♪ >> we begin in sri lanka where the death toll continues to climb after suicide bombings attacked churches and hotels across the country. at least 290 have been killed with another 500 injured. scores of foreigners are among the dead. the governor -- the government is pointing the finger at islamist extremists.

another explosion sunday as soldiers attempted to detonate an unexploded device. yetstimated 70 detonators detonated have been found. no one is allowed in the streets from 8:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m.. security forceceare searchching for ththose behind the easte sunday assauault. saint sebastian's church wasas e eastere targeted during mass. bombingsrimultaneouous also targeted hotels, striking tourists at breakfast the phase. shangri-la, as well as another hotel oosite

the nationonal zoo. no one has claimed responsibility. islamicrnment says in extremist group is behind the attack. nations thawahid jaman. it is a local organization. we don't know. >> this is the deadliest violence the country has seen since the civil war ended a decade ago. relatives are anxiously waiting for news. lankans.ed were sri at least 27 foreigners have been recovered. police have arrested 24 suspects. 84 bomb detonators were found at the bus station as the search for answers continue. authorities are trying to control the spread of misinformation.

it is feared inflammatory content could provoke more bloodshed. spoke to a human rights lawyer in colombo. information is new. we need to look into the reason and the actors behind it. the press conference today indicated the investigation is still ongoing. i suggest we wait for more information. you are right, for a decade, we have not seen violence. yesterday incident raises serious implications in terms of the security situation and the peace that was born 1010 years ago. many questions at the moment on the ground. >> for a government being criticized for its culture of impunity in regards to civil

war. this situation poses a difficult challenge for politicians. >> it does. that is prevailing needs to be taken seriously. seen much progress wiwith ongoing cases in terms of violations in the past. there are many questions. security situation been contained? we have curfew, which is lifted today, but they will reimpose curfew in a few hours. the security situation is dynamic. the question again is whether the governor is in full control and what action will be taken in terms of what has happened. in terms of accountability and justice for the victims. >> there has been a degree of

criticism in which the government treats minorities. how much of that would be a contriributing factor to what we witnessed yesterday? >> we have s seen over the year, as recent as a couple of days ago, religious minorities coming under attack and limited action being taken, as recent as last year. minorities came under attack. these are seserious s concerns. the issue is also yesterday's incident affecected the wholee f sri lanka. such a not seen coordinated, complex situation for several years. ththere are several issues that need to be lookeked into. issues of minority protection, human rights protection, and also in terms of what the next steps are going to be will be closely monitored.

>> what should the next steps be? the presidentount and prime minister and the cabinet stands together. what we have seen is the prime minister saying intelligegence informatioion that was known and may have been able to prevent such an incident was not shared with him and t the cabinet. these are serious simply nations. it is important for the andrnment to stand united send a strong message that violence, terrorism has no place in sri lanka. there needs to be a measured response. we have been informed emergegeny regulations will be brought in later today. this is a serious concern in the context of human rights violations, civil liberties

being undermined over the last several decades. these are serious issues. it is important the government stands united. a human rights lawyer therefrom sri lanka. in ukraine, an actor who plays a president on television is set to become the real thing. winning 73%lensky of the vote, compared to 25% for petro poroshenko. his first task will be to speak to military prisoners held in russia. our correspondent has more. imagigine, with 73% or more, a large part of the country is euphoric about this. they elected somebody who is

going to d do away with the o od elite and and t t corruptioion that has plagued the ukraine since independence. kiev, there are people who are worried about this. they think volodymyr zelensky is not going to be up to the job. he will be manipulated by corrupt forces. some think vladimir putin is rubbing his hands, thinking he has a president who is going to force concessions out of ukraine, they may have to give up its pro-western orientation. there is debate about whether or not this is a victory or defeat for vladimir putin. the other analysis is vladimir putin should be worried about the fact ukraine has had a democratic transfer of power in which a sitting president lost an election, conceded defeat, and russians might think they want to see the same thing happen in their country.

