11/02/2016 BBC News at Six

Unravelling the secrets of the universe - the most important

scientific discovery for a generation.

We have detected gravitational waves.

Scientists prove that Einstein was right after all -

gravitational waves ripple through space and time.

The discovery takes us closer than ever to understanding

Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking

The ability to detect them has the potential

We'll find out how the scientists managed this feat.

No more talking - the government will impose a new contract

Do you hear the anger and frustration out there?

MPs give a Google boss a grilling over the company's tax affairs

Doping in athletics - now Kenya could be kept out

The weird, wild world of Heronymous Bosch -

a new exhibition brings his work together for the first time.

On Reporting Scotland at 6.30pm: The country's only women's prison

Instead, there'll be a shift to addressing the causes

And history is made at Holyrood, as MSPs prepare to vote on income

tax levels for the next financial year.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

It's the question that's as old as astronomy itself -

Today, scientists are much closer than ever before

They've proved the existence of so-called gravitational waves -

that's what Einstein called them 100 years ago.

Here's our science correspondent, Palab Ghosh, on what's

being described as landmark in scientific endeavour.

Powerful telescopes can see distant stars and far-away galaxies. From

now, astronomers will be able to see much deeper into space and further

back in time. Eventually, right up to the moment of the Big Bang.

Scientists have been searching for ripples in space called

gravitational waves. Today, they told the world they had found them.

Created by two black holes colliding more than a billion light years

away. We have detected gravitational waves. We did it! Professor Stephen

Hawking told me it was a ground-breaking development.

Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking at the

universe. The ability to detect them has the potential to revolutionise

astronomy. This discovery is the first detection of the black hole

binary system and the first observation of black holes merging.

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves 100

years ago, but what are they? Gravitational waves are created

whenever there is a seismic event in the universe such as an exploding

star. These waves ripple across the galaxy at the speed of light,

stretching and squeezing space as they go. But they are incredibly

hard to detect because, when they hit the Earth, they give it the

tiniest of jobs, barely the width of an atom. Researchers developed a

powerful laser system capable of measuring such a tiny distance. The

beam runs along a tube just under the ground and it is stretched by a

minute amount when a gravitational wave passes through. This is mind

blowing. It really is, when you consider that these black holes

actually spiralled in over a billion years ago and the signal has been

travelling to us since then. We turned on our detectors at exactly

the right time to detect it arriving. Those gravitational waves

can be turned into sound. Listen carefully for the chirping. That is

the chirping we have been looking for. That is one of the beautiful

things, we are not only going to be seeing the universe but listening to

it. Today's result opens a new window into how the universe began

and it will reveal a new view of the cosmos beyond our imagination.

And with me is our Science Editor, David Shukman.

What has changed as a result of this? Suddenly we have got a

completely new way to look at the universe. It is as revolutionary as

the moment 400 years ago when Galileo looked through his telescope

and he saw things in space that nobody could imagine existed.

Scientists are now stunned about information about this incredible

event in space, two black holes colliding, sending out a ripple of

gravitational waves. The potential is huge, to look for things and

confirm things that they know exist and to stumble across stuff nobody

can predict, even to go back right to where it began with the Big Bang.

How did they do it? Five decades of patience and determination.

Scientists in America, Britain and Europe coming up with the design for

an incredibly delicate network of laser beams, sensitive enough to

pick up those ripples coming through space. It has been a difficult

journey. I went to see the first space. It has been a difficult

it wasn't working well, picking up the sound of trucks on the nearby

highway but nothing from space. Nobody knew

as one of the great achievements in modern science.

Our Health Editor, Hugh Pym, reports.

It has lasted not months but years, a long-running and acrimonious

dispute with a stop start talks process and two strike at hospitals

in England. Today, the Health Secretary said enough was enough and

the junior doctors' contract would be imposed. We have demonstrated

time and again our willingness to negotiate with the BMA on the

concerns they raised. However, the definition of negotiation is a

discussion where both sides demonstrate flexibility and

compromise on their original objectives. And the BMA ultimately

proved unwilling to do this. He said he'd taken advice from the

government's chief negotiator, a leading hospital chief executive. I

have to conclude we have reached the end of the road of negotiations and

I have therefore advised the Secretary of State that, in the

health service, we should not continue with the disruptions that

come from the uncertainty, that we need to bring the matter to a close.

