welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: at least 17 people are shot dead at a high school in florida. it's over for south africa's embattled president, jacob zuma, who says he will resign. police say at least 17 people have been killed in a school shooting in florida with many others injured. a 19—year—old is in custody. he's believed to be a former student. bill hayton has the latest running for their lives.

students flee classrooms in panic. inside the 3—storey building, hundreds of others lay hiding from a gunman on the loose. as they streamed out of school, some were still clutching their valentine's day balloons. kids were freaking out. many were on their phones snapchatting thinking it was a joke. you hear about this all the time but you never expect it to happen right here. everyone knows around here is a safe place and you don't expect this to happen here. but when it happens, you're just taken aback. dozens of police cars sped to the scene. pa ramilita ry units moved in to confront the shooter. they carried out a wounded student, improvising emergency transport, and a street corner became an emergency room. the more badly injured were stretchered away, and then, a suspect,

handcuffed by police on the roadside. he was taken into custody one hour after he left stoneman douglas, after he committed this horrific, homicidal, detestable act. he's been identified as a former student, nikolas cruz, apparently expelled for disciplinary reasons, and with a social media profile showing an obsession with guns and violence. school authorities said they had no warning. our hearts go out to the families of this entire community. as relatives wept and grieved, some reflected on a wider social

problems. this is the 18th school shooting in the us this year. that is on average shooting in the us this year. that is on average one every shooting in the us this year. that is on average one every three days. bill hayton, bbc news. on the line is steven osher. he's a teacher at stoneman douglas high school where the shooting took place. thank you so much for talking to us. i know you have had an unimaginable day. as you know, the primary objective when we have an incident is to get students out of harm's way. we pull them in to wherever we can and lockdown to make sure that they are safe. it has been a gruelling day. we were in lockdown for a couple of hours. we did not know what was going on. we did hear sirens. and eventually we were freed by swat teams for processing at a

local hotel where we were asked questions, to we see anything, do we know anything? —— did we see anything. in the morning we had a fire drill. it is interesting. we had a fire drill towards the end of the day and we knew what to do. we grabbed everything. there was an announcement to evacuate. but 30 seconds later, while we were outside, we heard shouts, "code red, code red!" that means lockdown. we had to run into the nearest rooms and make children safe. that is as much as i know. the students you have been debriefing tonight, what

did they tell you? the children were gathering around their phones, they are into social media, and i saw a clip of what was going on inside the classroom. it was a short clip. i told the officers yes, we know, and we are trying to get as much information as we can about the incident. this is from hearsay. they said they knew about the student, he was a bit weird, a dropout. and some of the students even used his name. they said i knew that guy. did you know him? if you did not know him, what are you hearing about him? we have been told he was flagged as a campus threat, that staff were warned to look out for him, that he had a motive to harm students. he was not allowed to be back on the

site with a backpack. what do you make of that? i do not know about that. the students i was with at the time told me they knew of him. we we re time told me they knew of him. we were watching it being streamed live through our cellphones. and when they said that they had a suspect and one of the students said i know who that is and so forth, well... i never knew about him. i knew he was a dropout, and i knew there was a warning out there about a threat to students, with him coming on campus, and so on. for you and for so many other people, thank you so much for giving your time. my condolences go to those who have gone through this. absolutely. thank you. 0n the line is todd deangelis, spokesman for the city of parkland, where the shooting took place. thank you for coming in through to

us. thank you for coming in through to us. what is the latest on this? well, of course, our thoughts are with the victims and their families. sadly, the broward sheriff's office has confirmed i7 fatalities. we are still trying to wrap our heads around it. it is a tightknit community. this might change that. in fact, i think this will ultimately reinforce it. you will know the figures. i think this is the 18th shooting in the us this year on or the 18th shooting in the us this year on oi’ around the 18th shooting in the us this year on or around school premises. that is about one a week. we are already hearing those words, "thoughts and prayers," from lawmakers. many, it has to be said,

