every. day of dramatic violence in hong kong as police and protesters fight around a university campus. hello and welcome to al-jazeera live from our headquarters in doha would be the prague also ahead. the park service declared the winner in sri lanka's presidential election the preliminary evaluation of saudi arabia's oil and oil company falls short of expectations and iran's leaders stand by their decision to increase fuel prices and impose rationing despite

a few areas response. we begin in hong kong where police and demonstrators are engaged in a violent clashes protestors have shot bows and arrows and hurled petrol bombs from a barricaded university campus police fired tear gas and water cannon as they try to disperse the protesters we will talk to rob the bride in hong kong short shortly but 1st his report. another sunday afternoon another homecoming street turned into a battleground. at the end of a week that seen a marked escalation in the level of violence between protesters and police students took over several college campuses. polytechnic university is the last under their control and they seem determined to hold on to it i think. because it's cool but imo it's not about we have

a plan for the freedom. they say we're not behaving like students but we're fighting for our better future. violence began early sunday when people turned up to clear surrounding streets of bricks and barricades and students resisted police quickly arrived with water cannon and right big holes. and probably 2 more of a cannon are now working as night on the barricades and i do not protest the thing to be throwing back but i'm still with punk rock and. the college campus is located next to an important cross harbor tunnel which is being closed for days it will likely remain closed until police can retake the campus also close by is a camp occupied by china's people's liberation army p l a soldiers looking on closely. police say they've been targeted with long range projectiles 5 from the campus buildings with one officer hit in the leg with an

arrow. they say the students now inside the campus face riot charges which carry a lengthy prison sentence in spite of the warning the students show no sign of giving up. and rob is joining us live now and i'm reading reports here rob that hong kong police truck the trains from cross the tunnel bridge after being hit by petrol bombs what are you hearing. that's right i mean it's still very tense scenes here at the campus but we have it's the in the last hour or so elizabeth had something of a lull it's a bit of a rest fight here which are for protesters and i think also for the police is probably very welcomed the police do seem to be giving more warnings for people to finally leave here before they move in they say they're holding open one exit it's not clear whether the numbers have been doubt that much in fact if anything the

protesters are calling for more people to come here and join them we're close to that junction where most of the battling has been taking place throughout the day but in the past few hours more police have been turning up different entrances to this campus confronted by protesters who build the building barricades in particular there's a. overpass just behind me here where there is a barricade where there's been some fierce clashes between protesters and police exchanging volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets from the police and then from the protesters huge amounts of petrol bombs molotov cocktails and other barricades around here are being but being positioned by students expecting at some point that there will be police moving in but standing at the ready with an abundance i look around here again of more petrol bombs elizabeth and rob you know the scale of the violence off today's protests trying to show just how unpredictable their nature is

. i mean that is the nature of this dispute is the nature of the unprecedented we simply don't know what to expect from one day to the next every riot it seems is worse than the right before 'd which again is worse than the right before that and it does leave you to wonder just where it is all going to to end this weekend when it had been actually one of the more peaceful weekends that we've seen in recent times we do seem to have seen this change in tactics by the protesters really targeting the working week as we've seen in the past 5 days or so with increased levels of violence they occupying of the streets in the central business district really hitting hong kong where it hurts most to this very business oriented place and until today sunday this had been a relatively relatively peaceful but obviously this clash has been probably one of

the more serious in this 5 months plus of protests and it's difficult to see exactly where this is going to end there doesn't seem to be a plan by the students. apart from simply trying to fend off the police there is a general idea that if there barricades do get swept away in the surrounding streets they will all head into the campus building which they are occupying and that obviously leads to all sorts of concerns about whether police stormed the building and about having confrontations between relatively well armed groups of protesters and police in the confines of the corridors and offices of this building elizabeth all right rob thank you for that for now that is rob with the latest live in hong kong thank you. we're going to move on to other news now in sri lanka the election commission has declared goethe of the winner of saturday's presidential vote as rival subject conceded as early results put rajapaksa over the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a 2nd recount he is the brother former president mahinda rajapaksa and he was the

