welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories — mark zuckerberg admits facebook made mistakes, mishandling data from 50 million users and promises to make changes. anger in russia as britain's foreign secretary says president putin will use the world cup as propaganda like adolf hitler did with the berlin olympics. the suspect in the texas bombings blows himself up as police close in. but what motivated the 23—year—old man? six months after hurricane maria, millions of puerto ricans are still struggling to survive. many blame the us government forfailing to do enough. and a cracking continent — the seismic shift in kenya's rift valley that could divide africa. the british company which is accused

of mining the data of 50 million people, to influence the 2016 us election. although the firm denies any wrongdoing. here's our business editor, simon jack. facebook founder mark zuckerberg broke his silence tonight on a scandal that has engulfed the social media giant. in a facebook post, he said the company had "a responsibility to protect your data" and admitted the company had "made mista kes". he described how a british academic had invented an app inviting facebook users to do a personality test. 300,000 people downloaded it, it collected personal information on them

and also all of their facebook friends, harvesting data on 50 million users. that data was obtained by a british consultancy, cambridge analytica, in 2014, a move mark zuckerberg described tonight as "a breach of trust", and it was later allegedly used in the trump election campaign. a campaign the company's executives took a lot of credit for when secretly filmed. an apparent shock to the original app designer. never in our wildest dreams did we think anything we did would be used in the donald trump campaign. this is 2014, well before anybody would think mr trump would be a serious candidate. so at the time, like, i didn't know who their clients would be, i didn't know the specific use case. i did know it was going to be used for political purposes, but beyond that, it was well above my pay grade. should have asked! could this small consultancy really have altered the course of us history? unlikely, says a man who worked on barack 0bama's 2008 election.

data can be misused to increase divisions and stoke fears, as they themselves have said, and that's why it needs to be regulated more carefully and ethical behaviour needs to be enforced, but elections are decided by a whole range of factors and i think cambridge analytica over—claimed their impact. zuckerberg said: perhaps the biggest change will be our awareness of what we're agreeing to when we hit "i agree". the conversation we should be having is what happens to our data, how much are we comfortable to share, who are we comfortable to share it with, and what do we think about how that's done? this feels to me like a real lightbulb moment, people understanding that it is not just clicking like on facebook, what you're doing there

is giving data away. facebook‘s value has fallen by more than $50 billion since monday, and today's announcement didn't see that reverse — evidence perhaps of lasting damage on facebook‘s brand and its users‘ trust. simon jack, bbc news. 0ur correspondence has more. our correspondence has more. he has been criticised for being silenced throughout these allegations and claims that have been made over the last few days. finally the face of facebook has spoken. in the american interview, he talked about two things. what he's going to do about the past, and the allegations and information that was used in what he would do about the future. he says that they will have a full forensic audit of both applications that may have used information, and he made a commitment to contact every user that potentially have their data breached and potentially is a very important work because frankly, there is not going to be any

certainty i suspect whether or not everybody‘s information was breached and i'm not sure he is able to go in to say that about anybody so i think we will talk about potentially anybody who has had their data breach. also, he talked about going forward. he said as regard to the 2016 presidential election, they weren't on top of potential russian interference orfake weren't on top of potential russian interference or fake news. weren't on top of potential russian interference orfake news. and he said they needed to do more. particularly with elections coming up. that is notjust the us midterms here in america, but also elections in india, braziland here in america, but also elections in india, brazil and around the world. it gives you a sense that he is having to listen to politicians not just is having to listen to politicians notjust in the uk, notjust the us, but right around the world who are concerned about how information is being used on facebook and how information could be used going forward. mark himself has been asked specifically to appear before committees in london and washington will stop he was asked about that.

he wouldn't give a strict commitment. he said it is something he may be happy to do. it ', "i am happy to do it if that is the right thing to do." i suspect a lot of politicians but here in washington and in london, will think it is not just the right thing to do, but it's an important thing that he has to do. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. at least 33 people have been killed in afghanistan. more than 55 others we re in afghanistan. more than 55 others were injured. people were gathering to mark the start of the traditional new year. more than a hundred nigerian schoolgirls who've been released by islamist militants after more than a month in captivity have been flown to the capital, abuja, to meet the president. the girls say five students died while being held by boko haram and the only christian in the group is still in captivity. the former french president, nicolas sarkozy, has been placed under formal investigation for allegedly accepting millions of euros for his 2007 election

campaign from the libyan dictator muammar gadaffi. mr sarkozy was released from custody after two days of questioning. he denies wrongdoing. north korea's parliament will meet for the first time this year on april 11, almost 12 months since it last sat. the country's supreme peoples assembly only convenes once or twice a year, and during its last session, announced it was looking to find a way of improving international relations. it's not clear if kim jong—un would attend. russia has angrily rejected parallels drawn by the british foreign secretary between the russian president, vladimir putin, and adolf hitler. borisjohnson said it was possible mr putin would try to bolster russia's image, by using the football world cup, as hitler used the 1936 olympics in berlin. steve rosenberg has the latest from moscow. it was an invitation some had refused.

