BBC News with Iian Purdon.
In one of the worst mass killings in recent US history, a gunman has shot dead 20 children and six adults at a primary school in the northeastern state of Connecticut. A police spokesman said the gunman himself was also died and another body had been found at a location connected with him. Paul Adams reports from Washington.
The shooting took place at a Sandy Hook Elementary School in western Connecticut. Eyewitnesses spoke of hearing many of hundreds of shots and watching frighten children between 5 and 10 years of age running from the school. The police search the building thoroughly recovering a handgun and the rifle. Lieutenant Paul Vance spoke to reporters when the search was over.
The entire school was searched, and soon thereafter the children and staff were reunited with their parents and their loved ones. The shooter is deceased inside the building, and many agencies are working together to answer all the question surrounding what exactly what happened.
For sometime, the apparent lack of panic outside the school led network to report the death toll was low, but gradually and altogether more horrific picture has emerged - the one of the worst mass shootings in American history. Television networks now identifying the gunman who is said to be wearing military clothing, as a 24-year-old Ryan Lanza.
In the past hours President Obama has given an emotional address about the killings on national television. He said he was speaking not as a president but as a parent.
I know there is not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same overwhelming grief that I do. The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had the entire lives ahead of them, birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams. So our hearts are broken today. President Obama.
Now, other news. The Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is resigning a day after being charged with fraud and breach of trust. Mr Lieberman said he wanted to clear his name without delay. The Israeli Justice Ministry said on Thursday with charging Mr Lieberman over alleged irregularities concerning the leaking of information about a police inquiry. More serious allegations including money laundering and bribery have been dropped. The resignation comes six weeks before Irael's general election. Mr Lieberman's right-wring party and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud group had formed an electoral pact ahead of the ballot.
World News from the BBC
There has been clashes in the Egyptian city of Alexandria between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi. The violence came as the country prepared to vote in a referendum on a controversial new constitution. Shaimaa Khalil has been following developments from Cairo.
It started when [the man Ahmed] in the Qaed Ibrahim Mosque, which the biggest, one of the biggest Mosques in Alexandria. This start preaching and urging people to vote yes for their referendum tomorrow. Angry protesters started attacking him, wanting him to stop preaching, and his supporters were trying to stop the attack. And of course, clashes then erupted. We are getting reports that 13 people have been injured, and I mean I've seen pictures, there are not just in the Mosque also around the Mosque a near at Corniche, the seaside as well.
British prosecutors will not charge the computer hacker Gary McKinnon who is wanted him to the United States for breaking into military computers. The decision comes three months after the British Home Secretary blocked Mr MaKinnon extradition to the US on health grounds, because a medical report suggested he would likely to commit a suicide. Mr MaKinnon has more a form of autism.
Humanitarian Angecy in the east of the Democratic Republican of Congo say there has been a dramatic increase of the number of the displacing people following fighting last month between the M23 rebel group and government troops. The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said there were more than 800,000 displaced people in the province of North Kivu.
Nelson Mandela is spending a seventh night in hospital in Pretoria where he is having treatments for a lung infection. There had rumors in South Africa that the 94-year-0ld former president had returned to home. But an official statement said Mr Mandela has spent a comfortable 24 hours in hospital and would continue to receive treatment there.
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