11/02/2016 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today, with me, Alice Baxter.

A stunning discovery by physicists that

could revolutionise the study of the universe.

Scientists say they've found the existence

of the ever-elusive gravitational wave.

It's a break-through being described as ushering

Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking

The ability to detect them has the potential

Meanwhile, as Russia and the US talk possible ceasefire deals for Syria,

aid agencies warn the humanitarian crisis is now a catastrophe

Extraordinary scenes in the South African Parliament

as President Jacob Zuma is heckled while delivering his State

And a wartime couple reunite for the first time after falling

in love just before D-Day, and then losing contact for more

We begin with a breakthrough that's got the science world abuzz.

It's being described as the most important discovery of this century,

a discovery that will bring a much greater understanding of the origin

It was Einstein who first came up with the idea of gravitational waves

but it's taken 100 years demonstrate they exist.

Our science correspondent, Pallab Ghosh, reports.

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

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

Eventually, right up to the moment of the Big Bang.

Scientists have been searching for ripples in space

Today, they told the world they had found them,

created by two black holes colliding more than a billion

We have detected gravitational waves.

Professor Stephen Hawking told me it was a ground-breaking development.

Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking

The ability to detect them has the potential

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

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 jabs,

Researchers developed a powerful laser system capable of measuring

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

by a minute amount when a gravitational wave passes through.

It really is, when you consider that these black holes actually

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

We turned on our detectors at exactly the right time

Those gravitational waves can be turned into sound.

That is the chirping we have been looking for.

That is one of the beautiful things, we are not only going to be seeing

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.

With me now is physicist Dr Toby Wiseman.

As someone who isn't a scientist, it is still difficult to really

understand how momentous this is and how significant the discovery is. It

is significant on many fronts. It is an incredible human achievement,

starting with Einstein nearly exactly 100 years ago, and it has

taken this long to understand theoretically and build things to

measure it. On the other hand, it is an amazing confirmation of

Einstein's theory. The ripples of space and time, the fact that space

and time can bend just like the ripples of a pond is really what

underlies the whole theory. Seeing that directly for the first time is

probably the best test of his theory that we have two dates. Finally we

get to see totally new objects. The first object we have seen as a pair

of black holes which collided 1 billion years ago, massive objects

travelling near the speed of light, 30 times the mass of the sun each.

