to germany starting with thirteen on two w. . this is d w news live from berlin lebanon goes to the polls for the first parliamentary election in nearly a decade and security fears and a tug of war over election reform delayed voting for years now an unprecedented number of independent candidates are hoping to shake up lebanon's political establishment under prime minister saad hariri also coming up. the bundesliga has

seen eight notes make a pact with drama with much to play for towards the top and bottom our sports correspondent will take us through the best of the action. the only. i'm so henery thanks for joining us voters in lebanon are heading to the polls to elect a new parliament today for the first time in almost ten years so a new prime minister saad hariri and his future movement party are expected to remain in power the election will be the first on the country's new electoral laws with proportional representation replacing the previous winner takes all system the vote brings into focus the struggle for power in a country divided along sectarian lines among those hoping to make gains in the country is hezbollah the islamist political and militant group financed by iran which supports the syrian president bashar al assad here's

a look at the patchwork of groups and religions vying for power in lebanon on. graves of lebanese hezbollah fighters who died in neighboring syria. the iran funded parties militias are revered by many shiites in lebannon. in syria the militias find alongside the troops of president bashar al assad and ally of iran. has under its secretary general has is not only a military organization but also an influential political force it's represented in the lebanese parliament alongside with other muslim and christian parties and it's part of the national unity government shiite and sunni muslims and christians are sharing power there lebanon is a diverse country almost twenty religious communities live here but hezbollah's involvement in the war in syria is creating tension between them it undermines

lebanon's policy of not interfering in other countries it's a principle all parties agreed to the objective was avoiding entanglement with the region's interest groups this country of four million has taken in some one and a half million syrian refugees since then poverty and unemployment have risen sharply and growth has fallen to one percent from eight percent before the syrian war in addition there are the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled the palestinian territories decades ago lebanon is formally at war with israel beirut demands the establishment of a palestinian state and the return of refugees as conditions for a peace agreement lebanon maintains close relations with israel's main critic iran mainly through hezbollah the shiite group is predicted to make gains in the election but western backed prime minister saad hariri is widely expected to head the next cabinet. whatever the outcome of the vote parliamentary seat and key

political offices will continue to be divided proportionally among religious groups . let's go to our correspondent on child bora who has phoned the story for us from beirut. elections are currently underway but what about the current prime minister saad hariri will these elections confirm the status quo or has he lost the confidence of his supporters. but right now i am in the district where. the candidates fighting the root one of the districts and salaries popularity has impacted the last years episode when he resigned from riyadh but when you get to the resignation nonetheless the lebanese saudis for that episode are not saddam and his popularity has written has risen have a good party having said that how well the spot do you view to movement how well the party is a big question mark because from the sunni elites several other candidates have now

stood up in these elections in the sunni dominated tripoli but even here in beirut so it remains to be seen how the saudis will respond to the rise of other sunni strong sunni candidates in lebanon so he's popular but he's facing some pretty tough competition and these are the first election since two thousand and nine can you walk us through the issues that are concerning voters in the country. where the bigger issue here really is the sectarian divide in foreign meddling but i very civic level garbage prices electricity water prices now with a million syrians on the ground palestinians have already been living for decades in camps so there is a quite a burden on the civic facilities so lebanese if you talk to would say well look i want to check your city i want the garbage crisis to be resolved but broadly they say it cannot be done as long as problem is divided on religious lines and there is foreign meddling in our country and that is that iran and saudi arabia really come

into the civic problems are linked to the foreign policy to the fact that lebanon a tiny country is essentially a very important tiny country when it comes to the broader conflict in the middle east so you see that outside influence is affecting the country but can you tell us how much influence do international powers hold over these elections well immense how many ayatollah home how many the spiritual leader some would say off iraq has come out in the open and back to his allies and his already has deep alliances with the christians here so in a sense i want all the walks that. its allies will get i'm not late for the wards saudi backed candidates heavy gets is going to be split in these elections so it's expected that they will do better which means you know i'm going on a stronger world which then means saudis will do something what they have moved to at this point is not known there is foreign influence often from election experts

who hear how different a countries like saudi arabia need on fund different political parties how there is no proof set so the elections are very important and we now need to wait and see which side will be havea when the results tomorrow come out and depending on that how long it takes after the elections from government formation in lebanon. bora or purporting from beirut thank you. now here are some other stories making news around the world an explosion at a mosque in afghanistan has killed at least ten people and wounded many more victims of the blast had gathered for afternoon prayer in the eastern province of khost local police have the mosque doubled as a voter registration center for elections set for this year. iran's president hassan rouhani has issued a warning to u.s. president donald trump against pulling out of the red nuclear deal honey said abandoning the deal would be her historic mistake but the plans are in place for

the collapse trump is due to decide on the deals fate by may twelfth four turkish opposition parties have sealed and look toward alliance aimed at challenging president birchip type are the ones ruling party he called a snap general election for late next month the opposition alliance says it's seeking a return to freedom of speech and the press and an independent judiciary. to bundesliga football now and i'm joined by tom de noise from our sports desk to talk us through the penultimate set of fixtures tom welcome it was a big day on saturday wasn't it and he was now as always. on the penultimate on the far too much to have the bundesliga season or of the games kickoff or three for you know saturday afternoon so it's always a really exciting and dramatic couple of hours. have had a brilliant season and they had a very big chance to guarantee their second place finish in the table away from home yesterday out book so let's start off by see how they go on.

