this is live from berlin germany's president has given a television interview calling for a decisive rejection of religious intolerance. or responded to a recent spate of anti-semitic attacks by emphasizing that intolerance destroys this 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 and an unprecedented number of independent candidates are hoping to shake

up lebanon's political establishment under prime minister saad hariri. and president. kicks off his election campaign erwan 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 television interview german president. has called for increased vigilance in the country against anti-semitism this comes after a series of anti-semitic incidents including an attack on a man wearing a jewish skullcap on the streets of berlin and the country's largest music awards ceremony was also canceled recently after a controversy over a prize winning album with lyrics widely interpreted as anti-semitic.

steinmeier has been in office for just over a year and helps launch chancellor angela merkel's new grand coalition government in his t.v. interview he called for a more decisive rejection of anti-semitism. you wouldn't whether the jews christians or muslims were believers or nonbelievers whether they have lived here for years all of just arrived all want to make a home in germany in that movie possibly from to some ism spreads here because in the end it destroys that home for everyone and. steinmeier also delivered a putdown to the state premier of bavaria who recently instructed all but there in state offices to display a crucifix the president may be a committed christian but he clearly had little time for such a blurring of the line between church and state. if people don't go to church on sundays putting crucifixes in government offices isn't going to make them religious

. stand my own that democracy must be nurtured if it is to be preserved it's clear that the fight against populism is to be the theme of his second year in office. which is i believe the task of the federal president is to warn that as the world becomes more complex as these problems become more complex the answers can become more simple. the rule of law may operate in germany said steinmeyer but freedom and democracy are not guaranteed the ballot count is underway in lebanon after voting in parliamentary elections and 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 voters deeply frustrated. with had enough of clans that have ruled us for fifty years. tried with the old god but nothing's changed you will add up some of those yet to lebanon's old prime minister may well become its new one billionaire businessman i rarely heads up the coalition campaigning for votes from simians and moderates but he is under some pressure his 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's set to profit from electoral reform i thought but we're 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 that of syria and iraq a view to your. new non-denominational protest parties are hoping to challenge the political elite 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 show all the polls have now closed what are you hearing in terms of voter turnout. as of six pm the water time out was forty six percent in the last elections in two thousand and nine that would have done i'm sixty four percent what's happened this time around is that a few hours before the polls were supposed to close the political leadership of different political parties appealed to their waters to get to the voting sent us to the polling booth and vote in huge numbers why that happened because in a certain sunni dominated district the sunnis that dominate had voted oh 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 line 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 them are wanted playing on their minds are dominantly civic issues like office prices electricity prices and several other issues but they feel that it's not going as levanon continues to have into ferentz from recent problems 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 it would get a seat or a druze would get a seat or a person 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 that sound because the seed system 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 now just in the 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 militias say the bandits attacked residents of the village this is the latest in a growing number of incidents of rural violence across the country involving cattle theft robberies and kidnappings. pakistan's interior minister a sonic bomb has been shot in the arm in an apparent assassination attempt according to a police report seen by the whiter is news agency the man believed to have shot him is a twenty one year old follower of a new altro religious party security forces arrest of the suspect following the shooting. turkish president to want has launched his campaign for a snap general election which will be held at the end of june at a rally to want told supporters he would resist any attempt from domestic or

foreign actors to divide the country there is much on the line for everyone in the upcoming ballot winning it would see him secure sweeping new 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 unveiling of his party's election on may first thanks but tensions were high that he would announce a major new initiatives but he didn't was 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 on top of his border with syria there will be new offensives in the afternoon 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

in our frame are ready for new missions but the work up that of. the election would be a turning point for. even the 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 electro lives they say they're seeking a return to freedom of speech and 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 that ons promise not to continue with its nuclear program u.s. president donald trump has condemned the deal as flawed and has threatened to exit the accord when it comes up for renewal on may twelfth in tehran says it's

complying with the deal but not seeing the benefits speaking at a rally rouhani says he's ready for trump's decision and matter what it is. because if the u.s. to pull out of the nuclear deal they will soon realize that this decision will become a historic regret for them or you will. we tell the whole world america europe the east and the west we will not negotiate with anyone over our country's weapons and defense. mark we will build and stockpile weapons equipment and missiles as much as our country requires. in france a new campaign is encouraging more women to report their experiences of sexual harassment on public transport and in public spaces studies say nearly every woman

in the capital paris has experienced sexual harassment on the city's buses and trains to fight back against catcalling groping and pestering in public is now gathering speed. limit toll paris's subway is used every day by many women including a nice mulu but her sense of safety has changed since a series of unpleasant experiences with fellow male passengers says. they stood behind me and rubbed themselves against me and touched me it's happened three times it's disturbing and hard to deal with. and she's far from alone studies show that almost every parisian woman has had at least one experience of sexual assault on the city's buses and trains the shocking statistic that propelled into action she started a petition to create awareness of the issue it was signed by sixty thousand people yes i want everyone to realise that you can be sexually harassed at any time of day if the perpetrator can be anyone and it can happen to anyone. else just

now six months later both the paris transport authorities and politicians have also taken the problem seriously and are feeling to passengers not to trivialize sexual harassment victims and witnesses get in touch. the campaign encourages women to prevent their attackers from getting away with that and other passengers not to look away and he says no one helped her when she was being molested not even when she cried out. no one did anything they just looked away. it's not just on buses or trains either the walk home is every bit as risky for women that something pick on us plans to change the local politician wants night buses to drop women off between bus stops or even to bring them up to their front door. we want women to feel safer on their way home at night especially those who

work late at night and have to travel home to the suburbs. this new flexible service is being piloted on just a handful of bus lines. but what's clear is that the fight against sexual assault in paris is gathering speed and not a moment too soon for all these she's had enough of sexist comments and groping hands and is no longer prepared to be either a silent victim poor or a silent witness. to 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 of it's 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 this was his second race win in a row and sends them to the top of the standings. i

. was there watching to back at the top of the hour and you can always get all the latest on our website www dot com i'll be called often in berlin thanks for watching. the classic. going to curse. the foreseeable future and in this scheme. monsoon just the tropical first few. years assuming.