18/02/2018 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today,

I'm Karin Giannone.

Our top stories:

Demanding action on gun control -

survivors of the school shooting

in Florida plan to march on the US

capital.

A showdown at the Munich

Security Conference,

as Israel and Iran trade insults -

and threats.

To the tyrants of Tehran -

do not test Israel's resolve.

Iran will respond, we will respond

seriously, and I believe it would be

a response that people

will be sorry.

Brought to a halt by a blizzard -

rescuers postpone the search

for a downed passenger

plane in Iran.

As many as 66 people

are feared dead.

And...

All in black on the red carpet.

The stars of cinema show

their support for the a campaign

against sexual harrassment.

I am Jane Hill at the Royal Albert

Hall in London where that ceremony

is continuing. Join me in half an

hour for a special programme with

all the winners.

Hello and welcome

to World News Today.

A group of American teenagers

who survived a school shooting

in Florida on Wednesday have

announced a national march

on Washington to demand political

action on gun control.

They say they're determined

that the mass shooting,

in which 14 pupils and three staff

members were killed,

will be a turning point

in the national debate on guns.

Organisers say they want to shame

politicians who take contributions

from the pro-gun lobby,

the National Rifle Association.

A former pupil, 19-year-old

Nikolas Cruz, has admitted carrying

out Wednesday's attack,

using a semi automatic rifle

he purchased legally.

David Willis is in Washington.

What is the message these students

want to bring to America's leaders?

It is interesting, because after

this Florida shooting, it seemed the

national debate might follow the

sort of conventional pattern that

has followed in the past. You know,

outrage, followed by calls for

action, followed by precisely

nothing. But now we have these

students calling for some sort of

action. These are people who, of

course, to remember the Columbine

massacre back in 1999. They weren't

born at that particular time, but

unlike Columbine, which had outrage

but not activism following it, these

people are calling for a change and

they have come up with various ways

of bringing fact about, including

this scheme to hold a march on the

capital, Washington, DC, next month.

That is going to be called the March

for lives. Separately, they are

planning a school walk out on the

20th of April, that marks the 19th

anniversary of the Columbine

massacre. And there is a big rally

planned for Wednesday in the Florida

capital, Tallahassee. All basically

to advance the cause for tighter gun

control laws here in America.

What do opinion polls show lately

over the divide in America over the

issue of gun control?

Well they

appear to show there is a majority

in favour of some sort of tightening

of the gun control laws here. But

that said, President Trump, who got

the early backing of the National

Rifle Association, thought to have

donated about $30 million to his

cause, has said quite emphatically

that he would never infringe on the

right to bear arms. Indeed, in a

tweet to date he blamed the

Democrats for failing to press

tougher gun control laws when they

had control of Congress in the early

days of Barack Obama. But the

president is to meet with high

school students this week, listening

session the White House is. It will

be interesting to see what comes out

of that.

David Willetts in

Washington, thank you.

Israel's Prime Minister has

warned that he is ready

to act against Iran,

calling it greatest threat

to his nation and the world.

Benjamin Netanyahu made his remarks

at an International Security

Conference in Munich,

a week after the first known direct

military engagement between them.

Israel shot down an Iranian stealth

drone that entered its airspace

from Syria, and then bombed

the Iranian vehicle that

controlled the drone.

Mr Netanyahu warned Iran not

to test Israeli resolve.

Here's a piece of that Iranian

drone, or what's left of it after we

shot it down.

I brought it here so you could

see it for yourself.

Mr Zarif, do you recognise this?

You should - it's yours.

You can take back with

you a message to the

tyrants of Tehran -

do not test Israel's resolve.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad

Javad Zarif mentioned there,

said Mr Netanyahu's speech

was an attempt to undermine

the landmark nuclear deal in 2015

between his country and several

global powers.

I can assure you that

if Iran's interests are not

secured, Iran will respond.

We'll respond seriously

and I believe it would be a response

that people will be sorry for taking

the erroneous actions they did.

We will not be the first ones

to violate an agreement

for which all of us tried,

in spite of Netanyahu's

attempts, to achieve.

We achieved it in spite of him,

we implemented it in spite of him,

and the world will maintain that

agreement, in spite of his

delusional attempts.

Earlier, I asked Kasra Naji,

of BBC Persian, how real

was the tension between Israel

and Iran?

It's very real, actually.

And what we've seen in the last

three days in this conference,

in this hotel behind me...

In fact, a lot of people who did

speak, some of the leaders

of the countries, top officials,

strategists who spoke,

they spoke about the real danger

of a conflict breaking out in that

region, particularly

because of the worrying

developments in Syria.

