:00:10. > :00:11.This is BBC World News Today, with me, Alice Baxter.
:00:12. > :00:14.A stunning discovery by physicists that
:00:15. > :00:15.could revolutionise the study of the universe.
:00:16. > :00:17.Scientists say they've found the existence
:00:18. > :00:24.of the ever-elusive gravitational wave.
:00:25. > :00:26.It's a break-through being described as ushering
:00:27. > :00:29.Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking
:00:30. > :00:32.The ability to detect them has the potential
:00:33. > :00:45.Meanwhile, as Russia and the US talk possible ceasefire deals for Syria,
:00:46. > :00:52.aid agencies warn the humanitarian crisis is now a catastrophe
:00:53. > :00:55.Extraordinary scenes in the South African Parliament
:00:56. > :00:57.as President Jacob Zuma is heckled while delivering his State
:00:58. > :01:04.And a wartime couple reunite for the first time after falling
:01:05. > :01:07.in love just before D-Day, and then losing contact for more
:01:08. > :01:31.We begin with a breakthrough that's got the science world abuzz.
:01:32. > :01:34.It's being described as the most important discovery of this century,
:01:35. > :01:37.a discovery that will bring a much greater understanding of the origin
:01:38. > :01:54.It was Einstein who first came up with the idea of gravitational waves
:01:55. > :01:56.but it's taken 100 years demonstrate they exist.
:01:57. > :01:57.Our science correspondent, Pallab Ghosh, reports.
:01:58. > :01:59.Powerful telescopes can see distant stars and far-away galaxies.
:02:00. > :02:02.From now, astronomers will be able to see much deeper into space
:02:03. > :02:13.Eventually, right up to the moment of the Big Bang.
:02:14. > :02:15.Scientists have been searching for ripples in space
:02:16. > :02:19.Today, they told the world they had found them,
:02:20. > :02:21.created by two black holes colliding more than a billion
:02:22. > :02:31.We have detected gravitational waves.
:02:32. > :02:41.Professor Stephen Hawking told me it was a ground-breaking development.
:02:42. > :02:43.Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking
:02:44. > :02:46.The ability to detect them has the potential
:02:47. > :02:56.This discovery is the first detection of the black hole binary
:02:57. > :02:58.system and the first observation of black holes merging.
:02:59. > :03:00.Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves
:03:01. > :03:09.Gravitational waves are created whenever there is a seismic event
:03:10. > :03:14.in the universe such as an exploding star.
:03:15. > :03:16.These waves ripple across the galaxy at the speed of light,
:03:17. > :03:28.stretching and squeezing space as they go.
:03:29. > :03:30.But they are incredibly hard to detect because,
:03:31. > :03:33.when they hit the Earth, they give it the tiniest of jabs,
:03:34. > :03:37.Researchers developed a powerful laser system capable of measuring
:03:38. > :03:42.The beam runs along a tube just under the ground and it is stretched
:03:43. > :03:44.by a minute amount when a gravitational wave passes through.
:03:45. > :03:57.It really is, when you consider that these black holes actually
:03:58. > :04:00.spiralled in over a billion years ago and the signal has been
:04:01. > :04:03.We turned on our detectors at exactly the right time
:04:04. > :04:09.Those gravitational waves can be turned into sound.
:04:10. > :04:18.That is the chirping we have been looking for.
:04:19. > :04:21.That is one of the beautiful things, we are not only going to be seeing
:04:22. > :04:29.Today's result opens a new window into how the universe began and it
:04:30. > :04:40.will reveal a new view of the cosmos beyond our imagination.
:04:41. > :04:49.With me now is physicist Dr Toby Wiseman.
:04:50. > :04:56.As someone who isn't a scientist, it is still difficult to really
:04:57. > :05:02.understand how momentous this is and how significant the discovery is. It
:05:03. > :05:08.is significant on many fronts. It is an incredible human achievement,
:05:09. > :05:12.starting with Einstein nearly exactly 100 years ago, and it has
:05:13. > :05:19.taken this long to understand theoretically and build things to
:05:20. > :05:23.measure it. On the other hand, it is an amazing confirmation of
:05:24. > :05:28.Einstein's theory. The ripples of space and time, the fact that space
:05:29. > :05:35.and time can bend just like the ripples of a pond is really what
:05:36. > :05:38.underlies the whole theory. Seeing that directly for the first time is
:05:39. > :05:45.probably the best test of his theory that we have two dates. Finally we
:05:46. > :05:52.get to see totally new objects. The first object we have seen as a pair
:05:53. > :05:54.of black holes which collided 1 billion years ago, massive objects
:05:55. > :06:00.travelling near the speed of light, 30 times the mass of the sun each.