Moving near the speed of light, it is an incredible event. As gravity

wave detectors carry on working, we will see more events like this. Not

only the first gravity wave but the first pair of black holes we have

seen. What does this discovery mean for you and I, what can we do today

that we couldn't yesterday? Very concretely, we can see pairs of

black holes 1 billion light years away. We can tune into one single

event billions of years away. When you point a telescope into the sky,

you see an incredible array of stuff, but now we can see more new

objects. Black holes are like a beacon when you listen to

gravitational waves. We cannot study them using optical or x-ray

telescopes. There are so many more object we will be able to learn

about and study with these new techniques. This has been a huge fit

getting to this point. Today is the first time I have heard of

gravitational waves but this has been a collaboration of scientists

which has lasted decades and gone all around the world. Since the

early 90s this experiment has been running and it has been gradually

upgrading to become more sensitive. In the early days, people did not

expect to see gravity waves. They were building the experiments in

preparation for a time they would become sensitive enough and have the

technology to see them. Today we have reached that point, which is

amazing. Aid agencies are warning that

a humanitarian crisis in northern The Red Cross says 50,000 people

have fled the recent fighting around the city of Aleppo,

and supplies of food, The UN says that 120,000 people are

facing malnutrition within weeks. It comes as world leaders

are tonight in a new round of talks We've been speaking to a doctor in

one of Aleppo's makeshift hospitals. We'll call him Hamzeh al-Khateb -

he's asked us not to use his real He gave us this update

on the humanitarian In the last couple of days,

there are where many injuries We are speaking about the city,

not the countryside. We had received about 30 injuries

in our hospital only. Today, the situation,

Aleppo city has two roads to get The regime, supported

by the Russian air force, has control of one of these roads,

and now the PKK are hitting In the hospital that I work in,

we are about seven doctors. The total doctors inside Aleppo

city are less than 30. We have some supplies that got to us

through donation by the NGOs. We have enough supplies that make us

survive for about 1.5 months, And that's the thing we are most

frightened about, to be under siege and cannot help people for more

than two months. Let's think about the heavy shelling

that happened in Aleppo city Aleppo civilians were about

400, 450,000 people. Now I don't think we are more

than 200, 250,000 people. So the numbers are more than 50,000

people fleeing from Aleppo city. Our chief international

correspondent Lyse Doucet What can we realistically expect

from these top is in Munich, bringing together both allies and

opponents of President Assad? I think there are two issues on the

table. The talks have begun amongst 17 countries on either side of the

conflict, along with international organisations. There is a lot of

talk of ending the punishing sieges which have left more than 250,000

Syrians living in areas where they are cut off from food, medicine and

other supplies. The opposition wants to see an end to today's sieges and

get a signal from the Syrian government that they are serious

about ending the suffering and moving towards peace talks. The

second issue is a ceasefire. You have heard the account from a doctor

about how dire the situation is. The situation has been like that in

Aleppo for many years but now the world is paying attention. The

discussions will focus on what comes first, how soon will the ceasefire

take place, what confidence building measures will have to be in place

first and who will move first. This is happening in the hotel find me.

We expect a Botox to go on for hours. -- the Cox. Russia says

ceasefire will come into force on March the 1st and John Kerry says he

wants one immediately. There is no trust, that is the problem. Work at

what has been happening on the ground. Syrian talks got underway in

January and then Russia launched a bombing campaign around the northern

city of Aleppo, saying it is targeting Islamic State but it's

actions reinforced the Syrian military which is going to encircle

all of Aleppo, so Western countries cry foul. Russia must demonstrate at

these talks that it is serious about moving towards a negotiated

solution. There is a suspicion about the ceasefire on March the 1st,

because that leaves two weeks, just about time for the Russian bombing

working with the Syrian military and their Lebanese and Iranian allies on

the ground to encircle Aleppo and the opposition forces there.

Now a look at some of the day's other news.

Six students have died after their bus was hit by a metal

panel that had come loose from a lorry.

The accident happened in Rochefort in Charente-Maritime in western

Those killed were aged between 16 and 18.

The final member of the armed militia which has occupied an US

sanctuary in the west coast state of Oregon since the beginning

of January has surrendered to the FBI.

The one person was killed when the division leaders were arrested. --

occupation leaders. The police in Myanmar have

for the first time decided to give protection to Aung San Suu Kyi

following a death threat. Up until now, the National League

for Democracy leader has been protected by her own

security detail. The man who made the original death

threat has since apologised. A 94-year-old suspected former Nazi

SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp has gone on trial in Germany

over the murder of at Prosecutors say Reinhold Hanning met

Jewish prisoners as they arrived at the camp in occupied Poland

and may have escorted some Mr Hanning admits working

there but denies involvement He is an elderly widowed man who ran

a cheese shop until he retired. 70 years ago, this was Reinhold

Hanning. SS guard. His job was allegedly to meet Jewish prisoners

at Auschwitz. A recent court ruling means anyone who worked in a camp,

regardless of role, can now be rocked to trial. Prosecutors have

identified a handful of suspects. The justice system is doing that

which is possible and I think these few cases are a signal for our

country and for humanity and for justice. This man survived

Auschwitz. 35 members of his family died there. He is 94, the same age

as Reinhold Hanning. It is important to me because I like to see him

talking about the time in Auschwitz. He must talk. At one point today you

addressed him directly. I asked him to tell the truth. The trial is

taking place here in a north-western town near where Reinhold Hanning

spent most of his life. It is about trying to determine one-man's

culpability but it is about more than that as well. One of the last

opportunities for Germany to confront its past face-to-face.

Reinhold Hanning is one of the last surviving Nazis to face justice.

Now, there have been extraordinary scenes in the South African

parliament where President Jacob Zuma has been delivering his annual

State of the Nation address in Cape Town.

Deputy speaker of the National Assembly and deputy chairperson of

the NCOP... Throughout the speech,

members of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters demanded

the floor to raise points of order and then started to

criticise the president. Mr Zuma had to leave

the podium repeatedly, and ultimately the Speaker ordered

the EFF MPs to leave the chamber. Julius Malema, you

will not recognise ... You are prepared to

remove the whole party which has been elected by the people

in defence of one man! There is nothing that Zuma deserves

from as in the form of respect. -- There is nothing that

Zuma deserves from us Zuma is no longer

a president that deserves He has stolen from us,

he has collapsed to the economy of South Africa, he has made

this country a joke, We cannot allow Zuma to do

as he wishes in this country. Our correspondent Nomsa

Maseko is in Cape Town. Just talk us through what happened.

