a university campus that's become a battleground police in hong kong want people to leave for the on site. grad this is al jazeera live from doha also. help for the poor iran's leader announces subsidies to try to subdue petrol price protests. protests as lebanon's sleep slips deeper into a political crisis a top candidate for prime minister pulls out. and the sri lankan accused of human rights violations during the fight against tamil rebels is declared the next president.

police are on the brink of breaking up a standoff with protesters in hong kong it's just after 1 o'clock in the morning and forces are outside a university campus where demonstrators have barricaded themselves in from their drive shot arrows and hold petrol bombs police have returned with gas and water cannon now they warning they are ready to make their next move and there are people to get out of the area for their own safety rob mcbride has more from hong kong. 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 not about we have. apart for the freedom. they say we're not

behaving like students but we are 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 vehicles. and probably 2 more of the cannon are now working as may some day barricades and. protesters back but are still wrong there where more and more. 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 or the bright al-jazeera homecoming. iran's president has announced that poor people will start receiving subsidies on monday to help pay for the fuel price rises it's hassen rouhani is response to protests against the increases dosage of barry has more from tehran. president has time rouhani has been making a few comments following his weekly cabinet meeting on sunday evening in the capital he said that it is the right of every iranian to protest but it is not their right to cause riots he's referring to over a 1000 people that have been arrested over the past 48 hours as a result of a number of incidents that have taken place over all over the country in number of cities over $87000.00 people have turned up to demonstrate and show their

frustration at the news that the price of fuel has tripled overnight at the government made this announcement in the president was defending the government's decision on sunday evening saying that they were trying to help the poor families in the country by increasing subsidies to them and that's why they had a decision to make and that the situation was made it wasn't an easy one he said they had 3 choices one was increased taxes across the board inside iran the 2nd one was to increase the sale of oil that was not going to happen because of u.s. sanctions at the moment on the rainy and the 3rd was to increase the price of fuel for iranians that's what they decided to go with this decision has had some very serious consequences number of people have turned out across the country to protest and show their anger there have been 2 deaths reported so far one of

a policeman in kemah city and another a protester in. more political trouble in lebanon off to the former finance minister withdrew his name from contention to be the next prime minister mohammad suffered he said it would have been difficult to form a harmonious cabinet in a statement he added that he hoped outgoing prime minister saad hariri would in fact be renominated let's get more on this from jamal sheil in beirut that mama sufi is just one person i understand people they might be celebrating that he's big draw on his name but it is increasingly difficult to win this political vacuum is not. coming from of course i mean the key issue isn't just the vacuum that's been caused by the resignation of sight how do you do in the consequential struggle to find some sort of consensus around the name obviously them failing with a medicine for you but it's in the demands of the people which is centered around a demand for a technocratic government starts will essentially focus on bringing back what they

believe is stalled in wealth of the people that's was essentially siphoned away by the political elites over decades by a government that will focus on putting country before sect country before party but in a country like lebanon which its political system is essentially manufactured on the basis of a 6 hour u.n. constitution which stipulates that such insectarium sexual don't have to have such a position is in the government and the fact that these sects have taken that's almost as a status quo that they know that they will be in power regardless because constitutionally this because ultimately needs to be the president needs to be on maronites and the prime minister sunni and so forth that's allowed them essentially to govern without having any sort of. let's say critique from the people because they know there will always be an opposition but these people are saying is that enough is enough they need to change a system bring about one that governs for the people rather than for specific

parties or set. jamal really is interested as well in the political intrigue surrounding saad hariri because it goes mama suffered he is now saying he hopes that saad hariri puts his name forward if you tell us a little bit more about this. well this is the interesting thing stop how do you do you probably read that these protests were gaining momentum earlier than other politicians and chose to try and benefit from that's as far as what many analysts are been saying that is and you decided to resign in order to show that he was essentially succumbing to the will of the people but in reality what's happened is all the names that were put forward by his look where names that anybody would know would never have been accepted by the protest movement because either they were extremely corrupt or they didn't enjoy any popular supports are. amongst