The new contract will apply from August. It will see basic pay rise

13.5% but there will be cuts to unsocial hours payments. 40,000

doctors will be affected as they move jobs as part of their training,

about 75% in the first year. Both sides said the issue of pay for

Saturday's was the deal-breaker. The announcement is came soon after the

end of the 24-hour strike by junior doctors in England which affected

routine but not emergency care. The BMA will now consider its next move.

routine but not emergency care. The We were always hoping the government

wouldn't come to in position but unfortunately they have taken this

damaging course of action. We need to talk to our membership now and to

see what doctors across the country think is the right thing to do. One

doctor who took part in the strike told me some leaks would quit as

part of the new contract, so compromising hospital safety. --

some colleagues. There is already a shortage in the NHS doctors. This

contract will make it worse and they will not be enough doctors to look

after patient safely. Some would say that if reality and we need -- that

that is scaremongering. I would say it is reality. Now the BMA will have

to decide what further industrial action or processed it wants to

take. It does seem that this highly charged row will rumble on for some

time yet. As demonstrators gathered outside the Department of Health

this evening, there was speculation about whether ongoing contract talks

with consultants might falter and there was talk of junior doctors

choosing to move to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, where Garneau

planned changes to the existing contract.

Our Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg, is at Westminster

I called it a controversial move and presumably it is risky. It is a big

decision to take and a big risk. This has gone on and on, not four

months but for years, and it will be seen as very aggressive by thousands

of medical professionals right around England, many of whom are

quite fed up with what is happening in the NHS, a system under real

pressure. It has been branded a failure by Labour very vehemently,

although the government is adamant they don't feel they had any options

left but to go ahead with this. But I think, over time, the really

fraught question for both sides is, if this really bad blood continues

and turned into a long, drawn-out and increasingly bitter dispute and

patients begin to notice a distant -- a different and potentially they

begin to suffer, who will the public blame, doctors or politicians?

Britain's most senior police officer, the Metropolitan Police

Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, has been given

a one-year extension to his contract.

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, said the extension recognised

the vital work the Commissioner had done in fighting crime

and in reforming the Metropolitan Police Service.

Mr Hogan-Howe has defended the way his force handled high

The man in charge of Google's operations in the UK faced some

tough questions from a committee of MPs today.

It follows the outcry after it emerged that the company paid

?130 million in back taxes for a ten-year period.

But Matt Brittin said the company paid corporation tax at a rate

of 20% on its UK profits - just like any other business.

Our Economics Editor, Kamal Ahmed, has the story.

Google, a company that likes to help us answer questions.

It is a search powerhouse that makes billions of pounds of profit

Today it appeared to have a little difficulty answering this question -

For the Head of Europe Matt Brittin, it was not that simple.

I don't have the figure, but I will provide it.

A bit of knock-about maybe, but MPs insisted it showed just how

out of touch the technology giant is.

He seemed on surer ground when defending their settlement

We are paying the tax the HMRC believes is the highest amount,

they cannot settle until we are paying the tax fully,

based on the facts, we cannot pay more,

I understand we are in the spotlight, but we are paying

Here at their HQ, I am told they are pretty relieved

The company has stuck steadfastly to the argument

that it is an American company that pays its taxes in America.

There was a more interesting witness before MPs today,

Could they convince a sceptical public that this was not

The key question for that tax collector, did Google run

We don't get outmanoeuvred by these big firms, we make

If I am honest, I would like to see more recognition of that.

We have a fine set of tax inspectors who do an extremely good job.

Google says it wants to see a simpler tax code.

We have to have confidence that they are not getting better treatment.

But I think we need a process in place which reassures the public.

Mr Brittin was still being thrown questions as he left the inquiry.

But for now, the technology company decided it had said quite enough.

Scientists say they've found evidence of gravitational waves.

They say it's one of the biggest discoveries of the past 100 years.

And still to come, when is the right time to draw a line under the past?

A report from Northern Ireland about how to remember the Troubles.

And coming up on Reporting Scotland at 6:30pm.

Only one change for Scotland as Vern Cotter's men head to Cardiff

for their Six Nations clash with Wales.

And, from Barbados to Banchory, how rum, the spirit of the Caribbean,

Kenya has been given a deadline of the end of today to prove

to the World Anti-Doping Agency that it's tackling cheating in athletics.

It comes after a spate of positive tests in the country,

which has come to dominate global distance running.

