the battle for venezuela at this time on al jazeera. these explosions were not an act of war. these nuclear bombs were experiment was by the soviet union. to the kazakh people who lived in the vicinity the motives might be little difference rewind silent own news at this time on al-jazeera. i am. i have therefore come. to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect south africa's president jacob zuma reluctant lee steps down under intense pressure from his own party.

fully back to boyer watching al jazeera live from doha also coming up seventeen people killed in a shooting at a school in the us a former student who had been expelled is held by police. russia can push the regime to commit to seeking a real peace in syria the u.s. and russia again trade blame at the u.n. after the special envoy for syria says the violence is at its worst level for years and iran moves in on black market money traders as it's sinking carrying same fix more economic pain on the people. thank you for joining as jacob zuma has resigned as south africa's president heeding orders from his ruling party the african national congress his departure

ends almost nine years in power plagued by scandal tom de media has a report from china's speck. a reluctant announcement from an embattled president i have the four coming to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect. even though i disagree with the decision of of the leadership of my organization. i have always been a disciplined member of the. it came just hours before parliament was due to vote in a motion of no confidence against jacob zuma president's hand may have been forced but zuma says his party did not give reasons why he should resign that's despite being in broiled in scandal after scandal throughout his presidency including

accusations of corruption and a court ruling that he had broken his oath of office when he ignored the public protect his recommendation that he paid back some of the state money used to refurbish his private residence despite all the criticism against zuma the a.n.c. says the decision to recall him was a difficult one to make following zoomers resignation the ruling party saluted what it called his outstanding contribution and thanked him for the role he played in the a n c for many decades. earlier in the day the home of zoomers associates a family known as the gupta's was raided. five people have been arrested after an investigation revealed that millions of dollars of state funds was siphoned from a dairy farm project into businesses linked to the group does. next week the national prosecuting authority will decide if the corruption charges against zuma that were dropped in two thousand and nine will be reinstated and an inquiry into

the extent of external influence in seumas administration known as state capture is due to begin his removal as president may just be the beginning of zuma struggles for me to malaya al-jazeera johannesburg serial rama poster faces a range of difficulties as he assumes the president this presidency despised the despite the n.c.s. promises to build homes and improve basic services millions of people still live without electricity or water levels of violent crime remain among the highest in the world official figures put unemployment at twenty seven point seven percent but some believe the figure is even higher and south africa's second largest city cape town is running out of water ten b. surf a coup de is a researcher at the al-jazeera center for studies he says the n.c. wants to move on from a tainted presidency before elections i think sort of the polls of accordingly seem

. insistence of removing jacob zuma was clearly to try and have a smoother electoral period because jacob zuma would have indeed impacted on the ng see winning the next elections and twenty nineteen because he sat around it and suddenly by all of these people who bring against his reputation down and again the corruption charges that are hanging over his head so it was an agent issue for the a.n.c. to get rid of jacob zuma and if that i mean if this is the only hope actually they had to replace him with sort of oppose it because if zuma was going to take and see today to the election next year many people argue that and ain't seen might have is in the last elections in other world news seventeen people have been killed in the u.s. state of florida by a gunman opened fire at a high school it happened in parkland north of miami police say the suspect is

a former student who was expelled we'll have a live update from our reporter andy gallagher in park and very shortly but first mike hanna has this report. reports of gunfire will receive shortly before classes were dismissed for the day a code red alert was issued the school was locked down with many students still sheltering inside there are more than three thousand students registered at the school and the risk of operation was made more difficult by the vast size of the campus we have multiple casualties we've had approximately fourteen people transported to area hospitals with varying degrees of injuries there are multiple casualties aerial footage showed hundreds of students running from the area some of the injured being treated on the scene the suspect here we are in a maroon shirt was taken into custody. in this footage she's shown being placed on

a gurney he's been identified as a nineteen year old former student at the school the daily white house briefing was canceled because of the shooting and president trump took to twitter my prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible florida shooting he said no child teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an american school in washington the senator from the state which up until now was the scene of the deadliest school shooting five and a half years ago at sandy hook said yet again a very american tragedy had occurred the scorch of school shooting after school shooting it only happens here not because of coincidence not because of bad luck. but as a consequence of our inaction we are responsible