reporter: ambassador, why are you taking part in this meeting? but these foreign diplomats had accepted, to come and hear moscow's side of the story on the nerve agent attack. britain sent a diplomat to the foreign ministry, but the british ambassador stayed away. this is what he missed. translation: the british authorities are either unable to ensure protection from such a terrorist act on their territory or they themselves, directly or indirectly — i'm not accusing anyone — have directed this attack against a russian citizen. hello, my name is emma nottingham, and i'm from the british embassy. off camera, the british diplomat hits back. sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, were poisoned with a military grade novichok nerve agent of a type developed by russia in what we see as an attempted assassination attempt. "what's going on in their heads?" he replies. "take a break from your russophobia and your island mentality."

archive: berlin's great day dawns with the arrival of the olympic flame... in britain, a labour mp suggested that vladimir putin would use the world cup like adolf hitler had used the 1936 olympics, "to cover up," as he put it, "a brutal, corrupt regime." the foreign secretary agreed. i think the comparison with 1936 is certainly right and i think it's an emetic prospect, frankly, to think of putin glorying in this sporting event. tonight, moscow reacted to boris johnson's comments with fury. the russian foreign ministry said the foreign secretary was "poisoned with hatred and malice, incompetence and loutishness. " meanwhile, russia's propaganda machine tries to discredit sergei skripal. we witnessed this bizarre webcast

where two convicted murders claimed to be ex—cellmates of the former double agent. on air, they accused him of drug addiction, even paedophilia. but after the show, one of them admits to me he saw nothing. it was just empty gossip. the poisoning in salisbury has spawned an information war, one moscow is determined to win. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. and you can go to the the bbc‘s website for more analysis of the british foreign secretary's latest comments about president putin. you'll also find background information on the nerve agent attack in salisbury, and the diplomatic fallout. that's all at bbc.com/news. police in texas say the man suspected of a string of bomb attacks in the state left a 25—minute recording about the six devices

he'd constructed. mark anthony conditt blew himself up while being chased by police officers. two people were killed in the attacks and officials have warned that more undetonated devices may have been planted. gary o'donoghue reports from austin. police closed in on the suspected bomber in the early hours, tracking him down to a hotel north of austin. while they waited for extra back—up, he drove off and then pulled into a ditch at the side of the road. as the police approached his car, he set off another bomb. as members of the austin police department swat team approached the vehicle, the suspect detonated a bomb inside the vehicle, knocking one of our swat officers back, and one of our swat officers fired at the suspect as well. the suspect is deceased and has significant injuries from a blast that occurred from detonating a bomb inside his vehicle. cctv in the past couple of days

showed the suspect dropping off a package at a fedex office in south—west austin — a key piece of evidence that led the police to the bomber‘s identity. he's now been named officially — mark anthony conditt was a 23—year—old man who lived in pflugerville just outside the city. a school friend of the suspect i spoke to didn't want to be identified, but she said he seemed like a normal boy. i would definitely say that i'm completely surprised. i wouldn't have been this shocked if it was somebody that i didn't know, but seeing as this is someone i share memories with, even though it's just a little bit, is really crazy to me. ijust know that regardless of his personal reason, it was an act of evil and it's not excusable. since the beginning of the month, there have been six separate bombs, five which exploded. two men have died and half a dozen people have suffered serious injuries,

a number are still in hospital. during the day, police with dogs searched a number of addresses associated with conditt, evacuating some buildings and cordoning off areas. they also questioned both his flatmates, though neither has been arrested or charged. police still don't know the motive for this bombing spree that's terrorised austin for the past three weeks. they're also telling the public they don't know where the suspect has been for the past 2a hours, so there could still be devices out there. gary o'donoghue, bbc news, austin, texas. stay with us on bbc news. still to come, we meet a teacher you can really count on — the youtube sensation who's making maths fun. let there be no more wars or bloodshed

between arabs and israelis. with great regret, the committee have decided south africa should be excluded from the 1970 competition. streaking across the sky, the white—hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: facebook has admitted making mistakes and breaching trust with its users over a data—harvesting scandal. russia's responded angrily after britain's foreign secretary controversially compared president putin to adolf hitler. it is six months since hurricane maria devastated the us territory of puerto rico. aid agencies say life for many of the island's 3.5 million residents remains a day—to—day struggle. many are yet to have their electricity restored. as our correspondent, aleem maqbool, reports from the town of morovis, there is resentment towards the us government for what is seen by many puerto ricans as a lack of urgency in its response. imagine having to depend on a generator to keep your mother alive. that's the way carmen has been