The BBC understands Kenya is unlikely to provide

the assurances required and could face punishment,

the most serious of which could be exclusion from the Rio Olympics.

Our Sports Editor Dan Roan travelled to the Iten,

the home of Kenyan athletics, and sent this report.

It's one of sport's most unique settings.

Iten, nestled in the Rift Valley, home to Kenya's champions.

For decades, this small town has provided a high-altitude training

base to thousands of world-class athletes, many of whom have gone

on to establish their country as the dominant force

Kenya's prowess was underlined at the World Championships

in Beijing last year when it topped the medal table.

1,500 metres winner Asbel Kiprop claiming one of his team's seven

Back in Iten, he is now in training for the Rio Olympics,

but doping has cast a shadow over his country's preparations.

40 Kenyan athletes have been banned to cheating in the last five years,

and Kiprop told me of the damage it's doing.

It is a disgrace, especially to the sport and ourselves

It is a disgrace to hard-working athletes when an athlete is found

to have used performance-enhancing drugs.

The BBC has obtained previously unseen secretly-filmed footage

of an athlete receiving an injection from a doctor.

We cannot verify what substance was, but the athlete, who doesn't

want to be identified, told me it was a banned substance.

Have you used performance-enhancing drugs?

In Kenya, most people are using, so if you don't use,

you will just be training, training, training all year.

In November, athletes staged a protest in Nairobi

against the sport's leaders amid corruption allegations.

This week, officials had to deny new allegations of extortion,

but we spoke to another athlete who said he had been blackmailed

by other members of the sporting body after he failed a drugs test.

TRANSLATION: They asked me for 500,000 shillings.

I said I couldn't afford to pay, so they told me I would receive

The governing body said it couldn't comment as it's under investigation

by the International Athletics Federation,

but did ask those with information to come forward.

Kenya's now at serious risk of being dragged into the doping

Another of the sport's powerhouse nations, Russia,

has already been banned from international competition

because of state-sponsored cheating, and now the spotlight

The BBC has learned that Kenya has been set a deadline of today

by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or Wada, to show it's making

progress in the fight against cheating, but all the signs

are it will now be placed on a watchlist of countries at risk

I think that is the biggest threat right now, that Kenya would be

declared non-compliant should we not meet the expectations.

And any non-compliant country, the IOC does have the right

in its rules to deny it access to the Olympics, for example.

Yesterday, Kenya's top sports officials held last-ditch talks

agreeing the need for legislation and funding for a new national

anti-doping agency to finally become operational.

and the Kenyan athletes you'll see will be running clean.

In a country of limited resources, the temptation to take short cuts

is obvious, and the cost of educating and testing

Authorities insist that cheating is not systemic,

but at a time when sporting integrity is under scrutiny

like never before, Kenya is in a race against time to prove

It's been another turbulent day on global markets.

The Ftse 100 was down nearly 2.5%, while markets in Frankfurt and Paris

How concerned should we be? If you are as worried as the people in the

city behind me about what is going on, you would be fretful, they have

seen a big plunge in stock prices on Tuesday, they bounced back

yesterday, and today we saw a renewed drop. Bank shares are down

6% on the week, some banks are down 30% on the year. What are they

worried about the? The global slowdown, and central banks' ability

to do anything. Today we heard from the sweetest central bank which is

cutting its interest rate even further, but they are already

negative. If a bank wants to deposit money with them, they are going to

charge them. That is how anxious the central banks are to get the banks

lending and the economy going, but it is not happening yet, so you have

a flight to safety, investors taking their money out of risky investments

and putting them in safe ones like have and bonds. -- Government bonds.

A brief look at some of the day's other news stories.

Psychiatrist Adam Osborne, who's the brother of

the Chancellor George Osborne, has been struck off the medical

register after having a two-year affair with a vulnerable patient.

Mr Osborne had admitted an inappropriate relationship

with a patient, which a medical tribunal ruled was profoundly

The Scottish Parliament's devolution committee has extended the deadline

for a financial deal between Westminster and Holyrood.

The committee's given until February 23rd to agree the fiscal framework

that will underpin the Scottish Parliament's new tax

They had initially hoped the negotiations would be completed

It's thought a lightning strike was the spark for a massive blaze

at Tata Steel's Port Talbot factory this morning,

which started in the plant's coke oven.

The company has confirmed that no-one was hurt in the fire.