for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else before this day that already being five separate school attacks reported in this year alone a total of at least four students had been killed well over twenty injured and i was relieved parents are reunited with their children one stark fact remains the six and latest attack is likely to see reeves tragic numbers increase significantly . mike hanna al-jazeera washington let's get the latest now from andy gallagher who is in pocket and for us andy what's the latest shooter is in custody re understand what more do we know. well we're getting a clearer picture of what nicholas cruz the suspected shooter was doing and it seems like this was a very much

a premeditated attack we know that he set off the fire alarm inside the school to create chaos to get the children students out of the classrooms he walked in there with an assault rifle a gas mask and two smoke grenades and it's worth mentioning that this was a building that he knew well he knew where people would be he knew how to inflict the largest amount of damage his injuries are said to be not life threatening he is now. he is now cooperating with investigators but we still don't know what the motive is we know that he was expelled from the school some time ago the police say they're already looking at his social media accounts at things on the internet they say they're already finding disturbing pictures and disturbing messages so what is clear is that this young man the suspected shooter wanted to inflict as much damage as he did not the moment the death toll stands at seventeen and it's becoming an all too familiar picture of attacks on school seles about the reactions the

president has been speaking about this. i mean let's be fair here what you will hear from republicans is that people should pray and they will offer their condolences but when it comes to actual action to change gun laws in this country to prevent nineteen year olds getting hold of assault rifles when they clearly have some issues will not change it did not change after sandy hook five and a half years ago in which twenty children who were between the ages of six seven eight were killed it won't change now over the last fifteen years i've covered more mass shootings than i care to remember most of them the figure is way higher than this one and nothing changed then so the conversation will be had on the outskirts of politics but in reality will anything change highly unlikely the national rifle association remains a very powerful lobbying body that gives money to politicians a lot of people in this country think the second amendment which gives them the

right to bear arms should never be changed or even challenge to so the likelihood of anything changing even after something as tragic as this is extremely remote andy thank you very much for that andy gallagher life forests in parkland florida. the united nations envoy for syria has warned that violence in the war torn country is the worst seen since taking the job four years ago so find a mysterious briefing at the security council prompted more finger pointing between the u.s. and russia using each other rocking past of peace from the u.n. in new york diplomatic editor james space. the deteriorating military situation dominated a security council meeting that was both grim i've been now for years special envoy this as violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that i've seen in my time he mentioned all the nations now fighting in syria the turkish operation around. the assad government is continued

bombardment of an eastern ghouta civilians are being killed on a horrific scale and reports suggest more than one thousand see video and indeed first week of february alone he went on to describe developments in recent days the u.s. attack on assad forces near dera zoar and israeli air strikes in syria including on iranian targets but both these operations were later defended by the us ambassador to the united states will always reserve the right to act in self-defense. the assad regime has become a front for iran hezbollah and their allies to advance the irresponsible and dangerous agenda for the middle east outside the council chamber the french ambassador warned the situation in syria risks spiraling out of control all the

ingredients are present if we do nothing about it urgently for a major. regional and international confrontation the un's latest modest peace effort based on the outcome of a conference in the russian city of sochi seems now to be in doubt mr de mistura wants to select members of a new committee to come up with a new constitution for syria but president assad's ambassador at the u.n. rejected that one i'm not emotionally coffin madama i discipline of this conference did not grant any authority for mr de mistura to set up this community. afterwards i asked him for further clarification don't get lost into the little details there was not me or what we've constantly seen is the syrian government not being prepared to fully engage with your plans isn't it now time as yet again they seem to be not engaging peter call them out on their obstruction i'm