living for six months. she, like so many here, all american citizens, has had no electricity since hurricane maria. every time the generator fails, her mother's respirator shuts down. translation: i've been crying all the time. i thought my mother would die because i couldn't help her. it's horrible. me and her are struggling so much to fight this situation. it was the most devastating hurricane to hit puerto rico in living memory, plunging more than three million people into darkness, and into a humanitarian crisis. maria obliterated infrastructure right across this island. people are crossing a river in the way they have not done for years here because the bridge was totally destroyed. for so many people, in so many ways across puerto rico, life has been set back decades. this bridge is being rebuilt.

but the pace of recovery across what is an american territory has been painfully slow. puerto ricans expected far more help from the us. and it's hard not to wonder, if this school had been in texas or florida, whether the children would have gone this long without electricity. unable to use computers as they used to, often in unwashed uniforms, and unable to work at home after dark. this teacher, maria isabel santana, told us she was upset by the impact it was having on her students, saying there were already months behind in their learning. but the misery is not just about power. there is so much damage done to homes as well. many though have been given little more than blue tarpaulin to repair them. so many who can have just left the island, scrawling their contact details on the buildings they abandoned. evelyn cruz knows more than anyone the psychological impact of staying here.

her brother, julio, took his life just last month. she says it's because he was overwhelmed by the conditions since the hurricane. translation: all the disasters in real life, it affected him, seeing so much need, knowing all the bad news, being without electricity. seeing all the desolation and all the people leaving. it affected him mentally. and there has been a massive spike in puerto ricans attempting suicide since the storm. in many ways, people here can accept the devastation of a force of nature like hurricane maria much more than they can understand the suffering they are still going through now. aleem maqbool, bbc news, morovis, puerto rico. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news.

party leaders in peru have accepted the resignation of president pedro pablo kuczynski, who announced earlier on wednesday that he was standing down amid allegations of corruption. his vice—president is due to be sworn in on friday. mr kuczynski had been due to face an impeachment vote in congress for allegedly taking bribes. a 17—year—old palestinian girl has been sentenced to eight months in prison for slapping an israeli soldier. the case gained worldwide attention after footage of the incident, showing ahed tamimi confronting armed soldiers outside her home in december circulated on the internet. there's been chaos in kosovo's parliament, as opposition nationalist mps hurled tear gas canisters to disrupt the ratification of a border agreement with montenegro. they say the deal will wrongly cede about 8,000 hectares of land. several people were evicted and then detained. some breaking news from thailand. at

least 17 people have been killed and more than 30 injured and in a bar scratch will ——a bus crash. it was descending a hill in central thailand. brake failure was a possible cause. at least ten of those injured are reported to be in a critical condition and as we get more details, we will bring them to you. geologists are warning that a huge crack in kenya's rift valley could be proof that the continent is splitting. the earth movements begun last week and were exacerbated by heavy rains, tearing apart large sections of the suswa area. while the continental split could take millions of years, the immediate concern is the safety of road users and people living there. ferdinand omondi reports from the rift valley. a week ago, this wasn't here. the land was softened by a combination of heavy rains

and seismic activity, causing the earth to split. farmlands were separated down the middle and water supplies were cut. this stretch of highway had to be repaired twice. now, motorists are concerned that the section could crumble again, a notion the government was quick to dismiss. but the danger is creeping inland. this 77—year—old woke up one morning to find a visible fault line cutting through his farmhouse. he was so afraid he'd lose his home of 20 years that he demolished it in the hope that he could rebuild it on safer ground in future. translation: i had to demolish my house. the crack reached the hosue. there is a risk that the house could be swallowed and all of my property destroyed. now we do not have anywhere to stay. we are being housed by our neighbour. but where to go is another question. the crackjust keeps expanding inland, and the state is still mapping out potential risk areas.

no—one knows where the earth will open up next. now, this crack stretches several kilometres on either side of the highway. and some parts are pretty scary, like here, wider than 20 metres, and some sections reaching so deep you cannot see the bottom with the naked eye. there is a warning that something profound could be happening underneath. according to geologists, these are early signs that the african continent is pulling apart from the rift valley. the earth has been moving apart for millions of years, and as a result, there are lots of zones of weaknesses that have developed here which have developed here in terms of fissures, in terms of cracks, in terms of fault lines. we cannot say that the whole area is going to be affected so we should move, but we need to do a thorough study and find out where are these weaknesses.