defense chief when the tamil tigers were defeated 10 years ago the election was dominated by. rising religious tensions and a slowing economy benefits that has moved from the capital colombo. we've got a pirate ship taxes victory in sri lanka's presidential election the rajapaksa family is back in the front line of sri lankan politics as older brother mahendra was ejected from the presidency in 2015 by an electorate fed up it seemed of allegations over human rights abuses and corruption and nepotism but this time around the rajapakse is have managed to corral the sinhala buddhist support base they make up 75 percent of the sri lankan population and it seems most of them voted for the rajapaksa as it was really the fallout from the easter sunday suicide bombings and the government's failure to acknowledge and pay attention to and act on intelligence reports that set these bombings were coming that helped pave the

way for rajapaksa is victory he announced his candidacy for the presidency in the wake of those bombings and he said he wants to restore sri lanka's national security institutions and restore the safety of this country and that argument seemed to have resonated with the majority of voters here. to iraq now where influential kerik. has called for a national strike on sunday meanwhile a stall and baghdad has caught fire what mrs say it was a result of violence between security forces and protesters demonstrations started in a toga against a knack of jobs and public services but i'm going to call for a complete political hold on 320 people have been killed in the protests and tashi going to him has the latest from baghdad. other roads were quite car coming into tahrir square we're seeing a lot of students in the numbers do seem to be bigger than we would typically see

this time of day on a sunday if you look behind me you can see pretty significant plume of black smoke you mentioned that the prominent shiite cleric sartor called for a nation of wide strike in iraq it's probably because his followers comprise the largest bloc in parliament they are the primary opposition and they are united with the protesters in calling for the resignation of prime minister. and calling for elections in baghdad as i said we're expecting more people in tahrir square than we would typically see on a sunday in basra things appear to be quite tense the ports the operations there are once again halted as protesters block the entrance we're told that they've blocked the roads to several oil fields in the lock the primary road leading from basra to baghdad there's no school today in basra in may soon and the local councils have actually given people the day off from work and school so we expect

to see significant numbers of people attending protests there so really what we're seeing is that protesters are continuing to maintain their momentum and try to keep the pressure on a government that they believe has not gone far enough in its reforms right now we have drafts of an election law and a new electoral commission that are waiting to be reviewed by the parliament but of course the one thing that protesters want which is for the prime minister to step down has not happened. now saudi arabia has put a preliminary valuation on a state owned oil giant aramco of the $6.01 trillion dollars that is short of crown prince mohammed bin tel man's target of 2 trillion the kingdom says it's looking to raise more than $25000000000.00 by selling a 1.5 percent stake in its oil company taking beds from investors and the final price will be set after that phase which ends on december 5th allowed to see as economics editor added alys has crown prince mohammed bin sandman will be

disappointed with the valuation 1st of all remember in 2016 he wanted 2 trillion dollars for the computer want to raise $100000000000.00 for other projects that they want to invest in now what we have come to a point where basically international investors have ball took the idea that they were willing to invest in this company at anywhere above $1.00 trillion dollars but he's pretty lucky that the saudi public will be buying into this no point 5 percent of the shares will be sold to the south is saudi public and looks like that they'll take a huge allotment of those shares plus he's encouraged many of the country's billionaires who were holed up in a hotel in riyadh or. to basically invest in the particular company as well on that level it will be a success because on the day of the shares will be sold to the saudi pension funds investment funds will basically go into the market and pick up any of the stock

that's left over. lebanon's former finance minister has withdrawn his name from contention to be the next prime minister mohammad saffi days that it would have been difficult to form a harmonious cabinet in a statement he added that he hoped outgoing prime minister would be renominated. has more from beirut. there was drama the suffer the from contention of being the next prime minister will be received positively amongst the protesters who had rejected him the moment it was reported that he was being considered for the top job considering his past of allegedly corruption but there is a lot more i think here in the sense that the protesters now have been taking to the streets for a month of these movements started on october 17th and what so many people are waiting to see is whether a large numbers will be taking to the streets later on sunday if that happens that will give more momentum truth people like prime minister saad how do you know who many believe only nominated mama suffer the in order to essentially burn him in

order to make the his opponents in the government goals supporters of hezbollah as well as president michel own forced to essentially come back and beg how do you do you to continue as prime minister thus giving him more strength more street cred to then name a government of technocrats that he chooses but what's important to note about lebanon is beyond the protests beyond the different domestic movements and power plays that are taking place the decision as to what will happen in the future for lebanon lies probably more outside of a road than it does inside the group in the sense that the sponsors of the main parties the it has the last concerts in the run or ideas in riyadh and other major world powers like the united states good are the ones who can actually really move things forward so a lot of focus will be on how things work out in terms of international diplomacy