a diplomat and i'm up to thirty peter my job is not to call out anyway it's actually do make sure that we move forward in the hours before the security council meeting the first convoy was committed since november. every bit of help is obviously welcomed by a starving community but diplomats pointed to a familiar and somewhat cynical pattern by the syrian government it's only when it's in the international spotlight with a meeting like this with a small amount of aid is finally delivered james barry's out of his era of the united nations. egyptian police have arrested a prominent opposition figure accused of contacts with the outlawed muslim brotherhood group abdel moneim aboul fotouh was a presidential candidate in the twenty twelve elections he's a staunch critic of president abdel fatah and call for a boycott of next month's presidential vote a number of others who denounce their intention to run against sisi have either

been arrested or forced to withdraw including a former army chief only a little known only little known politicians are left in the race to challenge sisi . still ahead on al-jazeera zimbabwean opposition leader morgan dies leaving behind a bitterly divided political movement he found it and will tell you why israel detained more than thirty palestinians in raids across the occupied west bank and east shows. how low we got a good mobile phone i weather across north america at the moment i was a cloud megan away from west to a step further routes of cloud remaining as we go on through day member only one of the weight was struggling to get celsius in dallas much warmer twenty three degrees

and that was pushing up through d.c. twenty one so just fourteen celsius there for new york north of the border into kuwait back into ontario we have got some snow flurries some snow flurries to just around the mountain states around the northern plains and then just some wet weather into that southwestern corner south of the border into northern parts of mexico that cloud of rain that will make its way up towards the central plains as we go on through friday some other weather pushing over towards the northeast including new jersey new york maryland seeing some rather wet weather and that's case two into new england warmer though for us where temperatures getting up to one degree celsius should be largely dry laci try to into central parts of canada but some rain state the snow piling back into western canada and the phone pacific northwest of washington state not too much the way of any wet weather across the caribbean over the next few days there will be want to see showers around nicaragua around costa rica pushing up towards honduras elsewhere a sloshy fine and glorious sunshine kingston with a high of twenty nine. for

the congolese the journey to work at all or that means unimaginable hardship i prefer to live though because the only way to go back up into the chance of a life and live in a dangerous journey through the jungle i've gone on to the rail and nearly die. there are children of eight go to school and live because of the training risking it all the democratic republic of congo at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back a reminder our top stories on al-jazeera jacob zuma has resigned as south africa's president reluctant reheating orders from his ruling african national congress party he'll go with immediate effect ending nine years in power marked by scandal police in the u.s. state of florida have arrested a man after at least seventeen people were shot and killed at a high school in parkland north of miami officers have identified the suspect as nicholas schools an eighteen year old former student who was expelled and the u.n. special envoy for syria has warned that the violence in the water on country is the worst he's seen since taking the job four years ago savana mistura said he's received reports of up to one thousand civilians being killed in one week recently . as in bob ways political opposition has lost a towering figure with the death of morgan he founded the movement for democratic change and became a symbol of resistance against former president robert mugabe with whom he briefly shared power trying here i was being treated for colon cancer in neighboring south

africa. looks back at his life. to his supporters more good richard was a man who challenge zimbabwe's long time leader robert mugabe at a time when few people day to do so but it was a long and sometimes painful journey in one thousand nine hundred nineteen get i've been a trade union leader form the opposition party the movement for democratic change in the years that followed he organized protests to try and force mugabe out of office he was beaten while in police custody charged with treason jailed several times and labeled a chaytor by mugabe supporters. in the two thousand and eight presidential election he won the most votes but not enough to win outright. before a second round took place his supporters were targeted in a campaign of violence the opposition leader put out of the presidential race in protest regional leaders and the international community intervened after months of

negotiations saying that i was sworn in as prime minister in two thousand and nine it was a temporary power sharing government but mugabe was still the president. remembered fundamentally in the sense that he broke. into god this will include those in the eighty's when we got before the first term of this did last. the first president. in almost the majority. of the diligence in that is we've been done since then to doing. that. for years later another elections took place this time m.d.c. party lost by a huge margin his critics say that he had ignored the plight of the poor and got caught up in the trappings of wealth and power allegations of party infighting and corruption also tarnished his image some of his closest allies left accusing him of being a dictator. but in twenty seventeen the m.d.c.

