Top News Stories –

British fashion icon Alexander McQueen commits suicide –
British fashion designer Alexander McQueen was discovered dead today after taking his own life. The industry was left reeling after the 40-year-old’s suicide this morning, which comes just days after the death of his beloved mother, Joyce. Police were called to the designer’s £640,000 flat at 10.20am this morning after he was found dead. A private ambulance arrived to take away his body at 4.30pm. [Daily Mail]
Alexander McQueen

Dark matter ‘seen for first time’ –
Scientists may have caught their first glimpse of dark matter, the mysterious hidden substance believed to give structure to the universe. After nine years of searching, detectors buried 2,000ft underground in an old US iron mine registered two “hits” by what could turn out to be dark matter particles. Both bear the hallmarks of “weakly interacting massive particles” or “Wimps”, one of the most likely dark matter candidates.
But frustratingly, two detections are not quite enough to clinch the discovery. There is still a one in four chance that the results, published by the journal Science, are due to accidental background “noise”. The scientists say five detections would be sufficient to confirm the presence of Wimps. [Daily Telegraph]

Dutch police find Valentine’s Day roses stuffed with cocaine –
Dutch police found more than £1 million worth of cocaine in a shipment of 20,000 Valentine’s Day roses that arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport from Colombia. Prosecutors said eight kilogrammes of cocaine was hidden in cardboard boxes containing the roses. It was packaged into 20-gramme cellophane parcels hidden in false panels in 200 flower boxes on a plane from Bogota. Three alleged smugglers were arrested in the Netherlands after the discovery, including the importer. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Polar Bear from Plane Stupid on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

• A European Union summit takes place to discuss a possible bailout for Greece‘s economy. (Reuters) (The Guardian)
• The European Parliament rejects an agreement that would have granted the United States Terrorist Finance Tracking Program unlimited access to the SWIFT bank transactions database. (BBC News)
• Protests continue in Sri Lanka after the arrest of opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka. (AFP) (Bernama)
• British fashion designer Alexander McQueen is found dead at his home in London at the age of 40, on the eve of his mother’s funeral, in an apparent suicide. (BBC News) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The New York Times) (Irish Independent) (The New Zealand Herald)
• A court in Beijing upholds a sentence against Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo who was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment on charges ofsubversion. (Xinhua) (The Times) (Al Jazeera)
• Iran:
  • President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran is now a nuclear state, following a successful 20% uranium enrichment. (New York Times)
  • Reformists clash with police forces in Iran, during protests held at the 31st anniversary of the overthrow of shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.(New York Times) (Al Jazeera)
• Sergey Aleynikov, a former computer programmer for Goldman Sachs, is indicted for three counts by a U.S. federal court in Manhattan for theft oftrade secrets, transportation of stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce, and unauthorized computer access. (Wall Street Journal)
• Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has two coronary stents implanted in his heart at the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, after chest pains. (New York TImes)
• Haiti announces that the 10 American missionaries accused of attempted kidnapping will be released from custody. (Sky News)
• A large eruption occurs at the Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat after a partial lava dome collapse, sending ash to a height of 50,000 feet.(Montserrat Volcano Obeservatory)

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