with regard to the on the sly you know it's one thing that a lot of people are very concerned about is the economic situation obviously one month of protests is taking its toll the banks have been closed for a large amount of that time there is a lack of foreign currency here particularly u.s. does and let some sort of shift or change happens with regard to that that has the potential of making things even worse in a country that is struggling to survive right now. still ahead on the bulletin vine from northern ireland a generation ago my son takes center stage in the u.k. is general action and the study questioning whether surgery is really necessary for many people with heart disease. hello again welcome back to international weather forecast well across china not looking too bad along the coast temperatures are fairly nice for this time of year

it's really in the interior that we are seeing the rain in the cooler air as well so for many areas into the mid teens a lot of rain a lot of clouds across the region as we go towards tuesday the rain starts to subside but we are still going to be seeing that cool air in place temperatures could only reach into the high single digits for many before hong kong looking quite nice with a temperature of 25 degrees there well for india not looking too bad for the central areas fairly clear across much of the region we are still picking up some rain showers down here across much of the south and some of those could be heavy at times should i expect to see the rain char activity maybe increasing in intensity as we go towards tuesday for colombo it is going to be rainy as well $29.00 degrees there up towards new delhi though we do expect to see attempt a few into the mid twenty's and then here across the gulf the big problem of the next few days is going to be the rain that is sliding in from the north across many areas particularly here on tuesday in doha we could be scenes of very heavy rain across much of the area attempt of $26.00 course beltane will be seeing the problem

as well but for riyadh it is going to be a cloudy day for you with a temperature of 20. the stories generate thousands of these protests are saying down the system and down with all of the parts with different angles from different perspectives just because we came to prison there's a me right stopped at the gate separate the spin from the fact. jumps on stories. misinformation from it's about telling the stories or those. with the listening post.

and i get out of the plot of and with the top stories this hour police and demonstrators in hong kong were gauged in violent confrontations protestors have shot arrows at police and herald petrol bombs from a barricaded university campus police responded by firing tear gas and water cannon . sri lanka's election commission has declared rajapaksa the winner in the country's presidential election his rivals conceded as early results porch rajapaksa over the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a 2nd recount and saudi arabia has a preliminary evaluation on that stage and oil giant iran cut off between $6.01 trillion dollars the kingdom says it's looking to raise more than $25000000000.00 by selling a 1.5 percent stake now an iranian news agency is reporting that over

a 1000 people have been arrested in protests against fuel price rises supreme leader ayatollah ali how. need announced what he calls her lagoons for taking part in sabotage riot police and security forces have fought with demonstrators across dozens of cities on saturday protestors unhappy with petrol being rationed and prices rising by as much as 200 percent this go to door she's joining us live from the protests continuing doors there with a large number of arrests. yes elizabeth we heard from the ultimate authority in the islamic republic that is the supreme leader who spoke early this morning and he basically made his position very clear that this decision made by this economic commission stands and that the different bodies within the establishment will move forward with making sure that the fuel hikes are in force now this is been met with some very very harsh reaction from the

average iranian they've been protesting across the country and we've heard that over 87000 people took part in these demonstrations over the past 48 hours now we also heard from the intelligence ministry who have issued a statement following the supreme leader's orders saying that it is their duty to carry out his wishes and they will confront anyone who puts the national security of the country at risk the feeling here is that the next 24 hours are very important because the security of the country is now in the hands of those ministries and they've been given the go ahead to enforce the will of law in the country we've also been hearing from a number of m.p.'s who are very unhappy with the speaker of parliament ali larijani they're asking for his resignation because they say that this announcement that was made suddenly on friday morning it did not go through the parliament it was decided that with the head of the country's judiciary for him right you see as well as the

head of the parliament other larijani and president hassan rouhani these 3 had decided on this move and they did not share this information with the parliament so the m.p.'s are saying there are johnny had a duty to inform them so they could inform the general public so it would not have been such a shock as for now they're trying to gather enough signatures to make him resign and the government says that fuel prices as they were some of the no list in the world just sustainable remind us why they increased them by so much. well it's because the prices have been so low for a very long time the iranians haven't seen an increase in fuel prices for years the increase is not they may not be much to other people around the world but inside the country it is a tremendous amount to the average iranian who makes it are $200.00 a month previous to this hike they were paying about $4.00 for a full tank of gas as of friday they were paying about $10.00 so it was