:06:01. > :06:06.Moving near the speed of light, it is an incredible event. As gravity
:06:07. > :06:11.wave detectors carry on working, we will see more events like this. Not
:06:12. > :06:16.only the first gravity wave but the first pair of black holes we have
:06:17. > :06:25.seen. What does this discovery mean for you and I, what can we do today
:06:26. > :06:28.that we couldn't yesterday? Very concretely, we can see pairs of
:06:29. > :06:34.black holes 1 billion light years away. We can tune into one single
:06:35. > :06:40.event billions of years away. When you point a telescope into the sky,
:06:41. > :06:47.you see an incredible array of stuff, but now we can see more new
:06:48. > :06:50.objects. Black holes are like a beacon when you listen to
:06:51. > :06:56.gravitational waves. We cannot study them using optical or x-ray
:06:57. > :06:59.telescopes. There are so many more object we will be able to learn
:07:00. > :07:07.about and study with these new techniques. This has been a huge fit
:07:08. > :07:11.getting to this point. Today is the first time I have heard of
:07:12. > :07:16.gravitational waves but this has been a collaboration of scientists
:07:17. > :07:22.which has lasted decades and gone all around the world. Since the
:07:23. > :07:25.early 90s this experiment has been running and it has been gradually
:07:26. > :07:32.upgrading to become more sensitive. In the early days, people did not
:07:33. > :07:35.expect to see gravity waves. They were building the experiments in
:07:36. > :07:40.preparation for a time they would become sensitive enough and have the
:07:41. > :07:41.technology to see them. Today we have reached that point, which is
:07:42. > :08:02.amazing. Aid agencies are warning that
:08:03. > :08:04.a humanitarian crisis in northern The Red Cross says 50,000 people
:08:05. > :08:09.have fled the recent fighting around the city of Aleppo,
:08:10. > :08:10.and supplies of food, The UN says that 120,000 people are
:08:11. > :08:15.facing malnutrition within weeks. It comes as world leaders
:08:16. > :08:18.are tonight in a new round of talks We've been speaking to a doctor in
:08:19. > :08:23.one of Aleppo's makeshift hospitals. We'll call him Hamzeh al-Khateb -
:08:24. > :08:27.he's asked us not to use his real He gave us this update
:08:28. > :08:30.on the humanitarian In the last couple of days,
:08:31. > :08:34.there are where many injuries We are speaking about the city,
:08:35. > :08:40.not the countryside. We had received about 30 injuries
:08:41. > :08:46.in our hospital only. Today, the situation,
:08:47. > :08:51.Aleppo city has two roads to get The regime, supported
:08:52. > :08:55.by the Russian air force, has control of one of these roads,
:08:56. > :09:02.and now the PKK are hitting In the hospital that I work in,
:09:03. > :09:08.we are about seven doctors. The total doctors inside Aleppo
:09:09. > :09:13.city are less than 30. We have some supplies that got to us
:09:14. > :09:17.through donation by the NGOs. We have enough supplies that make us
:09:18. > :09:22.survive for about 1.5 months, And that's the thing we are most
:09:23. > :09:27.frightened about, to be under siege and cannot help people for more
:09:28. > :09:31.than two months. Let's think about the heavy shelling
:09:32. > :09:34.that happened in Aleppo city Aleppo civilians were about
:09:35. > :09:43.400, 450,000 people. Now I don't think we are more
:09:44. > :09:49.than 200, 250,000 people. So the numbers are more than 50,000
:09:50. > :09:56.people fleeing from Aleppo city. Our chief international
:09:57. > :10:13.correspondent Lyse Doucet What can we realistically expect
:10:14. > :10:19.from these top is in Munich, bringing together both allies and
:10:20. > :10:26.opponents of President Assad? I think there are two issues on the
:10:27. > :10:29.table. The talks have begun amongst 17 countries on either side of the
:10:30. > :10:36.conflict, along with international organisations. There is a lot of
:10:37. > :10:41.talk of ending the punishing sieges which have left more than 250,000
:10:42. > :10:47.Syrians living in areas where they are cut off from food, medicine and
:10:48. > :10:52.other supplies. The opposition wants to see an end to today's sieges and
:10:53. > :10:55.get a signal from the Syrian government that they are serious
:10:56. > :11:02.about ending the suffering and moving towards peace talks. The
:11:03. > :11:08.second issue is a ceasefire. You have heard the account from a doctor
:11:09. > :11:12.about how dire the situation is. The situation has been like that in
:11:13. > :11:17.Aleppo for many years but now the world is paying attention. The
:11:18. > :11:20.discussions will focus on what comes first, how soon will the ceasefire
:11:21. > :11:25.take place, what confidence building measures will have to be in place
:11:26. > :11:30.first and who will move first. This is happening in the hotel find me.