i shall because youngest of a coach tony cottee tesco has turned back the clock on his side's fortunes this season the royal blues on the verge of their highest league finish in eight years. but they were uncharacteristically sloppy at the start of this one almost gifting hour fifteen bogus and an early goal the icelandic strike aired tonight by the narrowest of margins. just as our expects defense fell asleep. as cross comes short was flicked in by two low camera the defender left on martin oceans of space to back his second goal of the season. i tiredness was clearly infectious chalco were at game court napping and this time

they were punished by the quick thinking phillip max. but parity lasted just seven minutes in bogus and the unfortunate man this carries had a rebounded off his style and into the net. and that was it for the goals in marker rishta here were denied a second equaliser by the assistant referees flag. it looked to be the right decision i shall correlators that from the back right now they held on to victory sealing second place and a spot in next season's champions league i'm happy for for defense for the support us and i'm very happy for the for the team for each single player so with him it's a lot for us today shall car on the up and finishing above try both dortmund's i. soton shock i had a disastrous season last term but i seem to have bounced back and a lot of people are crediting their young and seemingly inexperienced manager can

you tell us a bit about that well it's dominica to discover you has done a really fantastic job he does deserve a lot of the credit now it's becoming actually something of a trend in german football to employ young fairly inexperienced very green managers the first was really union hoffenheim last season who carried them back into the champions that will into the champions league for the first time ever actually great success. and has done the same thing it's. they finished tenth last season which is why below where they really see themselves and to have brought them back to second inside one campaign is a brilliant success they're back in the champions league for the first time in three years and as we heard in the report they finished above their local rivals bruce you don't know anybody who can do that shocker as deliver something that the fans really like and it's no wonder that he's so popular well something really powerful and special so we've talked about the top of the table but tell us about what's going on at the bottom half of the table yet ok so. all the teams were

actually yesterday. spoke on friday last so that means that they're relegation fears have not yet been laid but another club who is also improving the relegation battle is mines and they want to play away at bruce you don't know which is a very difficult difficult place to go but if they won then they could secure their safety for the bundesliga next season so let's see how they do it. some don't and fans look like they already had their minds on the beach but for the most part the yellow wall was as imposing as ever was france and minds think alike to gloss time out meant they could secure their safety with a win at signal iduna park and after just three minutes they took the lead. scored on his debut last weekend and the midfielder repeated the trick here to make it one nil. the twenty year old clearly delighted to be his hometown club spirit again. and pay to his day got even worse just nine minutes later when the public at last he sent in a teasing cross and yoshinori muchos glancing header found the corner of the net

the japanese striker putting another season of top flight football within might seize reach. but they weren't home and dry yet jaden century treats his way past daniel brzezinski and cross for maximillian philip who half the deficit to one with just fifteen minutes on the clock. that was enough excitement for meit's they shut up shop and reached halftime with their lead intact after the break their doggy defense kept dortmund's attack at bay one final chance did come the home science why in the ninetieth minute but muscles from ounces had a was gobbled up by four here. and with that mike says bundesliga status was safe shots and his team have rescued themselves with two huge wins in two weeks a tenth straight season in the top flight awaits. so tom mines are safe what if they don't differently though from other teams they're also in trouble well most recently and of course most importantly they've won games they took six

points from the last two games and they took them off very big opponents dortmund like i said no easy place to play that's a very big team and previously it was against rb like to show there's a very crucial points they didn't really have a right to win those games but they performed well on the day and they've earned their safety in terms of what they've done over the season. they stuck with him in fact he's also quite an experienced coach quite young came through the club . he used to coach the under twenty three side so he knows the club well but he never coached a professional been as the good say before so kind of similar in fact to today and i was going to dominica to desk. i guess employing a young inexperienced coach is coming into fashion and it certainly seems to be they're bringing the results i guess the right answer and as long as they're winning why not release action so we're actually heading towards into a really exciting last day of the season can you walk us through that a bit well there's

a lot of stuff still up in the air if we look at the table then we can see of course by munich and shout they have guaranteed their champions league qualification but for the remaining two places there are still four teams in contention dortmund off and i'm david q.'s and light city so probably going on there and in the bottom half of the table of course the validation places are still to be as they were to be handed out so next week is definitely going to be an exciting one. oh sure look out for it tom benoit thanks very much. and a reminder of the top stories we're following for you. let these voters go to the polls thanks for. every journey begins with the first step and every language the first word look beneath. rico is in germany to learn german why not learn to read them simple online on your mobile and free yourself from the w z e learning course legally speaking german meetings e. europe. what unites. what

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