The people who were once friends have now become enemies. We saw a

showdown with Julius Malema saying that President Jacob Zuma does not

deserve the respect of South Africans. He said that because of

the events which took place on Tuesday at the Constitutional Court

when the EFF and the Democratic Alliance took Jacob Zuma to court

because of the report which recommended that Jacob Zuma must pay

back a portion of $23 million used to refurbish his private home. We

heard from the President's lawyers conceding to the fact they should

have taken the report seriously and complied with it. Some politicians

and opposition parties are calling on the president to step down,

saying that he does not deserve the respect of South Africans, and they

also want him to explain why he fired the finance minister in

December, because that negatively affected the economy. After all

that, the presidentaddress continued. He wanted to talk about

the economy and providing the tourist industry, saying that after

all the bad regulation introduced by the government he wants to tourism

to be boosted in South Africa. More than 50 people have been killed

when rival gangs clashed at a prison The riot happened at the Topo Chico

prison near the city of Monterrey. Well, it is one of the worst

incidents in Mexico's already According to the latest official

report from the city of Monterrey in northern Mexico, 52 people have

died and 12 are injured, But officials say the situation

is now under control and that no And according to the governor,

the prisoners have not even attempted to escape,

as was initially reported. And as you intimate,

gang violence and break-outs are not uncommon in what many consider to be

Mexico's notoriously overcrowded and corrupt prison system,

but what were conditions like in this particular

prison, Topo Chico? These kind of incidents are not

at all uncommon in Mexico's overcrowded and violent prisons,

which many of them are partially controlled by the inmates,

and even at this very same prison of Topo Chico last September,

a leader of the Zetas drug gang was stabbed to death in a riot that

left 11 prisoners wounded, so we shouldn't say this comes

as something completely unexpected. And this incident comes just days

before Pope Francis is due to visit another prison in the northern

city of Ciudad Juarez, another area notorious for gang

violence and drug cartels. Pope Francis is arriving tomorrow

in Mexico and next week he is going to visit a prison

in Ciudad Juarez, one of the most They are paintings filled with some

of the most bizarre images in the history of art, mysteries

that have never been solved. Now for the first time ever,

the strange and terrifying works of the painter Hieronymous Bosch

have been gathered in his home town, Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands,

to try to help unlock Our arts correspondent

David Sillito reports. He is telling us

about good and evil. 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. The view unchanged in 500 years,

is this an echo of it? This image, locals recognise it,

but to see it, you have to take It is the hole of hell,

it is like hell. A lot of dead soldiers

were buried here. They were thrown in the water during

winter, when they died. There are echoes of him everywhere,

this market square, the buildings have changed, but it is still

the medieval landscape There is one thing you will not

find. Which is what makes this

so extraordinary, his great This is the Haywain,

back for the first time 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, This painting was kept in a store

room for decades. But the fox-faced creature,

what does it mean? We know the owls are not

wisdom, but evil. But what is certain is that 15 years

of coaxing and cajoling the world's If we are ever going to understand

him, it will be here. A 93-year-old World War II veteran

from America has been reunited with his British wartime girlfriend

after more than 70 years apart. Norwood Thomas and Joyce Morris fell

in love in London shortly before But they lost touch

after a misunderstanding. Last year 88-year-old Joyce,

who now lives in Australia, For Norwood Thomas, this

was the most memorable He arrived in Adelaide

after more than seven decades, wondering what became

of his wartime sweetheart. What's the first thing

you are going to do? His journey from the United States

was paid for by well-wishers, when they read about the romance

cut short by the war. They met by the River

Thames in 1944. And it very rapidly developed

into something from attraction, After the war, he wrote

to her about marriage. She thought he was

engaged to someone else. Last year, their story went viral

when she tracked him down on a whim You know, to find someone

who loves you, you love them, in the latter years of your life,

it would rather be special, They've waited almost

a lifetime for this. Over tea, they made plans

for Valentine's Day But for now, from me

and the rest of the team,