:11:31. > :11:43.We expect a Botox to go on for hours. -- the Cox. Russia says
:11:44. > :11:49.ceasefire will come into force on March the 1st and John Kerry says he
:11:50. > :11:53.wants one immediately. There is no trust, that is the problem. Work at
:11:54. > :11:59.what has been happening on the ground. Syrian talks got underway in
:12:00. > :12:04.January and then Russia launched a bombing campaign around the northern
:12:05. > :12:12.city of Aleppo, saying it is targeting Islamic State but it's
:12:13. > :12:16.actions reinforced the Syrian military which is going to encircle
:12:17. > :12:28.all of Aleppo, so Western countries cry foul. Russia must demonstrate at
:12:29. > :12:33.these talks that it is serious about moving towards a negotiated
:12:34. > :12:37.solution. There is a suspicion about the ceasefire on March the 1st,
:12:38. > :12:43.because that leaves two weeks, just about time for the Russian bombing
:12:44. > :12:47.working with the Syrian military and their Lebanese and Iranian allies on
:12:48. > :12:52.the ground to encircle Aleppo and the opposition forces there.
:12:53. > :12:56.Now a look at some of the day's other news.
:12:57. > :12:59.Six students have died after their bus was hit by a metal
:13:00. > :13:01.panel that had come loose from a lorry.
:13:02. > :13:03.The accident happened in Rochefort in Charente-Maritime in western
:13:04. > :13:24.Those killed were aged between 16 and 18.
:13:25. > :13:26.The final member of the armed militia which has occupied an US
:13:27. > :13:30.sanctuary in the west coast state of Oregon since the beginning
:13:31. > :13:36.of January has surrendered to the FBI.
:13:37. > :13:43.The one person was killed when the division leaders were arrested. --
:13:44. > :13:44.occupation leaders. The police in Myanmar have
:13:45. > :13:47.for the first time decided to give protection to Aung San Suu Kyi
:13:48. > :13:50.following a death threat. Up until now, the National League
:13:51. > :13:52.for Democracy leader has been protected by her own
:13:53. > :13:54.security detail. The man who made the original death
:13:55. > :14:03.threat has since apologised. A 94-year-old suspected former Nazi
:14:04. > :14:06.SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp has gone on trial in Germany
:14:07. > :14:09.over the murder of at Prosecutors say Reinhold Hanning met
:14:10. > :14:12.Jewish prisoners as they arrived at the camp in occupied Poland
:14:13. > :14:15.and may have escorted some Mr Hanning admits working
:14:16. > :14:33.there but denies involvement He is an elderly widowed man who ran
:14:34. > :14:48.a cheese shop until he retired. 70 years ago, this was Reinhold
:14:49. > :14:54.Hanning. SS guard. His job was allegedly to meet Jewish prisoners
:14:55. > :14:58.at Auschwitz. A recent court ruling means anyone who worked in a camp,
:14:59. > :15:05.regardless of role, can now be rocked to trial. Prosecutors have
:15:06. > :15:08.identified a handful of suspects. The justice system is doing that
:15:09. > :15:18.which is possible and I think these few cases are a signal for our
:15:19. > :15:27.country and for humanity and for justice. This man survived
:15:28. > :15:32.Auschwitz. 35 members of his family died there. He is 94, the same age
:15:33. > :15:41.as Reinhold Hanning. It is important to me because I like to see him
:15:42. > :15:50.talking about the time in Auschwitz. He must talk. At one point today you
:15:51. > :15:59.addressed him directly. I asked him to tell the truth. The trial is
:16:00. > :16:03.taking place here in a north-western town near where Reinhold Hanning
:16:04. > :16:07.spent most of his life. It is about trying to determine one-man's
:16:08. > :16:11.culpability but it is about more than that as well. One of the last
:16:12. > :16:16.opportunities for Germany to confront its past face-to-face.