There are people here who believe

Syria today poses the greatest

threat to world peace,

in effect, and what has happened

eight days ago between Iran

and Israel lends itself to that,

in a sense that when that Iranian

drone went over into Israel

and the consequent actions

of the Israeli air force has raised

the tension to a new level.

Tension between Iran and Israel.

At the opening of this

conference three days ago,

we had the General Secretary

of the UN, who said tension between,

on the border of Lebanon and Israel

is also very, very high.

But he was of the opinion that

neither Iran nor Hezbollah

in southern Lebanon nor Israel

want to see a conflict breaking out,

a war breaking out.

Although here this morning,

there were talks of the possibility

of a full-scale war breaking out

here if they don't watch it.

Kasra, we believe that incident,

that drone incident you mentioned

eight days ago, that was the first

direct military confrontation that

we've seen between the two.

That's right.

That was the first one, direct one,

for a very long time.

I don't remember it,

I mean the last time we had

Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

getting into conflict.

But it shows how the situation

in Syria is leading to all sorts

of problems that is very dangerous

and increases the real danger

of an outbreak of conflict.

Let's take a look at some

of the other stories

making the news...

A fire has hit the most important

shrine in Tibetan Buddhism. Footage

posted online showed flames

billowing from the ancient

compounds. Chinese state media has

given few details but insisted the

blaze was quickly put out and no

relics harmed. It is more than 1300

years old.

A Russian athlete is suspected

of failing a doping test

at the Winter Olympics in South

Korea.

The athlete hasn't be officially

named but some Russian media outlets

suggest the curling bronze medallist

Alexander Krushelnitsky.

Russia is banned from the Games

for doping but individual Russian

athletes can compete under a neutral

banner.

Latvia's finance minister has called

on the country's central bank

governor to step aside,

after he was detained

by the anti-corruption

agency on Saturday.

Ilmars Rimsevics has been head

of the bank since 2001 and is also

a member of the European Central

Bank.

The Government has not said why

the governor was detained.

A memorial service for Zimbabwe's

opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai

has been held in the capital Harare,

four days after he died from cancer.

Politicians from across

the political divide gathered

at the church to pay tribute

to Mr Tsvangirai, alongside hundreds

of supporters wearing the red

colours of the Movement

for Democratic Change.

His body was flown back

from South Africa, where he'd been

receiving treatment.

Our correspondent has been watching

events in Harare.

On this overcast day,

hundreds of opposition supporters,

leaders from across the political

divide, as well as diplomats

and representatives from some

African countries, have gathered

here to bid farewell

to Morgan Tsvangirai.

The speakers that were in this

church service remembered his

contribution to democracy

in this country.

They say that he is an icon

who should be honoured,

but there's also been reference

to the fact that in his death,

his supporters should now

the night behind one leader.

-- should now unite behind one

leader.

You'll know that thre have been

disputes over who the rightful

successor is to Morgan Tsvangirai

amongst the three vice presidents.

So the speakers are saying

they should use his death to unite.

Shingai Nyoka, BBC News, Harare.

Rescue teams in western Iran

searching for a passenger plane that

disappeared with more than 60 people

on board have called off their

search for the night because of

heavy snow. Families have been

gathering at a mosque close to the

airport to get information about

their loved ones. It is feared there

are no survivors. The plane went

down in the mountains during a

flight from the capital Tehran to

the south-western city.

According to

Iranian state TV, they have called

off the rescue operation. It is

night there, very cold. The weather

conditions are very severe. The

teams that tried earlier on to go to

the crash site were unable to do so

and they were sent back halfway

through, because the blizzard is so

severe that they couldn't reach

anywhere near the crash site.

And

all the while the relatives were

told first of all everyone had been

killed and then they said, we are

not so sure. This must be absolute

torment for them.

It is, and

unfortunately the whole messy

process of giving information is

going on, there is no exact

knowledge of the number of people

who were on board. The figure

bandied about over 65 or 66. That

has added to the misery of these

relatives who are waiting. Some even

tried to take the initiative of

going up themselves, and then of

course they were stopped by the

officials because they were

endangering their own health. They

will probably have a very difficult

night, waiting until tomorrow

morning to find out what has

happened.

More widely, what is the

Iranian air safety record like? The

difficulties over recent years of

maintaining error plays under

sanctions must have been

considerable?

Obviously yes, because

of sanctions there is a very ageing

fleet in Iran. This particular plane

was 25 years old, but there's also a

question of mismanagement in cases

like this. A lot of air crashes are

due to human error, pilot error, and

some of them to do with weather

conditions, but also there is a

sizeable number of them which

because of technical problems. When

you have an ageing fleet by Iran

has, that hasn't been updated, you

haven't been able to purchase new

planes, that risk goes higher and

higher.

