you'll recall that the entire country champion. for the last sixty. four mons. news live from berlin germany the president has given a major interview speaking out against religious intolerance. responded to a recent spate of anti semitic attacks by emphasizing that intolerance destroys the sense of home for all who want to make a life in germany also coming up. votes are being counted in lebanon after the

first parliamentary election in nearly a decade an unprecedented number of independent candidates are hoping to shake up political establishment under prime minister hariri. and turkey's president. kicks off his election campaign called for an early vote to go ahead next month and now faces a credible threat to his power from an opposition alliance. and welcome to the program and a high profile televised interview german president frank walter steinmeier has spoken out strongly against religious intolerance in the country after a series of anti-semitic attacks in recent weeks he also criticize. a new ordinance

in the southern state of bavaria which requires crosses to be displayed in all state government buildings the new law has caused an uproar that all with some catholic officials arguing it politicizes a sacred christian symbol of the various state premier marcus has rekindled a dispute about religion and patriotism by requiring the various state premises to display the christian crucifix as president of the federal republic frank was that doesn't get involved in day to day politics but as a committed christian he believes religion and its symbols are a matter for the church not the state. that if people don't go to church on sundays putting crucifixes in government offices isn't going to make them religious that. man has been in office for just over a year and helped launch chancellor angela merkel's new grand coalition government in the interview he said the challenge is in german politics where equalizing the standards of living in town and country immigration and integration he also

demanded a decisive rejection of anti-semitism. you wouldn't know the jews christians or muslims whether believers or nonbelievers whether they've lived here for years all who just arrived they all want to make a home in germany that will be possibly fun to summits and spreads in germany because in the end it destroys that home for everyone. and. that democracy must be nurtured if it is to be preserved it's clear that to fight against populism is to be the theme of his second year in office. i believe the task of the federal president just to warm up as the world becomes more complex as its problems become more complex the answers can become more simple and. the rule of law operate in germany said steinmeyer but freedom and democracy are not guaranteed. the ballot count is underway in lebanon after a voting in parliamentary elections ended a few hours ago it's the first election held under

a new law meant to give smaller parties a chance but observers expect the race to come down to the western backed prime minister saad hariri and the iran backed militant group hezbollah. lining up to elect a new parliament for the first time in nine years the war in neighboring syria security concerns and disagreements between rival parliamentary blocs delayed this vote until now many vote is deeply frustrated. with had enough of clams that have ruled us for fifty years. with the old gold but nothing's changed you will add up some of those yet not an ins old prime minister may well become its new one billionaire businessman i really heads up the coalition campaigning for the it's from simians and moderates but he is under some pressure these companies are foundering and many resent his cooperation with hezbollah. the

radical shiite group has pointed to its military successes in syria in an effort to secure more votes it set to profit from electoral reform. but we are going through difficult times military success and hezbollah are particularly needed without hezbollah we also have terrorists in this country and every few g. crisis similar to dance of syria and iraq a view to your. new non-denominational protest parties are hoping to challenge the political elites in this election but that chance is a slim due to high electoral thresholds and old political alliances. let's go to our correspondent who is following the story for us in beirut and shell the polls have now closed what are you hearing in terms of voter turnout. as of six pm the water time on it was forty six percent in the last elections in two thousand and nine the water time i'm sixty four percent what's happened this time around is

that a few hours before the polls were supposed to close political leadership of different political parties appealed to their waters to get to the team sent us to the polling booth and vote in huge numbers why that happened because in a certain sunni dominated districts the sunnis that dominate had voted no i beg your pardon so the shias lost their will just to go and the christian parties did the same so in a way in the towards the end the political parties have asked their voters to go ahead and cost their ballots in huge numbers and we've also seen some minor skirmishes between the supporters of hizbollah and the supporters of saddam heavy these future moment now as you mentioned these are the first election since two thousand and one that's a lot has changed in the last nine years what are some of the domestic issues that are on the minds of voters. well this is actually the first election for this generation the two thousand and nine elections you had voters who had witnessed the civil war and they had a very different bent of mind at that stage but this time around you have hundreds

and thousands of first time voters it is not yet known how many of their water playing on their minds are dominantly civic issues like garbage prices electricity prices and several other issues but they feel it has not been as levanon continues to have into ferentz from recent powers like saudi arabia and iran the country cannot move forward and that is because of the sectarian divide in the country hizbollah and its allies the christians and so needs you mentioned the sectarian divide the country has a new electoral law based on proportional representation how could this impact the outcome of the vote. well essentially how this would impact the outcome of the walk is that in a sunni dominated area perhaps she would get a seat or a druze would get a seat an officer would get a seat and wiser but broadly it's not expected to impact the elections as far as the sectarian politics in the countries concerned because the seeds are still designed for sectarian candidates essentially means that your walks will not be