:16:17. > :16:22.Reinhold Hanning is one of the last surviving Nazis to face justice.
:16:23. > :16:24.Now, there have been extraordinary scenes in the South African
:16:25. > :16:27.parliament where President Jacob Zuma has been delivering his annual
:16:28. > :16:28.State of the Nation address in Cape Town.
:16:29. > :16:47.Deputy speaker of the National Assembly and deputy chairperson of
:16:48. > :16:49.the NCOP... Throughout the speech,
:16:50. > :16:50.members of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters demanded
:16:51. > :16:53.the floor to raise points of order and then started to
:16:54. > :16:55.criticise the president. Mr Zuma had to leave
:16:56. > :16:58.the podium repeatedly, and ultimately the Speaker ordered
:16:59. > :17:06.the EFF MPs to leave the chamber. Julius Malema, you
:17:07. > :17:08.will not recognise ... You are prepared to
:17:09. > :17:12.remove the whole party which has been elected by the people
:17:13. > :17:16.in defence of one man! There is nothing that Zuma deserves
:17:17. > :17:23.from as in the form of respect. -- There is nothing that
:17:24. > :17:25.Zuma deserves from us Zuma is no longer
:17:26. > :17:29.a president that deserves He has stolen from us,
:17:30. > :17:33.he has collapsed to the economy of South Africa, he has made
:17:34. > :17:35.this country a joke, We cannot allow Zuma to do
:17:36. > :17:46.as he wishes in this country. Our correspondent Nomsa
:17:47. > :18:03.Maseko is in Cape Town. Just talk us through what happened.
:18:04. > :18:11.The people who were once friends have now become enemies. We saw a
:18:12. > :18:14.showdown with Julius Malema saying that President Jacob Zuma does not
:18:15. > :18:18.deserve the respect of South Africans. He said that because of
:18:19. > :18:23.the events which took place on Tuesday at the Constitutional Court
:18:24. > :18:28.when the EFF and the Democratic Alliance took Jacob Zuma to court
:18:29. > :18:36.because of the report which recommended that Jacob Zuma must pay
:18:37. > :18:40.back a portion of $23 million used to refurbish his private home. We
:18:41. > :18:43.heard from the President's lawyers conceding to the fact they should
:18:44. > :18:50.have taken the report seriously and complied with it. Some politicians
:18:51. > :18:56.and opposition parties are calling on the president to step down,
:18:57. > :19:00.saying that he does not deserve the respect of South Africans, and they
:19:01. > :19:03.also want him to explain why he fired the finance minister in
:19:04. > :19:09.December, because that negatively affected the economy. After all
:19:10. > :19:14.that, the presidentaddress continued. He wanted to talk about
:19:15. > :19:21.the economy and providing the tourist industry, saying that after
:19:22. > :19:27.all the bad regulation introduced by the government he wants to tourism
:19:28. > :19:30.to be boosted in South Africa. More than 50 people have been killed
:19:31. > :19:33.when rival gangs clashed at a prison The riot happened at the Topo Chico
:19:34. > :19:37.prison near the city of Monterrey. Well, it is one of the worst
:19:38. > :19:45.incidents in Mexico's already According to the latest official
:19:46. > :19:51.report from the city of Monterrey in northern Mexico, 52 people have
:19:52. > :19:53.died and 12 are injured, But officials say the situation
:19:54. > :20:03.is now under control and that no And according to the governor,
:20:04. > :20:09.the prisoners have not even attempted to escape,
:20:10. > :20:14.as was initially reported. And as you intimate,
:20:15. > :20:20.gang violence and break-outs are not uncommon in what many consider to be
:20:21. > :20:24.Mexico's notoriously overcrowded and corrupt prison system,
:20:25. > :20:27.but what were conditions like in this particular
:20:28. > :20:30.prison, Topo Chico? These kind of incidents are not
:20:31. > :20:35.at all uncommon in Mexico's overcrowded and violent prisons,
:20:36. > :20:40.which many of them are partially controlled by the inmates,
:20:41. > :20:45.and even at this very same prison of Topo Chico last September,