alliance was formed those who had less hunger returned for me a coalition to challenge and grab at the polls. they were occasional anti-government protests zimbabwe's economy was on its knees there was a shortage of foreign currency and the government couldn't pay salaries on time the military intervened in a van by twenty seventeen and put mugabe and house arrest and zimbabweans from all political parties marched together in solidarity saying mcgovern must stick down eventually macgyver resigned and emerson when i was sworn in as president. despite having cancer tank i supporters insisted he was a place. candidates for the twenty eight thousand elections they were confident he could defeat at the polls but he never got that chance opposition supporters states that i will be remembered as a brave man a charismatic public speaker and a symbol of resistance. seventy six countries have promised to

provide money to help rebuild iraq following the defeat of ice all the pledges were made at a major summit in co weight but much of the cash will come in the form of loans which will need to be paid back and the figure falls well short of what iraq's government says it needs for some kuwait city feeling the heat of another day of waiting for the world to help aid agencies provide supplies and tents that have been in a camp in iraq but it's just survival they haven't been given enough to return to a normal life. is through other areas have been liberated but most people say they can't go back because their houses have been destroyed either by airstrikes or by isis. the iraqi government to has had a day of waiting for the world's help at the reconstruction conference in kuwait it didn't get all it needs either but it's still got significant money most of it in credit in loans. and. this huge gathering has produced commitments towards

reconstructing iraq amounting to turkey billion dollars that's far short of the one hundred billion dollars the prime minister says is needed to complete reconstruction but the president of iraq's reconstruction fun told me it's more than he expected. to be honest with you i mean if you ask me i was thinking this. it's unclear when that money will make a visible impact on iraq's wastelands nevertheless it was a case of a glass half full for iraq's foreign minister. the amount which was committed with a grants or loans doesn't meet our needs but thirty billion dollars is not a small sum in today's world. in fact it's a lot of money for these people and most of. their street needs running water their homes and businesses lie in the rubble of despair. we hope the corporates will pay the people who everyone is rebuilding their shops with their own money no one has

received anything from the government international figures called the fund raising in quite impressive impressive for these people is when their markets peddle more than losses. to get the wheels rolling on reconstruction the country faces the challenge of maintaining security is also the merry go round of corruption to overcome with all the money pledged actually come through in two thousand and three thirty three billion dollars was promised to iraq at the madrid donor's conference but a year later they had to have a follow up meeting in tokyo because only a fraction of the money had actually come through the quite conference is open the door to the winds of change for iraq the government must now show that this chance won't be squandered by another gust of turbulence sam you say that al-jazeera kuwait. the taliban has published an open letter to the u.s.

calling for an end to the seventeen year war in afghanistan through peaceful dialogue the three thousand word letter was addressed to the american people n.g.o.s and peace loving congressman the taliban repeated a longstanding offer of direct talks with the u.s. but it reminded americans that afghanistan is a country as long as sever conflict involved to continue its armed campaign the letter also promised a more inclusive regime as well as granting more rights for women but it seemed to rule out sharing power while the u.s. has expanded its campaign in afghanistan recently showing videos of strikes against taliban targets the state department said it will consider the taliban is serious about peace when it's willing to speak with the elected government of afghanistan it also said the group's recent attacks in kabul speak louder than words allies of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu have been offering their support after police recommended he be indicted on corruption charges that's now is accused of

accepting nearly three hundred thousand dollars in gifts and is suspected of backroom deals with the publisher of an israeli newspaper in return for favorable coverage he denies the allegations and backers say they'll stand by him pending a decision on the indictments from the attorney general an explosion has killed four people at qana vaults gracious celebrations in bolivia the bomb went off in the city of a rule the president the capital of president ever moralists home province police say it appeared to be a homemade device but haven't said who might have been behind the attack eight people were killed in another explosion on saturday night just two blocks from this latest blast. police in iran have arrested dozens of unlicensed money trade as as concern grows about the falling value of the even the president is under pressure to stop the currency slide against the dollar which business people say is doing serious harm to the economy. reports from tehran every morning iranians wake up to

