Top News Stories –

Einstein’s gravitational waves found at last –
One hundred years after Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, scientists have finally spotted these elusive ripples in space-time. In a highly anticipated announcement, physicists with the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) revealed on 11 February that their twin detectors have heard the gravitational ‘ringing’ produced by the collision of two black holes about 400 megaparsecs (1.3 billion light-years) from Earth.“Ladies and gentlemen, we have detected gravitational waves,” David Reitze, the executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, said at a Washington DC press conference. “We did it!” One black hole was about 36 times the mass of the Sun, and the other was about 29 solar masses. As they spiralled inexorably into one another, they merged into a single, more-massive gravitational sink in space-time that weighed 62 solar masses, the LIGO team estimates. [Nature] See Video of the Day

Star Wars prosecuted over Harrison Ford injury –
The production company behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens is being prosecuted over the incident in which Harrison Ford broke his leg. The actor was struck by a hydraulic metal door on the Pinewood set of the Millennium Falcon in June 2014. The Health And Safety Executive has brought four criminal charges against Foodles Production (UK) Ltd – a subsidiary of Disney. Foodles Production said it was “disappointed” by the HSE’s decision. Following the incident, Ford was airlifted to hospital for surgery. [BBC] Harrison Ford received more than £23 million for his role in the new Star Wars blockbuster and last year crashed his light aircraft for a third time.
Harrison Ford

Video of the Day –

LIGO Gravitational Wave Chirp

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Northern Mali conflict
  • Suspected Islamist militants attack a customs post in the town of Mopti, central Mali, killing two civilians and a customs officer. (Reuters)
• Terrorism in Saudi Arabia
  • A man shoots six people dead at an education centre in Jizan Province, Saudi Arabia. (BBC)
• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • Four policemen are killed and another seven wounded when one of their colleagues opened fire on them in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Appeal Democrat)

Business and economics

• Uber, in San Francisco, California (U.S.), federal court, says it will pay $28.5 million to settle two lawsuits over misleading background check information. Prosecutors settled a similar lawsuit with competitorLyft in 2014. (AP via ABC News)

Disasters and accidents

• 2016 Taiwan earthquake
  • The death toll from the earthquake rises to 59 with 76 missing. (AAP via News Limited)
• Aliso Canyon gas leak
  • Southern California Gas Company caps, at least temporarily, the natural gas leak that started last October and has forced thousands to flee their homes. (UPI) (Los Angeles Times)

Health

• A yellow fever outbreak has killed 37 people in Angola since December 2015. (AAP via News Limited)

International relations

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • South Korea starts withdrawing its nationals from the Kaesong Industrial Region in protest to recent actions by North Korea. (Yonhap)
  • North Korea says it will freeze all South Korean assets and equipment at the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Park. (AP)
  • South Korea shuts off the supply of electricity and water to the Kaesong Industrial Region. (Reuters)

Law and Crime

• Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
  • All four remaining occupiers leave the refuge and surrender. (CNN)
• Topo Chico prison riot
  • At least 52 inmates are killed in a riot and fire at Topo Chico prison in Monterrey, Mexico. (FOX News) (CNN)

Politics and elections

• José Ignacio Peralta is sworn in as Governor of Colima.(El Diario de Coahuila)
• Warren Truss, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, announces his resignation as the leader of the National Party of Australia. Barnaby Joyce is elected as the new leader with Fiona Nash elected as the new deputy leader. (ABC News Australia), (ABC News)
• The French president François Hollande reshuffles his cabinet, bringing in three ministers from two green parties, Europe Ecology – The Greens and Écologistes !; former Prime Minister of France Jean-Marc Ayrault is named as the new Foreign Minister replacing Laurent Fabius who resigned earlier in the week. (The Guardian), (BBC)
• Democratic Party presidential debates, 2016
  • Protesters demanding a $15 minimum wage stormed the venue in front of local and national media prior to the start of the sixth debate, this one between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Milwaukee,Wisconsin. (UPI) (Fox 6 News)

Science

• The LIGO Scientific Collaboration experiment announces the first direct observation of gravitational waves. (Nature), (Guardian), (New York Times) (APS Journals)

Sports

• Sunderland A.F.C. terminate the contract of England international footballer Adam Johnson after he pleads guilty to two charges relating to child sexual abuse. (BBC)

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