a cross-section of society so what people are saying is that's not studied essentially use these protests to corner go other book which is the mission our own block to force them to essentially come back to him and ask him to form a government types his will when we talk about a government or cabinets of technocrats on obviously the route independents people around but if you're talking about the most visible people in public office right lisa who have had some sort of kind of public profile it's very difficult to identify those who are 100 percent independent and here in lies the reality of a solution to this crisis which is you're not going to get a totally independent cabinet is that what some people are negotiating about is what concessions can be made by both sides and those concessions are as much about what happens on the streets in beirut as it is about what happens or what is decided in the corridors of power into her run riyadh washington and even powerless

tamal thank you for that. but a strike in syria has killed at least 9 people and injured several others the attack was on the outskirts of the city of saraki of just east of it live media says it was coordinated by russian planes thousands of greeks are marking the 46th anniversary of a violently cost student uprising that helped topple the military junta each year the event is commemorated by placing flowers at the old gate of the polytechnic university which was crushed by a tank during the uprising at least 24 people were killed in that crackdown johnson is joins us now live with the latest from athens and john there was a lot of anticipation around this barge both with the numbers of people that would be out but also the potential security issues as well tell us more about that. that's right there has been a lot of anticipation because this is the 1st march in which university immunity

from police intervention has been abolished that immunity the government said was being abused by criminal groups who used universities as safe havens from which to operate such things as drug dens recruitment grounds for more criminals and also areas from which anarchists would attack police and then return where they couldn't because so this is one this is one. perhaps the police will be challenged or maybe these measures will turn out to be effective and anarchists will decide that it isn't worth their while either way this area behind me between here and the acropolis in the distance is the area that the police are now watching and there's a helicopter buzzing around overhead with its searchlight combing this area as we speak this is the area where the polytechnic campus is located and the area of excited here the neighborhood of exotica around it it is the heart of the area of

lawlessness that the police have so often decried in this government has vowed to cleanse in its own words of all these various criminal elements that have views the politics because a as a safe haven the political monch the peaceful political statement the march from these polytechnic grounds to the u.s. embassy is over that is the much that each year reminds the united states that the nixon administration supported the 7 year colonels dictatorship here in greece something that the greeks have always been deeply unhappy about and continue to commemorate and this much tends to take on the color of the political era in which it's taking place and right now we are in the wake of that terrible greek recession the place during the last decade at the behest of the eurozone when austerity measures. we're demanded greece still hasn't emerged from that era this march is

teens with a sense of complaint against the capitalist system for imposing those measures on greece and for not helping greece to pick itself up afterwards john drop us live there from athens. russia says it will return 3 captured naval vessels to ukraine the ships were seized off the coast of crimea a year ago after the russian coast guard opened fire and wounded several silas' moscow says the vessels illegally entered its territorial waters it returned the captured crew members in september as part of a prisoner exchange still ahead on al-jazeera pulling short the initial valuation for saudi arabia's state owned oil company is lower than some expected. while violence into that of a generation ago may soon take center stage in the u.k. is general election.

hello again it's good to be back where we have been following the snow here across parts of iran over the last few days attempters have really come down 1st of all we've been showing you some images that have come out of tehran the snow is going to continue across that area as well especially around the caspian the southern part of the caspian could be a mix of rain and snow down towards the south though notice in the higher elevations we could even see some snow there that's really going to be in the overnight hours but a lot of rain across much of the area really affecting quit city as well the snow continues across the region and for tehran unfortunate you can be below average for this time of year staying really until we get towards wednesday a combination of rain and snow possibly here on monday possibly on tuesday as well wednesday does look better but still quite cool with a temperature of 10 maybe the average for this time of year should be about 70 degrees there one here across the gulf we are going to be tracking that rain as it makes its way down towards the south as well i did say quite city heavy rain few as

well but as we go from monday and into tuesday look at those forecasts we do expect to see some rain across the area that will also push over here towards the west for abu dhabi though not looking too bad with a temperature of $29.00 and then down along the coast of amman we are looking quite nice there saliva it is going to be a pleasant day for you with a temperature of $2980.00 s. .