zelensky is not the kind of ukrainian president that vladimir putin contains two some kind of raging nationalist. he talks about the need to unune the coununtry and says all ukrainians and russian s speakes ould be considered patriots and he is jewish. ukraine is the only country in the world, except for israel, that is said to have a jewish president and jewish prime minister at the same time. when y you think about russia being in the -- russia talking about ukraine being in the hands of ultranationalist's, that is something to keep p in mind. for the voteout for president in macedonia. results show the left candidate and the conservative candidate

arnett connect -- are you and and neck. neck -- are accusing it of being made up of remnants of al bashir's regime. sunday night, protesters outside sudan's defense ministry had no plans to leave. they have been here since april 6 since omar al bashir was still in power. have he was toppled, they been pushing to bring civilians into the traditional council and they hope sunday the joint cabinet would be announced. that is what the head of the military council said when asked about it on tv. >> what is your opinion about a

joint high council that is military and civilian? >> the option is being discussed within the council. the sudanese professionals association, which has spearheaded protest, suspended its contact with a transitional military counsel, saying it is an extension of the old regime. power has to be h handed to the people. as of today, we are entering a confrontation with the military counsel. toprotest leaders called intensify pressure across sudan until power is handed to civilians. pollsections had to the monday, the final day of the -- head tons -- egyptians the polls monday.

they overwhelmingly approved proposals last week. >> it is the last day of a three-day referendum in egypt. extend theld duration of the presidential term from four to six years and ensure the president can only be reelected once. would reforms passed, lcc sisi could still be in power in 2013. -- introduce a 25 percent quota of parliamentary seaeats r women. >> it has changed for the better. there is good support for women. >> it is less a referendum on reforms themselves than it is on a benchmark for --.

they urged the public to vote yes to the amendment. supporters think he should be allowed to remain in power so he can complete his economic form program. is taking caret of our country and making it better than other countries around us. we know this president. if he leaves, we do not know who wilbur lace him. >> opponents -- we do not know who will replace e him. expected reforms will pass. the government will announce the results at the end of the week. >> there has been another blast outside a church in colombo as soldiers attempted to detonate a device there. been foundices have in and around colombo and other areas in sri lanka in the last

24 hours. the death toll has soared to 290. we are getting live images from colombo. let's cross to our correspondent in colombo. what is the latest? curfew was lifted this momorning. our teams haveveeen out. what s sri lankans arere tellin, this is unlike any otother mondy momorning they have witnessed. streets arere empty, schools are closed,, the stock exchange e is sususpended. people have never seen the ststreets thisis empty on a mony morning. we were down at the site of the firsrst blalast, saint anantho's church. we saw a community that is in

mourning. officials were investigating. it is a community in mourning. it was moving to see them preparing for some of the funerals likely to take place tomorrow. what is a also becoming clear through ththe course of this day through the forensic investigigation, those behind te attack probably planned for it to be larger. there were detonators found at bus stotopsa blastst in a van nt far from s saint anthohony's ch. securititycials, officials contntinue to fifind and that morore attacks is creating panic. they have announced another cucurfew, which will go into foe in a few hours unless until early tomorrow morning. >> the government is pointing

its finger at an islamist extremist group. what do we know about t it? about the group itstself, very attle except the fact it is radical islamic group. authorities are saying it is the local group all the suspects were arrested and those seven suicide bombers were all local sri lankans. what is interesting is what is emerging from the alert t issued by the police about 11 days ago, whichh names this group, the nations thawahid jaman. planning to target prominent churches a and possiby the indian high commisission. been yesterday, there has confusion around this with the prime minister and others coming forward to say they were not made fully aware of this intelligence alert.