Stay with us on BBC

World News, still to come...

We will have the latest from the

Winter Olympics. The Austrian skier

Marcel Hirscher has taken another

gold.

Nine years and 15,000 deaths after

going into Afghanistan, the last

Soviet troops were finally coming

home. The withdrawal completed in

good order but the army defeated in

the task it was sent to perform.

Malcolm was murdered and had a

terrible effect on the morale of the

people, terrible repercussions in

the streets.

As the airlift got underway, there

was no let up in the eruption

itself. Lava streams from lower in

the greater flow down to DC on the

east of the island, away from the

town for the time being, but it

could start flowing again at time.

The Russians heralded their new

generation space station with a

spectacular night-time launch.

This is BBC World News Today,

I'm Karin Giannone.

The latest headlines:

Survivors of the latest school

shooting in the United States are

organising a march on the national

capital to press for action on gun

control.

Israel's Prime Minister says Iran is

the world's greatest threat. It

responds by Coldingham Benjamin

Netanyahu delusional. -- by calling

Benjamin Netanyahu delusional.

More now from the Munich

Security Conference.

As well as discussing tensions

in the Middle East he event has also

reminded the world about the ongoing

conflict in Ukraine.

A report has described the situation

in Ukraine as 'a stumbling block

in the path to better relations'

between Russia and the West.

A reminder of some of the key

points in that conflict.

Nearly four years ago,

Russia annexes the southern

Ukrainian region of Crimea.

It follows a controversial

referendum on its status.

Moscow's actions are

roundly criticised by

the international community.

By April 2014, heavy fighting

is well underway in eastern Ukraine

between pro-Russian separatists

and the Ukrainian army.

Kiev insists some of the pro-Russian

fighters are actually Russian

nationals, specifically sent

over the border.

By July 2014, matters escalate

sharply, after Malaysia Airlines

flight MH17 is blown out of the sky

by a surface to air missile fired

in rebel held territory.

Initially, pro-Russian rebels

prevent a proper investigation.

After various failed ceasefire

attempts, EU foreign ministers

extend sanctions against Russia

in June 2015, much to the ire

of President Putin.

Renewed hostilities in the summer

of 2016 see a sharp spike

in civilian casualties,

that's according to the UN

High Commissioner for Human Rights.

As President Trump assumes power,

Nikki Haley, America's Ambassador

to the UN, condemns Russia's

aggressive actions in Ukraine.

Fighting continues with no sign

of a political breakthrough.

Let's speak to the Global Affairs

Analyst, Michael Bociurkiw.

He formerly worked for the OSCE -

the Organization for Security

and Cooperation in Europe -

as spokesman for its Special

Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

Welcome. How far from any kind of

resolution is the situation in

Ukraine?

They are talking about a

peacekeeping mission coming to

Ukraine, 28,000 troops, but there is

no peace in Ukraine. 10,000 people

have died. The daily explosions

going to the thousands on Sundays.

There is a lot of displacement of

people. It is a very violent scene.

By now we would have thought that

some of those steps would have been

applied. The main one is the

withdrawal of heavy weapons. Read

any ONC report and you will see

every weapons along the contact

line. How do we treat peace when the

Russians haven't admitted they are

party to the conflict?

And they keep

denying they are. Given what you

say, the severity of the fighting

still, it seems remarkable the

situation seems to keep slipping

from the world's consciousness.

It

does. I think the reason is there is

so much happening around the world,

like Yemen and Correa. Another

reason I think is foreign

journalists, including your own BBC

correspondent in Kiev, isn't able to

go across the contact Linux or near

it to report what's going on. In

today's world without images and

interviews, it is very difficult to

get a grip on things right in the

middle of the conflict zone.

We have

talked about before the toll it's

taken on the civilians living in the

middle of all this.

It is an urban

warfare type of situation. The

casualties are very high because the

sides are firing into very densely

populated areas. Another big setback

is the Ukrainian mobile phone

services have been cut off in the

conflict zone and the rebel side has

introduced their own Russian

service. For example, now people

can't even get notifications of

social payments from the Ukrainian

side, very tough on them stopped by

one of the defining moments and most

appalling tragedies over the years

of this conflict with the downing of

that passenger jet, MH17. You were

among the first on the actual crash

site. You are heavily involved in

the aftermath. Is the situation any

nearer to getting any kind of

justice?