this is al jazeera here's a reminder about top stories this hour police in hong kong on the brink of breaking up a standoff with protesters the big bad thing demonstrators for hours now barricaded themselves in at a university campus. iranian president hassan rouhani has responded to protest a few will be increases the government has announced the poor people will start receiving subsidies on monday to help pay for the fuel process. has withdrawn his name from contention to be the next. his decision has not stopped

thousands of people protesting in tripoli by route demanding the whole government steps down over allegations of corruption. a familiar name in sri lankan politics is back in charge former defense minister rajapaksa has been declared the winner of saturday's vote his rivals. conceded early results but rajapaksa more than 50 percent that's needed to avoid a 2nd count bonus miss reports from colombo. to his supporters mainly from the senhor put his majority got a buyer rajapaksa is the president sri lanka need if they believe he can strengthen security after the easter sunday suicide bomb attacks 263 people were killed the government ignored intelligence warnings that the bombings were imminent it's paid the price for that and other perceived failings at this election national security was annoying mr cobb calming the. trading people were crying and

in fact every other day there was some agitation and obviously they were waiting for opportunity to change the government rajapaksa is a divisive figure many tamils in sri lanka's north believe the former defense secretary should be tried over allegations of killings and disappearances during the final stages of the war against the tamil tigers the country's muslim council says he's victory realizes all our worst fears their fear food because this. in his election campaign stressed national security and national security to the ethnic minority is something a little bit fearful because it means that they are the ones being viewed as security threats and for the muslims in particular they have bad memories of the period before 2015 because there were riots against them even good there was a very good military undergo. the military and the intelligence didn't protect the

muslims and i hope that that will change in the future as all the brother and former president mahinda may now become prime minister with the rajapaksa families . turns to frontline politics. excited and super excited and happy for the country and the result that majority of the sri lankans i've been expecting for a long time up the argument on the law say if we want to someone like this to save the country so the top children the future generation will have a country one of gotta buy rajapakse as priorities is to rebuild state intelligence and surveillance networks he says they were dismantled by the outgoing administration and international pressure and when asked about those allegations of human rights abuses when he was defense secretary the now president elect says people should stop talking about past. burnitz make al-jazeera colomba. influential iraqi queerer. has called for a national strike on sunday a story in baghdad has caught fire witnesses say it was as

a result of violence between security forces and protesters demonstrations started last month against the lack of jobs and public services that have grown into calls for a change in government more than 300000 people have been killed in those demonstrations . and protesters in the iraqi city of basra have erected barricades and blocked the highway i set the roads on fire to prevent people from going to work and school the city's poor things being closed because of growing violence enough to read my son cities well far refused to quit a holiday to allow people to attend protests potentially good night has more now 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 el sautter called for

a nation of wide strike in iraq it's prominent 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 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 that's 3 of 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. so you set a preliminary evaluation on the oil giant aramco of $1.00 trillion dollars well below the target of crown prince mohammed bin solomon $3000000000.00 shares were priced at around $8.00 each raising just slightly more than $25000000000.00 but international investors could miss out after balking at the price. konami said it explains while backing 2016 crown prince mohammed bin some man wanted to float around co with a valuation of 2 trillion dollars immediately investment bankers hired to promote the i.p.o. could not make the math add up or argued with oil prices at $75.00

a barrel the company could be worth $2.00 trillion dollars but opec is warning oil demand will slide over the next 4 years and that current prices it's only worth 1.75 trillion but there are other ways of following companies one method is dividend and our run co has guaranteed 5000000000 over the next 5 years which valued the company at 1.6 trillion dollars even after the sale of the saudi government will only 98 percent of aramco which means the government can decide how aramco spends money there's other geopolitical risks which take a huge chunk funny way ssion like the attacks on saudi oil facilities in september and the killing of journalists jamal khashoggi so what is a complete worth investors say a fair price is between $1.00 trillion dollars and reluctantly $1.00 trillion.