,ther members s of the govovernt other officials have said this is an intelligence failure. >> why would such a group target sri lanka? there are several factors. sri lanknka has a fairly complex ethnic religious matrix. years, christstians have been targeted. we spoke to anan activist today whtoldld us the weeeekends leaeg up to easterer sunday, thehere e atattacks on churches across the country. smsmall attacks.s. attttacks by armemed groups. some tensioion. asas a w whole, when sri lanka s going through h its long andnd

, which endedd inr 2010, christianity was seen as a unifyingng force becauause the r was betweenhe singlgle-a's alese ethnice seng groups and others that counted christians a among their member. to your question on why sri lanka was targeted, it is too early to say. lax security could be one reason for that. authorities are working around-thehe-clock to figure out how this happened and if there is any possibility of more attacks. >> thank you. time for a look at the top business news. to end itsis set waivers on oil sanctions as the trump administration steps up pressure on iran.

>> donald trump withdrew the u.s. from the nuclear deal roughly one year ago. washington issued six month waivers to countries who imported iranian oil to give them time to find new suppliers. u.s. o officials confident the market is prepared for the removal of those waivers. pressurng up the tehran, washington is set to announce all countries importing iranian financiale subject to penalties. it comes almost a year after trump withdrew from the iranian nuclear deal and moved to reimpose sanctions against the republic.

the u.s. now appears confident the market can take a hit and is arabiato convince saudi to help raise production to help offset the impact of sanctions. the move is likely to put washington at odds with the whois -- with its allies, are working to bypass iran sanctions. it could have domestic implications for trump, who has vowed to keep petrol prices low as part of his 2020 0 campaign pitch. crude oil prices seeing a spike. brent closing in on the $74 per barrel mark.

the asian stock index has had a lackluster section. european markets are mostly closed for eastern -- for easter monday. france 24 spoke with stephen about how the resolution could hurt european carmakers. c comes down to what w we are thinkiking thehe election polils gogoing to be. he wants to appease hisis ameria first base. the auto sector, we think he is giving him a little to the china trade deal. tomay turn his focus germany, given the fact that big auto is such a strong auto. they arere suffering since the diesel scandal.

nail in thee that coffin for the eu auto industry. >> carlos ghosn has been hit with new charges of aggravated breach of trust related to multimillion dollar payments to a distributor in iran. son chairman has been charged with underreporting compensation and transporting personal financial losses to the company. in all, he spent roughly four months locked up in a tokyo detention center. he maintains his innocence, saying the charges against him are part of a conspiracy by nissan executives. huawei posted

profits. intelligence agencies believe huawei is funded by --. washington and brussels each accused each other of unfair government support for airbus and boeing. farmers and traders of cheeses are looking for new markets in case they are priced out of america. >> at this cheese market in the dutch city of guida, farmers and tariffsfear the announced by donald trump.

>> the wto f finds the europeaen union subsidies has adversely impacted the united date. >> the netherlands is the third importer of cheese after france and italy. totaling 8% of all american cheese imports. the u.s. markets only represent 2% of all dutch cheese exports, meaning the netherlands should be able to cope with increased tariffs.

>> if we cannot export to the u.s., we will have to find another outlet. gouda is considered a high-end product and may not deter americans from buying high-end cheese. of the samsung galaxy fold phone, a number of broken screens. the company lost billions in of itsd production galaxy note seven phone that was halted due to recurring battery fires. wasas april 20, a number

closely associated with marijuana culture. a has come to be seen as black friday for the marijuana industry. collett it green saturday perhaps. pains.ar had growing demand was intense enough to crash the website of pot delivery service, also reporting troubles, other online dispensaries, nug and chill. hit $10.5il sales billion. that is triple those of 2017. a growing industry. >> indeed. up in smoke, as they say. i will be back after a short break. stay with us here.

man: it's a completely different level, off-the-scale violence. man 2: less than 24 hours previously, 8 people had been killed. man 3: they actnd behave as you would expect mafia to act and behave. [echoes] i'm stuart ramsay in mexico, and this is "hotspots." tonight, we're going to take you behind the scenes of the world's biggest and hardest-hitting stories. i'm in acapulco, where the narco cartels are out of control. thousands are dying. now, this is where someone has been killed, right? dodging snipers in southeast asiaour team reports from a