a 3 fold increase overnight without any warning and many people here say that it's not just about iraq is in petrol prices it's about what this increase will do to other prices in terms of goods in the country usually when the price of gas goes up the price of other commodities go up as well and that is what is worrying many iranians at the moment or and also thank you for that with the latest live in thank you now the conservative party in the u.k. is pushing for a new legislation to protect soldiers from what province to bars johnson calls unfair trials under the proposed law veterans would be prosecuted over historical offenses committed during operations in iraq afghanistan and closer to home northern ireland where british forces were engaged in a conflict with irish republicans for decades largely explains. as well as being bogged down in elections it's that time of year when the u.k. honors its war dead and the sacrifices they made in that sea world wars when asked

to go and fight the conservative party now wants that unequivocal support to extend to the actions of soldiers in more controversial conflicts. it's widely expected that in the coming days the conservatives will include in their election manifesto the pledge to protect by amnesty all british soldiers who fought in northern ireland during the conflict there including those already accused of crimes the newly appointed veterans minister in boris johnson's last government said as much on twitter suggesting the new law of armed conflict with a plan the battlefield and would override the human rights acts to protect soldiers past and presence from prosecution the implications are politically volatile one former soldier has already been charged and is awaiting trial over the killing of civilians on bloody sunday in northern ireland in 1972 would his case be dropped under the new law that would be explosive in republican parts of the province

already deeply unhappy over bracks it's i think a lot of these things will depend a political reality on where it sits on the political spectrum possibly you know in this in play politically for all sorts of things but like a blanket amnesty is it you know it's a major precedent because certainly bouts of hope the new law would also provide blanket legal cover for any party soldier accused of a war crime or a human rights violation in any recent conflict in the middle east or afghanistan. would have been soldiers found guilty of torture being let off and as well as protecting rank and file soldiers but also give cover to more senior officers who gave illegal orders i would say that trying to share with all of this. is that there are attempts to prevent those higher up those if the in the greatest responsibility for being looked at the law is aimed directly at

traditional conservative so you think the british military has to about a far seem any laws while enemies like i still and al-qaeda don't follow any rules at all but for all that there are concerns that soldiers already accused of serious offenses might simply be let off and also how exactly military commanders will interpret the new law on the battlefields of future wars. support for military veterans fundraising job opportunities better mental health care are normally uncontroversial and are widely backed by the british public blanket protection from prosecution and abuse of power written into law may prove slightly more difficult to argue for largely al-jazeera london. the united states and south korea are postponing joint military drove this month as an act of good will to bolster stalled peace talks with north korea u.s. defense secretary marcus but denies the the move amounts to

a concession to pyongyang and says it's an attempt to keep the door open to diplomacy talks between north korea's leader and us president trump broke down in february without agreement. now political security and cultural complications have made it difficult for health workers and democratic republic of congo to contain and a bowler outbreak that's killed at least 2000 people since it began last year where doctors are now using local leaders in a vaccination drive targeting one of the most hard to access communities in the country the pigmies catherine sawyer reports from. health workers in beni have set up a medical camp next to an open child service on the sunday morning this service is attended by a reclusive beagley community living in villages in the congo forest doctors tell us the community has also been affected by it but convincing them to come to treatment centers or get vaccinated has been difficult yet they hope as many people

as possible will say yes to the vaccine. and to convince them to bring in community leaders like esther months old to talk to the rest i didn't want them there and i was vaccinated in man gaynor to share my people there's nothing wrong with it i tell them this is a war we're fighting jerry jacqueline has brought her 3 children to be vaccinated and she is reluctant fast but tells us she now sees the importance of it in general . i was convinced by our community leader i came for the vaccination with my children because i don't want this disease to find us in our house i was told it kills people horribly. pygmies in the democratic republic of congo have been historically marginalized. from hospitals or schools this is a community that moves around a lot leaving in religious such as this one in the forests those here have been

