Top News Stories –

Prof Hawking backs interstellar travel project –
Stephen Hawking is backing a project to send tiny spacecraft to another star system within a generation. They would travel trillions of miles; far further than any previous craft.
A $100m (£70m) research programme to develop the computer chip-sized “starships” was launched by the billionaire Yuri Milner, supported by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. “If we are to survive as a species we must ultimately spread out to the stars,” he said. “Astronomers believe that there is a reasonable chance of an Earth-like planet orbiting one of the stars [in] the Alpha Centauri system. But we will know more in the next two decades from ground based and space based telescopes. “Technological developments in the last two decades and the future make it possible in principle within a generation.” [BBC]
Stephen Hawking in 1999

Entertainer and producer David Gest found dead –
Entertainer, producer and reality television star David Gest has died in a London hotel aged 62, a statement from his friend says. Gest, who is a former husband of singer Liza Minnelli, died at the Four Seasons hotel in Canary Wharf. His friend and ex-bodyguard Imad Handi confirmed the news in a statement. American Gest was best known in the UK for his appearances on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and Celebrity Big Brother. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • The Taliban announces its annual spring offensive to be named “Operation Omari“. (Voice of America)
• PKK rebellion (2015–present)
  • A car bomb attack on a Turkish gendarmerie in the town of Hani kills at least two people and injures 50. (Reuters)
• Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
  • A Russian Air Force Mi-28 attack helicopter crashes near the Syrian city of Homs, killing two pilots. (BBC)
• Operation Barkhane
  • A French Army soldier is killed and three others are injured after their convoy hit a landmine in northern Mali. (AP via ABC News)
• War in Somalia
  • U.S. officials say unmanned airstrikes in southern Somalia killed about a dozen suspected militants from the al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab on Monday and Tuesday. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• A painting, Judith Beheading Holofernes, believed to be from Italian painter Caravaggio, is discovered in an attic in the French city of Toulouse. (The Guardian)

Business and economics

• Reuters reports that it has seen a draft memorandum generated by the International Monetary Fund that describes the debt owed by Greece to its European partners as “highly unsustainable.” (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• A massive fire occurs in a textile factory in the Mumbai suburb of Bhiwandi in India‘s Maharashtra state. Fifty people are feared trapped. (IBN Live)
• A Pakistani police officer accidentally detonates a grenade in an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, injuring himself and a court assistant. The officer was attempting to demonstrate a grenade detonator to a judge and said the grenade was defused before pulling the pin. (The Guardian)

International relations

• Cross-Strait relations
  • Taiwan accuses China of “extrajudicial abduction” after 45 Taiwanese acquitted of fraud in Kenya were forcibly deported to China. (BBC News) (The New York Times) (Los Angeles Times) (Voice of America)
• North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korean defectors
  • North Korea accuses South Korea of kidnapping its citizens and demands their immediate return after Seoul‘s Ministry of Unification said 13 of them had defected to South Korea from China, where they worked in a Pyongyang-operated restaurant. China says that the 13 people, a male manager and 12 young female employees, had legitimate passports and had freely exited China. (The Straits Times)
• Iran–Italy relations
  • During a visit to Iran, Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi signs various bilateral agreements to enhance relations between the two countries, including plans for cooperation between the Italian electricity and gas company Enel and the National Iranian Oil Company. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Bolivia–Russia relations
  • Russia and Bolivia meet to discuss how Russian defense firms can help the South American nation’s long-term rearmament plan. (UPI)

Law and crime

• Australian 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown and her crew are reportedly facing kidnapping charges in Lebanon following a bungled child recovery attempt. (Courier Mail)
• 2016 Brussels bombings
  • Belgium federal prosecutors say two more men have been charged with terrorist offenses linked to last month’s Brussels bombing. Also, three people connected to the last year’s Paris attacks are in custody. (Reuters)
• North Carolina House Bill 2
  • North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signs Executive Order 73 that addresses some, but not all, troublesome provisions in House Bill 2 that caused businesses, traveling recording stars, etc., to stay clear of the state. The order does expand the state’s anti-discrimination employment policy to include LBGT protection, but reiterates that people use the marked facility consistent with “… their biological sex.” The American Civil Liberties Union says the order, “… fall(s) far short of correcting the damage done … (and that)… transgender people are still explicitly targeted by being forced to use the wrong restroom.” Equality North Carolina says, “… the order doubles down on the Governor’s support for some of the most problematic provisions of HB2.” (NPR) (WSOC) (WNCN)
• Panama Papers
  • Authorities in Panama raid law firm Mossack Fonseca, the source of the data leaked about offshore companies. (AFP via The Rappler)
• Bad Aibling rail accident
  • A German train controller, who was operating the tracks where two trains collided on February 9 near the town of Bad Aibling, Bavaria, is arrested on possible manslaughter charges. Prosecutors say the controller had been playing a game on his mobile phone, which led to his making signalling errors. The crash resulted in 11 deaths and 85 injuries, 24 serious. (UPI)

Politics and elections

• Hundreds of people take to the streets of Handwara, Jammu and Kashmir after Indian Army soldiers shot dead at least two people during a protest against an alleged case of sexual harrasment by an army soldier against a young woman. (Al Jazeera)
• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Paul Ryan, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, rules out seeking or accepting the Republican Party nomination in 2016. (Fox News)
• Brazil impeachment process, 2016
  • President Dilma Rousseff, speaking with teachers and students, says Vice President Michel Temer and Chamber of Deputies Speaker Eduardo Cunha are jointly plotting her downfall. The two men are in line to succeed her if she is impeached. (AP via The Washington Post)
  • In a 13-minute audio tape he released Monday, Vice President Temer outlines his administration in the event that President Rousseff is impeached. Temer says he unintentionally sent the tape to lawmakers through an instant messenger app. (Bloomberg) (AP via The Washington Post)

Science and technology

• A British brain scan study of Lysergic acid diethylamide shows LSD may be useful in treating mental disorders such as major depressive disorder. (BBC)(Nature)
• British cosmologist Stephen Hawking and Russian venture capitalist and physicist Yuri Milner announce ” Breaktrough Starshot,” a $100 million effort to plan a trip to the sun’s closest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri, via developing nanotechnology that would put the craft within the star system roughly 20 years after leaving Earth. (UPI)

Sport

• In rugby union, Allister Coetzee is named as the new coach of the South Africa national rugby team. (IOL)

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