The decades of conflict in Northern Ireland known

as the Troubles saw more than 3,500 people killed.

The majority of them by Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries.

But the Northern Ireland Secretary says she's worried that the focus

on deaths involving the police and army means there's a danger that

The province's chief constable has told the BBC that he would

support at least a debate about whether to draw a line under

What happened during these years when Northern Ireland seemed

permanently in a state of chaos is well-documented. But the grainy

images gathered on days of death and despair to not reveal the whole

truth of a conflict that is still cutting deep. This film is bloody

Sunday, when members of the British Parachute Regiment shot civilians

and 44 years later soldiers are being arrested and questioned about

killings that still cause pain. I cry. How often? When I talk about

it. Quite often. What do you think when people say to you, you need to

put that behind you? How will I get justice? There are soldiers who feel

the idea of prosecutions should be left in the past. This man served

with the Army in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and because he says he

still has concerns about security, he asked for his appearance today

not to be shown. You don't have any senior Government ministers in the

dock, or senior Army personnel. It is the soldiers on the ground. We

cannot keep going on investigating the past. Paramilitaries committed

the vast majority of murders during the troubles. But the UK Government

knows recent allegations and revelations about security force

collusion have put the actions of the state increasingly in the

spotlight. That is not right, you are swallowing the narrative that is

being pushed. That by definition there was an agent involved, there

was wrongdoing. In many instances, these were individuals dividing

information to the police to try to save lives and prevent terrorist

attacks. A political deal could mean revealing state files on and the

police alone hold nearly 10 million documents, leading some officers and

soldiers to fear their past could come back to haunt them. That is

fair to say, people have that concern. It is also right to say

that Aaron military and terrorist groups did not keep minutes of their

meetings. Is there a time where you have to draw the line and say, we

have to move on? That is a political question. That is a debate that is

worth having. For now, the past continues to threaten political

relationships in Northern Ireland. They are paintings filled with some

of the most bizarre images Now, for the first time ever,

the strange and terrifying works of the painter Hieronymus Bosch have

been gathered in his home town He is telling us about good and

evil. Heaven and hell. Seven deadly sins. He was the master of the weird

and strange, Hieronymus Bosch. This exhibition a homecoming for

paintings that have been scattered across the world but are rooted

here. To understand, we climbed the cathedral. This is the view he would

have seen. The view and changed in 500 years, is this an echo of it?

This image, locals recognise it, but to see it, you have to take a boat

under the city. Where are we? It is the whole of hell, it is like hell.

A lot of dead soldiers were buried here. There are echoes of him

everywhere, this market square, the buildings have changed, that it is

still the medieval landscape he would recognise. This is his old

house. There is one thing you will not find. The paintings. Which is

what makes this so extraordinary, is great paintings have come home. This

is the Hay Wain, back for the first time in five centuries will stop I

am walking across the market Square where he lived and worked every day,

and to have a painting like this after 500 years back here, it is

astonishing. This painting was kept in a store room for decades. But the

Fox faced creature, what does it mean? Nobody knows. We know the owls

are not wisdom, but evil. But what is certain is that 15 years of

coaxing and cajoling the world's great galleries has paid off. If we

are ever going to understand him, it will be here.

Some parts of the country have had almost a hint of spring, the days

are getting longer. Hear what the sunshine. We saw some glorious

sunshine, and equally some clouds have given some sharp showers. This

evening and overnight, we keep the clear conditions for many areas, but

one or two showers continue. We will see them across parts of Northern

Ireland, Wales and southern England. Further north, the clearer skies and

lowest temperatures, and there could be icy stretches. Further south, a

milder start to Friday morning, less frost than today. Friday is shaping

up as a cloudy day, with some outbreaks of showery rain across the

southern half of Wales and England. Further north, writer skies and snow

showers. Several centimetres of snow possible. The temperature is a

little below par for the time of year. On Saturday, low pressure

moving in from the Atlantic, bringing wet and windy weather to

southern areas. Gales are possible for the South West and the Channel

Islands. A cold easterly wind to the North. Still some snow showers

heading into the north-east of England, they could cause some

disruption. Another cold day. A bit of a quieter story into Sunday, the

wind and rain easing from the South, and snow showers easing away further

north. Ecole day ahead. It stays cold into the new working week. You

can check the latest warnings by heading to the website.

That's all from the BBC News at Six, so it's goodbye from me,