vaccinated but accessing many others has been difficult. this doctor tells us sometimes it takes our was walking through dense forest where rebel fighters also hide well we are now in this village work and come into the wood. so they move defeated. is that we are working we would close with them get involved in the vaccination make them aware of the weeks that they have a boy. and so efforts continue to get this community vaccinated how far it is to reduce the cases. to 0 by the end of the yeah and for that to happen they tell us no one can be left catherine. benny is the democratic republic of congo. now officials in venice say the damage from flooding that's devastated the city will cost at least a $1000000000.00 euros the mayor of the city says he has again asked the united

nations to create a specific center for how climate change affects venice. there are the consequences of this climate is that which is crucial for the whole world and for venice even more that's the reason we asked several times for the u.n. to consider the idea to create a center for the studies of the consequences of climate change especially water and seas in venice. many patients with severe heart disease could benefit from medication and lifestyle changes rather than surgery that's the finding of a major 7 year study in the u.s. that's the biggest you get to compare invasive options like stance with conservative treatments like cholesterol and drugs and aspirin the study says the findings can save hundreds of millions of dollars in health care costs are economists dean of the university of nebraska medical center college of public health and he says this study backs up the findings of earlier research. i absolutely would represent the recommended more conservative therapy and so this is

now the 2nd time in over a dozen years that i think we've really for once and all answered the fundamental question that if you have stable heart disease should you use medical therapy and lifestyle marta cations or should you go on and include invasive treatment such as stand sort or a cardiac bypass and the data is pretty clear 5000 people 37 countries $100000000.00 to do this study stick with the drugs in the conservative therapy the findings apply to people with stable cardiac disease so if you have if you're having a heart attack then yes you should go on and get some other invasive therapy but if you have stable disease then you will do just fine with conservatives there are people however people who have severe stable heart disease so you know if they're walking and they have severe chest pain then the studies suggest that they'll have a better improvement in their quality of life however they're not more likely to

live longer are not have a heart attack or not require hospitalization. and you can find all the news on our website at al jazeera dot com that is currently leading with the protests in lebanon as they mark the one month anniversary all that and more at al-jazeera dot com. hello again i'm elizabeth brodeur in door harbor the headlines on al-jazeera police and demonstrators in hong kong are engaged in violent confrontations protestors have shot hours at police and hold petrol bombs from a barricaded university campus police responded by firing tear gas and water cannon sri lanka's election commission has declared goeth by rajapaksa the winner in the country's presidential election his rival subject premadasa conceded as early results put rajapaksa over the 50 percent mark needed to avoid

a 2nd recount saudi arabia has put a preliminary valuation on its state owned oil giant a ram of between $6.01 trillion dollars the kingdom says it's looking to raise more than $25000000000.00 by selling a 1.5 percent stake now influential iraqi cleric mock of al sa that has called for a national strike on sunday meanwhile a store in baghdad has court file witnesses say it was the result of violence between security forces and protesters were demonstrations began in october against a lack of jobs and public services but have gone into course for a complete political overhaul more than $320.00 people have been killed in the protests an iranian news agency is reporting that over a 1000 people have been arrested in protests against fuel price rises supreme leader ayatollah ali how many denounced what he calls hooligans for taking part in sabotage riot police and security forces have fought with demonstrators across

dozens of cities on saturday where protesters are unhappy with petrol being rationed and prices rising by as much as 200 percent. the united states and south korea are postponing joint military drills for this month as an act of goodwill to bolster the stalled peace talks with north korea u.s. defense secretary marcus but denies that the move amounts to a concession to pyongyang but says it's an attempt to keep the door open to diplomacy a state of emergency has been declared in venice the italian city has been hit by the worst floods in 50 years it's estimated that the damage will cost at least a $1000000000.00 heroes the mayor of the city says he's asked the u.n. to create a specific center for how climate change affects venice well those are the headlines the listing post is coming up next on al-jazeera thank you for watching i was taken to. was that i was severely beaten up. in forced labor say

the intention was to make sure the never grew hinduism. entitled to be their basic rights more citizenship rights once their villages were funneled into what is now become complex where the marines are basically imprisoned exiled coming on al-jazeera. the 1st time. you see saudi arabia the spy. to hear what. they access. this. critical of the saudi government. alone which are just part of your at the listening post here are some of the media stories we're covering this week anime agency within a court case in the u.s. threatens to expose the relationship between twitter and saudi arabia in taiwan they call them the.