The investigation team has done

incredible work in terms of

identifying what has happened, they

identified about 100 people of

interest. The next step will be to

name them and to bring them to

justice. I spoke to families today

here in the United Kingdom and the

Netherlands. They used the word

impatient because they want the

trial to go ahead in the

Netherlands. The problem is, it very

unlikely because most of the

suspects are Russian, very unlikely

Russia will extradite them for

trial.

Remind us of the conclusion

of the investigators?

A missile

brought it down. They found that it

was a missile that came from the

Russian side of the border into

Ukraine, it went up with devastating

consequences.

Do you see anything

changing in the situation in eastern

Ukraine in 2018 or will it maintain

this awful stalemate?

It is looking very, very bad at the

moment. The peacekeeping force could

be good but I think as the American

representative said, the rebels have

to withdraw. There has to be peace

and then a peacekeeping mission can

come in to make this transition

happen, to make elections happen and

things like that. At the moment, the

violence is so intense right now

that there is a very, very little

hope it could end any time soon.

Michael, thank you very much for

coming in.

We are going to turn to all the

sports development now.

Thank you. The Winter Olympics is

where we start.

Austria's Marcel Hirscher won

a second Olympic gold medal

with victory in the men's giant

slalom on Sunday.

He's been a dominant figure

on the World Cup skiing circuit

but before Pyeonchang his best

Olympic result was

slalom silver in 2014.

Nick Marshall McCormack

rounds up the action.

His trademark start is brilliant,

powerful, and just listen to the

sweet sound of him carving his way

down the mountain. Marcel Hirscher

already had 55 World Cup wins before

today but his two gold medals here

strengthen his claim to be regarded

as the best male ski racer of all

time. The 28 rolled won by 1.27

seconds from the Norwegian. The

bronze went to France. Norway struck

early with a brilliant first run,

claiming gold in the freestyle men's

slopestyle. The American took silver

and Canada claims surprise their

place. Less than half a point

between the Ukrainian and China.

Roger Federer has called this "one

of the best weeks of my life"

after winning the Rotterdam Open

and reistating himself as World

number one for the first

time since 2012.

The 36-year-old, is now

the oldest Number one

in history and he thrashed

Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov 6-2,

6-2 in a one-sided final that

lasted less than an hour.

This was Federer's 97th career title

and in the Open era,

only American Jimmy Connors has won

more with 109.

It's been unbelievable. I can't

believe it. My 97th title, back to

world number one after all these

years. It's definitely one of those

weeks I will never forget in my

life. Very, very special.

To

football...

Tottenham

were stunned by a late goal

from Rochdale who are bottom

of the third tier in England.

The last 16 tie finished 2-2

meaning they'll have

to replay at Wembley Stadium.

Harry Kane looked to have won it

with a penalty two minutes

from the end but Steve Davies'

dramatic injury-time equaliser

forced the tie to a replay

with the winner to face either

Swansea City or Sheffield Wednesday

in the quarter finals.

I know very well what happens if

you, if you believe that this tie

was winning and that happened,

because it was tight and I think we

conceded two clear chances.

Gareth Bale started up front

with Cristiano Ronaldo

for Real Madrid in their clash

at Real Betis as they look to stay

in touch with runaway leaders

Barcelona in the Spanish Primera

Division.

The reigning champions

are currently fourth,

20 points behind Barca

going into this match

They are currently 4-2 up with about

12 minutes remaining. Dabo from

Asensio. Cristiano Ronaldo also

picking up a goal. Second placed

Atletico Madrid won against Athletic

Bilbao.

England beat New Zealand

in their final match

of the triangular Twenty 20 Series

but failed to qualify

for the final against Australia.

The Black Caps go through with

a better overall run-rate.

Darvid Malan's half century

and Captain Eoin Morgan's unbeaten

80 took them to 194 for seven

but New Zealand knew reaching 175

would ensure their run rate was good

enough but they fell two runs short

of winning the match.

That is your sport for now.

Thank you very much. We will see you

later. Let's bring you up to date

with what we're hearing from the

BAFTA awards, underway in London.

The past few minutes, Francis

McDormand has won Best actress for

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,

Missouri. That has just won best

film and Gary Oldman has taken the

lead actor BAFTA for his film

betrayal of Winston Churchill in

Darkest Hour. Like other award shows

this season, the stars were asked to

wear black. There was plenty of

speculation about whether one of the

guests, the Duchess of Cambridge

might go along with that, but as you

can see, she opted for a green dress

with a black ribbon. Many other act

But many other actresses, including

Lupita Nyong'o and Angelina Jolie,

chose to wear black to show support

for the Time's Up movement,

which is campaigning for an end

to sexism and Inequality.

for all of this year's winners, join

us for our BAFTA special coming up

here on BBC News in a few moments

time.