are taking contributions from the national rifle association. what are you hearing? what we want to hear is what we are hearing, an outpouring of support for parkland. as i said, this is a tightknit and special community. it appears many others feel the same way. they reached out to us and offered support and a lot of compassion. we are grateful for that. this scenario is still unfolding in our minds. we are trying to come to grips with it. there will be counselling tomorrow and the next day and probably well after that. we may never be the same. but we are a strong and proud community and we will get through this. it must concern you that this appears to have been a guide who was flagged as a campus threat, that he was not supposed to be on the site

with a backpack. —— guy. he did, and he did this. as far as that, i will leave those analyses to law enforcement. we are proud of the browa rd enforcement. we are proud of the broward sheriff's office which responded very quickly, and of course, the parkland fire department. as far as the assessment to which you are referring, i will leave it to the law enforcement to see if lessons can be learned is quite we are hearing, if you can confirm, i7 quite we are hearing, if you can confirm, 17 have been killed. —— learned. and two are in a critical condition? the sheriff was confirming i7 fatalities. in terms of how many are injured, i do not

have that number as yet. all right, thank you so much for talking to us. and now we will go straightaway to david willis in washington, a bbc correspondent. jon sopel was saying that we were not expecting to see tighter gun control from donald trump, and he has not said it. that is true. donald trump did tweet today. he said no child, teacher, or anyone, should ever feel unsafe in said no child, teacher, or anyone, should everfeel unsafe in an american school. but if you think that that is going to provoke any sort of debate about gun control in this country, i think you will be disappointed. the sandy hook massacre, in which 21 young children we re massacre, in which 21 young children were gunned to death in their classroom, it failed completely to turn the dial as far as this whole debate is concerned. if that did not do anything, well, then, what we'll?

we had one congressman today, a democratic congas man, jim hynes, who said simply this country belongs to the nra, the national rifle association, one of the most powerful groups in the usa. you will be used to dealing with people from outside the usa saying surely the polls suggest americans as a population overwhelmingly support background checks, closing loopholes, and yet it seems congress and the white house just do not. absolutely. it is interesting. barack 0bama absolutely. it is interesting. ba rack 0bama interviewed absolutely. it is interesting. barack 0bama interviewed not long before his term in office came to an end. he said that one of his main regrets was not being able to do more to clamp down on this issue of guns and the restoration of guns. it is really extraordinary. ——

proliferation of guns. hundreds of millions of guns exist in this country. we have heard there is roughly one school shooting in this country every single week. so, despite all that people may say, there really is not the will, especially on the part of the politicians, it would seem like, to actually closed very many loopholes. —— close. someone else is saying the social media thoughts and prayers, sadness, silence, and absolutely nothing. absolutely. iwill sadness, silence, and absolutely nothing. absolutely. i will point out one thing which is emerging. that is to do with the detail surrounding the horrific incident today. that is apparently a lot of the pupils at this school were adhering to a fire alarm which had gone off. they thought it was just a drill so they were basically leaving the school in quite a composed manner. and that is when the

shooting started. now, that is speculation at this time, but it appears the gunman, nikolas cruz, he may have attempted to set off this fire alarm deliberately in order to drive people into his path. there we re drive people into his path. there were reports they had training for this kind of incident, and active shooter, about six weeks ago. thank you so much for that. —— an active shooter. thank you for being with us. shooter. thank you for being with us. much more to come. we will look at the life and times of morgan tsvangirai, a former prime minister in africa who is dying of cancer. —— who has died of cancer. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the final soviet troops were going home, their withdrawal in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered, and that has a terrible effect on the morality of the people.

i'm terrified of the repercussions on the streets. one wonders who is next. as the airlift got under way, there was no letup in the eruption itself. lava streams from an event low in the crater slow down into the sea east of the island, away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they've called it mir, the russian for peace. is good will at least 17 people have been killed and at least 20 people were injured after a shooter opened fire in a florida high school. the gunman is now in custody and has been identified as a former student.