scientists say eventually these cracks will split africa in two in the next million years. but in the immediate future, the people living in the rift valley hope they are not living on the fault lines when the next one crumbles. ferdinand omondi, bbc news, in kenya's rift valley. australian teacher eddie woo has won fans worldwide with his high—energy maths lessons, posted online. mr woo recently won australia's local hero award and was a finalist for the global teacher prize. he's been explaining his formula for infectious lessons to the bbc in sydney. my name is eddie woo, i'm the head teacher of mathematics at cherrybrook technology high school in sydney, australia. i am going to put on, to finish my definition, i am going to put on two more words. when i started making these videos, i only did it with one

student in mind. he was very sick so he was missing huge amounts of the class. for this to have gotten around the country, all around the world, for me, it isjust endlessly surprising. i get comments every now and again saying who is this asian guy and what is that accent coming out of his mouth, eddie, congratulations. what i am really aiming for, i guess, is to help people think about mathematics as not a scary subject, not something that is really challenging, only for special people, but i want people to see it is accessible, understandable. i want to get at that sense of wonder of students, that human beings have, that when they see something and think how does this happen? there is a famous saying that it is magic until you understand it. and thereafter, it's mathematics. how many cards did you get that matched on both sides? i have heard people got eight and eight and four

and four, seven and a seven and six and six. it opens up a whole universe of seeing things in a new way you never could have imagined before. just go outside and pick up a flower, look at the pattern of seeds, the spiral, the shape. there is an unmistakable pattern which can be explained mathematically. mathematics all around us, if only we have eyes to see it. i encourage everyone to look around them and see the patterns around them and wonder, don't stop there, but ask why. go and look up a reason. go and look up a reason and find out and then you yourself can become a mathematician. hello there.

temperatures have been slowly recovering over the last couple of days after that mini beast from the east brought us that disruptive snow. and in fact, as we head out into thursday, a milder start and generally quite a mild afternoon. with some good spells of sunshine, it really will quite springlike. the atlantic has come back to life, now feeding in cloud and this milder air. we've seen the back of that cold easterly wind. you can see the air mass chart here, the orange colours which will be moving in, certainly for thursday. something a little bit fresher pushing in behind for the end of the week, for friday. mild air never too far away. in fact, at the weekend, given some sunshine, should be quite pleasant. as we head through the overnight period into early thursday, we'll see some damp weather down the east of the country, affecting east anglia and the south—east. but elsewhere, it's going to be largely dry. variable amounts of cloud.

a bit more of a breeze further west. but it's going to be a much milder start you'll notice to thursday. most places starting off 4—7 degrees. just one or two pockets of frost perhaps in some very sheltered rural locations, south—west england, maybe north—east scotland. but through the day on thursday, it's looking pretty good. we'll lose the cloud from the eastern side of england. some good sunny spells around. we'll start to see a change in northern ireland and western scotland. increasing wind here, gusting to 45mph, outbreaks of rain. but elsewhere, a lovely day in store. temperatures around 12, 13, maybe 1a celsius in the warmest spots. on thursday night, that rain band will spread across the country, eventually clear the eastern of the country for friday. so another fairly good—looking day. some sunny spells around. now into the weekend itself, it isn't looking too bad. a typical early spring weekend, really. sunshine and showers, variable amounts of cloud. and it will be generally quite mild, particularly where we get the sunshine.

this is how we start saturday morning off, on a rather cloudy note across central, southern and eastern parts of the country. the cloud may hang on in the south, the odd spit and spot of rain. but skies will brighten up, particularly further north and west. a few showers running into scotland and northern ireland, and winter on the hills. given some sunshine, temperatures around 11 celsius. sunday is looking like being the better day of the weekend. more widespread sunny spells around. just a few showers again across the north and west of the country. probably the best of the sunshine, in fact, across the east. it will feel a little bit milder too, top temperatures around 13 celsius. this is bbc news. the headlines: mark zuckerberg has admitted facebook made mistakes that allowed the firm cambridge analytica to exploit the data of millions of users on behalf of political clients. he said there had been a breach of trust between facebook and users, and promised to make changes. russia has reacted furiously after the british foreign secretary drew a comparison between vladimir putin and adolf hitler. borisjohnson was giving evidence

on the chemical attack that poisoned a former russian spy and his daughter more than two weeks ago. police in texas say the man suspected of a string of bomb attacks in the state left a 25—minute recording about the six devices he had constructed. mark anthony conditt blew himself up while being chased by police officers. two people were killed in the attacks, and officials have warned that more undetonated devices may have been planted. now on bbc news, hardtalk.