by the tamil tigers.

this woman was 13 years old when she was taken. she has asked us to disguise her identity. father francis was highly critical of the government forces. he remains silent about the atrocities committed by the rebels.

so many young boys and girls were forced to take part, forster is surrender their childhood to a brutal regime in the mission to create a tamil state in sri lanka the tigers would stop at nothing, targeted assassinations, mass killings, and the use of both male and female suicide bombers were amongst their tactics. blood was being spilt on both sides of the divide. to north—eastern sri lanka. it is what is left of tiger hill territory. with the tigers all but

defeated, father francis, alongside 100,000 tamil men, women, and children walked across this crossing towards the sri lankan soldiers, leaving death and destruction in their wake. a short walk from the bridge were the gathering points. where fighters and civilians alike awaited the date. on the very last day, may the 18th, it was here at around half past ten in the morning that father francis led the final surrender. he was put onto a vehicle outside this

field and he has never been seen since. these are both married to prominent members of the tamil tigers who boarded the bus alongside francis. today the women are back at the field, remembering the last time they saw their husbands.

the but no—one came. at least 360 people left with father francis that day. many were members of the ltte. but amongst their number children, some just two years old. it is the single largest number of people who have been and forcibly

disappeared at the hands of the sri lankan army. i would say that it is very difficult to speculate on what could have happened to them and that is why there needs to be painstaking research on, you know, what happened to them, where were they taken two, and was, ultimately, is theirfate. in our conversations with the office of missing persons, we have offered to make available to them all of the photographs, all of the information that we have, but what we have said to them is that it is theirjob, in terms of the law that set them up, their legal obligation, actually, to subpoena the army commanders who we re subpoena the army commanders who were in that area that day and were in command and they should ask them to explain what happened to the people whom they took into custody. the office of the missing persons we re the office of the missing persons were set up by the government in

2017 with the enormous task of finding the missing thousands. we have called for certain information from the defence forces. we have made certain interim recommendations to the minstry of defence. and we are aware that the minister of defence has followed up on some of oui’ defence has followed up on some of our recommendations with the army. soi our recommendations with the army. so i think we have to wait and see as to how the corporation would proceed. so far not a single person has been found. the process of tracing, the process of repairing lists, the process of preparing the databases are things that do take time. over the course of the conflict, the sri lankan military says it lost 30,000 soldiers. a number of divisions were responsible for launching the final offensive ending almost three decades of war. father francis and those who

followed him were unquestionably taken into army custody, but the military denies that they could have been victims of a war crimes. what i can tell you is people who have surrendered to the army have not been killed. that is for sure. if it has happened we are there to punish them. the army can't do that. it is illegal. but they also deny they are holding prisoners today.” illegal. but they also deny they are holding prisoners today. i am sure there is no undisclosed place in a sri lanka. people who have been surrendered or captured, terrorists, thinking on that line, have been accounted for. during the final military onslaught, humanitarian workers were expelled. independent journalists were banned. and phone links were cut off. this became known as the war without witnesses.

but just weeks after the known as the war without witnesses. butjust weeks after the conflict ended, radio clips emerged purporting to show soldiers carrying out summary executions —— video clips. ten years on, not a single prosecution has been brought.- clips. ten years on, not a single prosecution has been brought. at the current time, it is really impossible to bring a case in sri la nka impossible to bring a case in sri lanka because you will either lose your life or you will find your case will become stuck in the system.“ father francis is still alive today, he will be almost 87, time is running out. i am really very much distressed. i could not sleep for six months. every night father comes into my mind and what happened to father. you see, there are a lot of good people in this part of the world, this country, why are they talking about this?

—— aren't they talking about this. hello there. many of us had a pretty cloudy day yesterday weather wise. it was in scotland and northern ireland where the weather wasn't just cloudy, it turned out to be quite wet and cool. the skies looked like this. further south, the cloud did breakup. we got a little bit of sunshine. but that just sent these big shower clouds towering up through the skies around in the greater london area. the radar picture still shows we have patches of rain around across parts of scotland, northern ireland as well. but the showers we had across england and wales have largely cleared out of the way. that said, you can still see some passing showers working into the coastline of sussex and kent over the next few hours. further north, that's where the cloudiest weather will be. there will also be mist and fog

patches around in the next few hours across eastern scotland into northern part of northern ireland, particularly into the hills. and perhaps across parts of the east midlands and east anglia turning quite murky as well. all in all, for sunday morning, it's a cloudy, grey start to the day one way or the other. the cloud will slowly break to give some bright or sunny spells. but as the weather tries to brighten up, and it will be a slow process across scotland and northern ireland, we will start to see some showers breakup. the showers mostly really get going as we head through sunday afternoon. they will come along in batches. across eastern scotland showers are quite widespread. a few over the mountains elsewhere as well. inbetween those downpours, a bit more brightness, it won't feel quite as cool with temperatures up to 16 in glasgow. a few showers popping up in northern ireland as well. for wales and western areas of england, i fancy it will be a largely dry day. but there will be a line of heavy showers working in across the midlands, central and southern england, and parts of southern england as well. those showers heavy, thundery, and slow—moving in nature. beyond that, for the week ahead, we will continue to see showers through monday and tuesday as well. some sunshine between. but later in the week low pressure

will bring some slightly stronger winds and the threat of some rain. monday starts off in a similar kind of vein weather wise. a lot of cloud around and we will see some showers building, particularly through the afternoon, some of those heavy and thuggery. it could occur almost anywhere. some heavy ones for northern ireland as we go through the afternoon. in between, the wind is very light. in any sunshine temperatures coming up. showery over the next few days. highs of 17 in edinburgh and 19 for cardiff, and into the low 20s around the greater london area. but then towards the end of the week probably thickening cloud threatening rain for some of us and the winds picking up as well. that's your latest weather. goodbye for now.

this is bbc news, i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: could it even be an outright win? australia's centre—right are closing in on a surprise election victory. a snap election is called in austria — after the far—right leader allegedly made secret deals with a russian investor. commentator: manchester city have won the fa cup! and an unprecedented domestic treble for manchester city — winning the fa cup after their premier league and carabao cup victories. and the netherlands wins the eurovision song contest for the first time in over 40 years.