jacob zuma said he will sign. following corruption allegations. 0n the line is david 0valle, a journalist with the miami herald — he's been covering the story. phone you are very busy, i be looking at your twitter feed. what is the latest from you? the police detectives are still trying to piece together exactly what happened. you can imagine it was a huge crime scene that is going to take days to process. an expected shooter by the name of nicolas cruz is being questioned. he will most likely be

booked into state courtjailed to be charged with murder. they are trying to identify all of the dead. they think they have identified 12 of the 17 people. now, the main question is, why. what is known about the suspected shooter? we know he had never been arrested before but there was a lot of troubling things in his past. 0ne was a lot of troubling things in his past. one source tell us he was in foster ca re. past. one source tell us he was in foster care. he had been expelled from school because of disciplinary reasons. he was suspended forgetting in fights. he was assessed with guns and knives. it's you ever talk about. one classmate they

interviewed told me he talked about shooting rats with bb guns. he was alone a kid, but obsessed with weapons. what have you been hearing from other students in the school? they have had the most terrible day, obviously. you can imagine this is something that is terrifying. everyone is affected. these are young kids who are going to have to deal with this trauma prolonged time. it is still unbelievable for people here in the newsroom. it is going to be a story that will continue to percolate for a long time. quite apart from the terror of having to be barricaded in, getting back into classrooms, some of them, and finding bodies. in fact, wejust saw some footage. some of the

terrifying scenes in the immediate aftermath. police taking wounded stu d e nts aftermath. police taking wounded students out. ferrying them to hospitals. imagine these students, try to deal with this. it's going to be very tough for them. we can't confirm that this story has been running. some very fine behaviour. 0ne running. some very fine behaviour. one man, a football coach, he is a security guard, who jumped one man, a football coach, he is a security guard, whojumped in one man, a football coach, he is a security guard, who jumped in front of some students and took some bullets. i have been so obsessed with the shooter that i haven't been able to read much of anything else that has been going on. i did see the headlines. i had been hyper focused on this young man. it seems the suspect was able to buy an assault rifle and according to the sheriff, countless magazines of ammunition. there was nothing

preventing him. he had no arrest record. he didn't have a felony. he couldn't have legally owned a weapon. not that he couldn't have gotten one illegally. anyone could gotten one illegally. anyone could go and get a weapon. there is nothing that prevents you from being to buy —— being able to buy the weapon used. we should just repeat, much more in your pieces for the miami herald and on your twitter feed. thank you very much. it's been a torrid few weeks for south africa's politicians. but they appear to have finally forced jacob zuma to resign as president. he's stood down with immediate effect after mounting pressure from his party the anc to go. he faced persistent allegations of corruption and will now be formally succeeded by cyril ramaphosa, the new leader of the anc. 0ur africa editor fergal keane has more. the moment of decision came late when the former guerrilla fighter at least recognised

he could not win. president jacob zuma addressed the south african nation and faced reality. i was just yards from him when he said the decisive words. the anc should never be divided in my name. i have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect. and, with that statement, jacob zuma has brought to an end the most controversial period in the history of post—apartheid south africa. history, happening in a late—night statement, after a day in which it seemed he might still fight on. in pretoria, the seat of the presidency, rumours of an imminent resignation had rippled all afternoon. yet when he made his first appearance of the day on state

television, he was defiant and defensive. zuma the victim. what have i done? i have explained many times that this process... there's nothing i've done wrong. this is policy. what people are suggesting, this is a new phenomenon. what is the problem? at the same time, in cape town, anc mps were meeting to decide whether they would support a motion of no—confidence to drive jacob zuma from power. the decision came quickly and was decisive. we are now proceeding with, as the chief whip, to proceed with a motion of no—confidence tomorrow so that president zuma is removed so that we can proceed to elect president ramaphosa. a populist, a crowd—pleaser, he appealed to the anc grassroots, and with their backing, he became party leader in 2009, even though he already faced serious corruption charges. i interviewed him just

as he was about to become state president. a lot of people think you're a crook. is that so? i want to see those people so they can tell me why they... are you a crook? me? what? i don't know. unless i have to go to the dictionary to learn what a crook is. it was his relationship with this family, the guptas, indian immigrants, which created the public outrage that finally forced the anc to act. the guptas are accused of using their connections with the president to acquire state enterprises and assets worth millions of pounds. so powerful, it's alleged, they could hire and fire cabinet ministers. today, they, too, felt the pressure. this was a police raid on their compound in johannesburg. seemingly untouchable until now, criminal charges could be imminent.