find the money in their pockets is worth less than when they went to bed that's because the iranian ryall has been on a downward spiral for years. iranian see the u.s. exchange rate as an indicator of the country's economic climate for many small businesses the forecast is not good. the price of a dollar directly impacts our business it's been thirty percent more expensive in the past two months so everything we buy costs is thirty percent more. for only telephony higher costs equal higher prices that means fewer customers for his handbag business chief you can watch especially given your cloudy what's clear even by previous presidents is that they could do nothing with suffering from bankruptcy economic enterprises up banks bankrupted we cannot do anything and seeing the exchange rate will go up even more. iranian leaders say the problem is temporary but people remain unconvinced president hassan rouhani said ministration is under

pressure to be seen doing something about the falling value of the iranian riyadh on wednesday police arrested dozens of black market currency traders in downtown tehran. these men make up an informal currency trading floor that operates on to her own streets normally the police ignore them but recent rate hikes prompted this crackdown on irregular money trade while the power move like this may be a good way to respond to public criticism experts say it isn't enough to stabilize the value of iran's money. as an economist and says the most recent volatility is down to one person u.s. president donald trump. and i'm predictable event happened that was shocking even for america when the trumpet ministration took office all the equations changed trumps threat to pull out of the nuclear deal and oppose new sanctions on iran has put off. especially in the united states the world's biggest economy.

if we assume that there are no sanctions and iran enjoyed normal relations with other countries and banks could operate normally the government could easily stabilize the foreign exchange. while trump won't be president iranians are losing patience with their own president and the ever declining value of their own currency. shia muslim protesters in bahrain have fought with police while marking the seventh anniversary of a failed uprising security forces fired tear gas in a number of villages while reinforcements were deployed to stop protesters blocking main roads the country has the shia majority but the ruling monarchy is sunni since the demonstrations first broke out hundreds of people have been stripped of their citizenship. they had of northern ireland's largest pro british unionist party says there's no prospect of restoring devolved government instead democratic unionist

party leader arlene foster call for london to take back financial control from the belfast administration the region which is part of the united kingdom has been without a devolved government for over a year the irish republican party sheen fane withdrew from a power sharing government with the over a financial scandal talks have since founded over demands by shin fein for legislation to give official status to the irish language. international aid has begun arriving in parts of tongo that were hit by psycho on monday military aircraft from all from australia and new zealand have flown in emergency supplies to the pacific nation the cycle in which has caused widespread structural structural damage is one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the island it's. now again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera jacob zuma has

resigned as south africa's president reluctantly heeding orders from his party the a.n.c. has gone with immediate effect ending almost nine years in power frequently mocked by scandal the ruling a.n.c. told him to quit or face moves in parliament to force him out at least seventeen people have been killed in the us after a gunman opened fire at a high school in florida it happened in particular and which is north of miami a suspect has been arrested he's believed to be a former student who was expelled. nicholas i think that was close remember i k oh yes she. was the killer or he's in custody and we've already begin to begin to dissect his websites and things that social media that he was on and some of the things that come to mind are very very disturbing the u.n. special envoy to syria has warned that the violence in the war torn country is the worst he's seen since taking the job four years ago stefan de mistura said he's

received reports of up to one thousand civilians being killed in one week recently but he's in egypt have arrested a prominent opposition figure for alleged contact with the outlawed muslim brotherhood group abdel moneim aboul fotouh was a presidential candidate in the twenty two of the elections he's a staunch critic of president abdel fatah sisi and call for a boycott of next month's election others who announced their intention to contest again sisi were either arrested or forced to withdraw including a former army chief zimbabwe's political opposition has lost a towering figure with the death of morgan the founder of the movement for democratic change was being treated for colon cancer in neighboring south africa he was sixty five and at least thirty billion dollars have been pledged to help rebuild iraq after the defeat of eisold there seventy six countries promised money at a summit in kuwait but mainly in the form of loans which will need to be paid back

the money folds well short of what iraq's government says it needs you're up to date with the headlines on al-jazeera the news continues right after risking it all to stay with us. all the benefit of saddam people so bad they see the importance of cards witness documentaries about open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera.