BBC在线收听下载:斯里兰卡宣布进入紧急状态

Hello, this is David Austin with the BBC news.

The Sri Lankan government has blamed a local Islamic group for the suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed two hundred and ninety people on Sunday. The Sri Lankan president's office says President Maithripala Sirisena will declare a nationwide emergency from midnight on Monday. Sharanjit Leyl has more details about the suspected attackers.

This is a small radicalized Islamist group here in Sri Lanka. All seven suicide bombers who were apparently implicated in some of the attacks were all local. But again, the coordinated nature of these attacks taking place in such a short space of time from each other suggest that they did get some international help from a perhaps, an international network. According to that cabinet spokesperson, authorities were aware as soon as April 11 that some sort of coordinated attack would be taking place, but the prime minister's office was not informed.

The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says Moscow has a chance to improve relations with Ukraine following Volodymyr Zelensky's victory in the presidential election over Petro Poroshenko. However, Mr. Medvedev added he had no illusions about Mr. Zelensky, a comedian with no political experience. Anastasia Gribanova is in Moscow.

Dmitry Medvedev commented on the victory of Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine but did not congratulate him. He said that there is still a chance for Ukraine to improve their relations with Russia. As for Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, he has so far neither commented on the victory or congratulated Volodymyr Zelensky. But many members of Russian parliament have already made their statements. Many of them said that people in Ukraine voted not for Zelensky but against Petro Poroshenko. Many others have sent Mr. Zelensky their congratulations, including the US President, the European Union and the head of NATO.President Trump's special representative said the US would continue to support Ukraine's efforts to restore its territorial integrity and counter Russian aggression.

Iran and Pakistan will set up a joint rapid reaction border force to counter the threat of terrorism. The move was announced by the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a news conference with the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who's on a two-day visit to Iran. It's been a series of attacks over the past few months on both sides of the border. Voters will need a second round to decide North Macedonia's next president after an extremely tight race in Sunday's election. Preliminary results show the governing Social Democrats candidate Stevo Pendarovski slightly ahead of his right-wing nationalist rival Gordana Siljanovska.

BBC news.