political security and cultural complications difficult for health workers you can type in an ebola outbreak in democratic republic of congo doctors are now using local leaders in the vaccination drive to reach one of the most hard to access communities katherine saw reports from. health workers in beni have set up a medical comp next to an open chart service on the sunday morning the service is attended by reclusive pygmy 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 the hope as many people as possible will say yes to the vaccine. and to convince them to bring in community leaders like. to talk to the last one i was vaccinated in man to show my people there's nothing wrong with it i tell them this is

a war we're fighting. jerry and jacqueline has brought her 3 children to be vaccinated. she is reluctant to fast but tells us she now sees the importance of it and. i was convinced by our community leader i came for docs a nation 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 villages 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 hours walking through dense forest where rebel fighters also hide where we are now. so they move.

is for that 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 cleaned. house authorities want to reduce their cases. to 0 by the end of the yeah and for that to happen they tell us no one can be left out kathy soliah benny is 10 democratic republic of congo. bolivia's former president ever morale is has told al-jazeera he should be allowed to return and complete his final term in office that time as the united nations warns that violence in bolivia could spin out of control on friday people were killed when security forces opened fire on his supporters he used his twitter account to demand the interim government in bolivia to identify those responsible for the deaths a state of emergency has been declared in one of italy's top tourist spots as

waters rise again churches shops and homes in venice have been inundated in the worst flooding for half a century it's caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage so far the united states and south korea postponing joint military drills judge ruled for this month as an act of goodwill to bolster stored peace talks with north korea u.s. defense secretary baucus but denies the move amounts to a concession to pyongyang but says it is an attempt to keep the door open to diplomacy talks between north korea's leader and the u.s. president on trump broke down in february without agreement. the conservative party in the u.k. is pushing for new legislation to protect soldiers from what prime minister boris johnson calls unfair trials under the proposed law veterans would not be prosecuted for historical offenses committed during operations in iraq afghanistan and closer to home in northern ireland where british forces were engaged in

a conflict with irish republicans for decades lawrence lee 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 the 2 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 with his case be dropped under the new law that will be explosive in republican parts of the province already deeply unhappy over the 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 votes of. the new law would also provide blanket legal cover for any purchase soldier accused of a war crime or a human rights violation in any recent conflicts 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 prime issue with all of this. is

that their attempts to prevent those high about. the great. from being. the law is aimed directly at traditional conservative so you think the british military has to obey far too many 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 speak 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.

this is al-jazeera these are the top stories police in hong kong are on the brink of breaking up a standoff with protesters who have been bad thing demonstrators for hours who barricaded themselves in at a university campus from their arrows and 2 bombs police have fired back with tear gas and water cannon. iranian president hassan rouhani has responded to protests against fuel increases the government has announced the poor people will start receiving subsidies on monday to help pay for the fuel price hikes. lebanon's former foreign minister foreign finance minister has withdrawn his name from contention to be the next prime minister he's decision has not stopped thousands of people protesting in tripoli in beirut demanding the whole government steps down over allegations of corruption. sri lanka's former defense minister got to

rajapaksa has won the presidential election his rivals. conceded as early results put rajapaksa over the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a 2nd count an airstrike in syria has killed at least 9 people and injured several others the attackers on the outskirts of the city of just east of italy media says it was coordinated by russian planes russia says it will return 3 captured naval vessels to ukraine the ships were seized off the coast of crimea a year ago after the russian coast guard opened fire and wounded several silas' moscow says the vessels illegally entered its territorial waters it returned the captured crew members in september as part of a prisoner exchange thousands of greeks are marking the 46th anniversary of the violent the costa student uprising that helped topple the military joined 8 years the event is commemorated by placing flowers at the old gate of the polytechnic

university in athens which was crushed by a tank during the uprising. saudi arabia has put a preliminary evaluation on that state owned oil giant aramco 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 influentially rocky. has called for a national strike on sunday meanwhile the story in baghdad has caught fire witnesses say it was as the result of violence between security forces and protesters but as the headlines the news continues after inside story.

it's been a year since hundreds of thousands of french citizens protested against the hike on fuel prices what became known as the movement against social inequality pose a challenge to president. but what's changed since then this is inside story. hello welcome to the program. when hundreds of thousands of people dress in florissant sleeveless jackets but tested in fronts last november not many people realized how powerful a movement it's.