if ever you wanted proof of the change in political temperature, this is it. the police seem at last to have found their courage. by the end of this dramatic day, jacob zuma seemed friendless, politically isolated, resigning before he could be humiliated in parliament. fergal keane, bbc news, pretoria. morgan tsvangarai zimbabwe's main opposition leader has died. the 65 year—old a former mine worker had been suffering from cancer. mr tsvangarai's career was marked by a long political struggle against the former president robert mugabe and he was beaten and imprisoned many times. as a rookie challenging one of africa's ruthless and shrewdest leaders, the odds were always against morgan tsvangirai. what he lacked in formal education and liberation war history, he made up for in boldness, and his popularity soared. as leader of the trade unions, he led the largest anti—government protests since independence, cutting the unions' traditional

ties with government. disillusioned with the de facto one—party state and a biting economy, zimbabweans were ready for an alternative: the mdc was born. in contrast to mr mugabe's exclusionary politics, mr tsvangirai welcomed everybody. president tsvangirai managed to bring together the students, the workers, commercial farmers, traditional leaders, war veterans and business people. stunned by his popularity, zanu—pf‘s response was visceral, with endless arrests, beatings and assassination attempt and treason charges. president mugabe suffered his first ever defeat at the polls to mr tsvangirai, who later pulled out of the run—off

because of vote—rigging and violence. if he did not... the cheat, which was then advanced to morgan, and he accepted it. he would have been president in that time. i, morgan richard tsvangirai... many were therefore disappointed when he agreed to serve under mrmugabe ina powersharing agreement. in the following elections, he lost heavily. he blamed rigging. his critics said he'd lost credibility, abandoned his working—class roots for the lavish lifestyle common among zanu—pf. but many here will remember morgan tsvangirai as the working—class hero, whose fight for democracy triggered the end of the mugabe era. thank you for watching.

thanks forjoining me. time we updated you on the weather prospects for the whole of the british isles for the next few days or so. wednesday started in a pretty wild and woolly way across the north—western quarter of scotland. as ever, our weather watchers were there to capture the evidence for us, but things improved dramatically. come a little further south, not far really, troon beach and ayrshire. the difference, you had to get rid of this big old weather front which really made a difference. started dry enough across the eastern side of the british isles but, as that moved in from the west, it brought quite a bit of cloud and rain. thankfully that's moved away. thursday starts on a brighter note for many, a drier note, though not necessarily, because certainly across western spots, particularly the north—western quarter

of the british isles, there will be showers. elsewhere, bright enough and breezy sort day. quite a few isobars on that chart, and it makes a difference whether you are in the northern half of the british isles or the south, because further north, you are in the circulation of the big area of low pressure — there's quite a bit of wind, and it's got quite a bit of northerly in it, which makes it feel that much cooler. come a little bit further south, and a little ridge of high pressure is trying to calm things down. there's a lot of isobars on that chart. the wind an ever—present right across the british isles. i think the bulk of the activity found across the north, if you are spending the day across southern parts, and here i'm showing you the real detail — it's almost like, if you need reading glasses, we've just put them on to see exactly where those showers are, and you can see them peppering through western scotland and northern ireland. bigger picture, yes,

we know there are words on that page, but we take those glasses off and we get the overall sense of what's going on. the temperatures. five, six, seven in the north, ten, 11, possibly 12 in the south. out of thursday, pushing on towards friday, not a great deal changes, but a greater influence from this little ridge of high pressure coming across the southern half of the british isles, killing off what showers there may have been on thursday. less breeze, but there's just not enough influence from that ridge of high pressure to keep this rain away from the western side of scotland, maybe into the fringes of northern ireland, but the temperature differential just beginning to ease up here — seven or eight in the north, ten or 11 in the south. the weekend? starts off none too badly. not wall—to—wall sunshine, but keep that little area of low pressure in mind, because it may on sunday give some parts some rain. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: at least 17 people are shot dead at a high school in florida. it's over for south africa's

embattled president, jacob zuma, who says he will resign. the governing anc party welcomed the news. he has faced persistent allegations of corruption. morgan tsvangirai, the main opposition of zimbabwe, has died of cancer. his life is marked by a long struggle against robert mugabe. there is much more from me and the team on the website. and you can reach me on twitter as well. now on bbc news, it is time for hardtalk.