forgotten if the list that you watch it fall has got a minimum number of seats so you will see some surprises but not too many because the established political parties have done this it didn't match pretty well this time we do have civil society candidates but it remains to be seen how they perform . reporting from beirut thank you very much absolutely other stories making news around the world forty five people have reportedly died in fighting between armed bandits and local militia in northern nigeria state civilian militia say the bandits attacked residents of a village this is the latest in a growing number of incidents of rural violence across the country involving cattle fast and robberies and kidnappings. pakistan's interior minister a ball has been shot in the arm in an apparent assassination attempt according to a police report seen by the reuters news agency the man believed to have shot him

is a twenty one year old follower of a new alter will lead just party security forces arrest of the suspect following the shooting. tunisians have voted in their first local elections since the two thousand and eleven arab spring revolution this is seen as a crucial step toward consolidating to museums democracy but turnout was low especially amongst the youth who drove the twenty eleven op rising but are displeased about ongoing high employment and low economic growth. tippers president. has launched his campaign for a snap general election which will be held at the end of june at a rally air to want told supporters he would resist any attempt from domestic or foreign actors to divide the country and promise to make turkey stronger there's much on the line for air to want in the upcoming ballot winning it would see him securing new sweeping presidential powers that were narrowly approved just last

year. oh president one is well known for his all singing all dancing rallies tens of thousands attended the wedding of his party's election manifesto thanks protections were high that he would announce a major new initiatives but he didn't with seven weeks still to go to polling day this time yet for campaign promises he did pledge more investment economic growth and a commitment to democracy and he vowed that there will be no letup in operations against what he calls terrorists some targets border with syria there will be new offensives in the african region of syria after the election we will not give up on constricting terrorist organizations we shatter the terror corridor are being formed on our southern border with these operations our soldiers who wrote an epic enough rain are ready for new missions the work up that of those. of the election would be a turning point for turkey even opposition parties agree about that they just don't see it as positively as he does if he wins another one will bring in constitutional

changes that will give him even more power as president for opposition politics hope to prevent that by forming an electoral lawrence they say they're seeking a return to freedom of speech in the press on an independent judiciary so far seems to be making all the running but seven weeks is a long time in politics. iranian president hassan rouhani says if the united states pulls out of the nuclear deal it would be a terrible mistake the two thousand and fifteen agreement lifted sanctions against iran in return for tehran's promise not to continue with its nuclear program u.s. president doll trump has condemned the deal as flawed and as threaten to exit the accord when it comes up for renewal on may twelfth and tehran says it's engel complying with the deal but not seeing the benefits speaking at a rally rouhani says he's ready for trump's decision no matter what it is. oh

if the u.s. opts to pull out of the nuclear deal they will soon realize that this decision will become a historic regret for them so you will. tell the whole world america europe the east and the west we will not negotiate with anyone over our country's weapons and defense. your own. lives. more honorably we will build and stockpile weapons equipment and missiles as much as our country requires. these stars seem. in slovakia instead of celebrating i'm a wedding friends and family are mourning murdered journalist young coot siac and his fiance martina. could siac had been investigating high level corruption in the country there are still unsolved murders in february have led to mass protests which triggered the resignation of the prime minister amid demands to battle

corruption and protect press freedom it should have been one of the happiest days of their lives but in place of their wedding friends and family are honoring the murdered journalist ian could see a contains fiance martina with a memorial concert. is where we can accomplish that and the investigation again and amount to mass murder as well as causes of corruption can be investigated it's not known who shot could siak and his fiance at close range in late february but when he died the journalist had been working on an article about alleged connections between leading slovak politicians and the italian mafia the massacres that the in the article could siac named people and companies we have checked all the names and connected them to seventy criminal cases we're looking into possible links. prime minister little benefit so has resigned but behind the

scenes many believe he's still pulling the strings that's prompted tens of thousands of people to protest. slovaks are furious there have been recent nations but not enough. above all corruption must stop we need more public scrutiny. that seems unlikely in light of the latest development the country's public broadcaster recently fired several journalists they'd signed an open letter against corruption in the media. sports now moto g.p. defending champion mark marquez delighted the home fans by winning the spanish grand prix on sunday but he had a little help from his title rivals three of them including championship leader and brad also collided with eight laps to go all three were forced to exit the race that left marquez out on his own for an easy victory it was a second race one in

a row and it sends him to the top of the standings. you're watching did all the news look back at the top of the hour with all the latest and you can get all the latest anytime on our website that's d.w.p. dot com and i'll be called often in berlin thanks for joining us. on freedom and poll. where i come from the region is rich in history. but so poor and education opportunity and freedom this makes it special difficult for independent journalists i see many of the younger promising.