:20:46. > :20:49.a leader of the Zetas drug gang was stabbed to death in a riot that
:20:50. > :20:53.left 11 prisoners wounded, so we shouldn't say this comes
:20:54. > :20:59.as something completely unexpected. And this incident comes just days
:21:00. > :21:04.before Pope Francis is due to visit another prison in the northern
:21:05. > :21:07.city of Ciudad Juarez, another area notorious for gang
:21:08. > :21:11.violence and drug cartels. Pope Francis is arriving tomorrow
:21:12. > :21:17.in Mexico and next week he is going to visit a prison
:21:18. > :21:20.in Ciudad Juarez, one of the most They are paintings filled with some
:21:21. > :21:31.of the most bizarre images in the history of art, mysteries
:21:32. > :21:36.that have never been solved. Now for the first time ever,
:21:37. > :21:38.the strange and terrifying works of the painter Hieronymous Bosch
:21:39. > :21:41.have been gathered in his home town, Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands,
:21:42. > :21:43.to try to help unlock Our arts correspondent
:21:44. > :21:56.David Sillito reports. He is telling us
:21:57. > :22:00.about good and evil. He was the master of the weird
:22:01. > :22:09.and strange, Hieronymus Bosch. This exhibition a homecoming
:22:10. > :22:12.for paintings that have been scattered across the world
:22:13. > :22:16.but are rooted here. To understand, we
:22:17. > :22:18.climbed the cathedral. The view unchanged in 500 years,
:22:19. > :22:27.is this an echo of it? This image, locals recognise it,
:22:28. > :22:31.but to see it, you have to take It is the hole of hell,
:22:32. > :22:42.it is like hell. A lot of dead soldiers
:22:43. > :22:52.were buried here. They were thrown in the water during
:22:53. > :22:56.winter, when they died. There are echoes of him everywhere,
:22:57. > :22:58.this market square, the buildings have changed, but it is still
:22:59. > :23:01.the medieval landscape There is one thing you will not
:23:02. > :23:05.find. Which is what makes this
:23:06. > :23:09.so extraordinary, his great This is the Haywain,
:23:10. > :23:16.back for the first time I am walking across the market
:23:17. > :23:22.square where he lived and worked every day, and to have a painting
:23:23. > :23:27.like this after 500 years back here, This painting was kept in a store
:23:28. > :23:34.room for decades. But the fox-faced creature,
:23:35. > :23:38.what does it mean? We know the owls are not
:23:39. > :23:44.wisdom, but evil. But what is certain is that 15 years
:23:45. > :23:48.of coaxing and cajoling the world's If we are ever going to understand
:23:49. > :24:02.him, it will be here. A 93-year-old World War II veteran
:24:03. > :24:04.from America has been reunited with his British wartime girlfriend
:24:05. > :24:09.after more than 70 years apart. Norwood Thomas and Joyce Morris fell
:24:10. > :24:12.in love in London shortly before But they lost touch
:24:13. > :24:15.after a misunderstanding. Last year 88-year-old Joyce,
:24:16. > :24:17.who now lives in Australia, For Norwood Thomas, this
:24:18. > :24:23.was the most memorable He arrived in Adelaide
:24:24. > :24:26.after more than seven decades, wondering what became
:24:27. > :24:30.of his wartime sweetheart. What's the first thing
:24:31. > :24:33.you are going to do? His journey from the United States
:24:34. > :24:38.was paid for by well-wishers, when they read about the romance
:24:39. > :24:41.cut short by the war. They met by the River
:24:42. > :24:44.Thames in 1944. And it very rapidly developed
:24:45. > :24:59.into something from attraction, After the war, he wrote
:25:00. > :25:07.to her about marriage. She thought he was
:25:08. > :25:10.engaged to someone else. Last year, their story went viral
:25:11. > :25:18.when she tracked him down on a whim You know, to find someone
:25:19. > :25:24.who loves you, you love them, in the latter years of your life,
:25:25. > :25:28.it would rather be special, They've waited almost
:25:29. > :25:40.a lifetime for this. Over tea, they made plans
:25:41. > :25:52.for Valentine's Day But for now, from me
:25:53. > :26:06.and the rest of the team,