WORLD

EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS
FACEBOOK CAN NOW BE PAKISTAN SAYS NO TO
STOP CALLING OUT TO
SUED FOR REMOVAL OF ORGANISED PRESENCE
COMET LANDER PHILAE
OF DAESH, DESPITE
ACCOUNT OVER 19TH
AS HOPE FADES
CENTURY FRENCH NUDE INTELLIGENCE WARNING
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Space-time ripples could bring stars within earshot

REUTERS

BOSTON The landmark discovery of the first direct evidence of gravitational waves or ripples in space-time, which Albert Einstein predicted a century ago, will enable mankind to
listen to the stars, and not just see them, scientists say.
In a breakthrough announcement, scientists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) said that
they have finally detected the elusive gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of spacetime. Studying gravitational waves will push
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity which originally predicted their existence almost exactly a century ago - to its limits, while

revolutionising our understanding of the

most violent events in the universe, according to researchers.
Analysis of the waves suggests they originated from a system of two black holes, each
with the mass of about 30 Suns, that gravitationally drew closer to each other.
The dense objects whipped up to nearly
the speed of light before colliding, sending
out a stupendous release of gravitational
wave energy that eventually reached the
Earth, 1.5 billion light years away.
As the gravitational waves warped spacetime within LIGO's gargantuan twin detectors, its exquisitely sensitive instruments reg-

Daesh uses, makes

chemical munitions
Dreaded terror outfit could also try its hand at exporting it for money soon, says CIA

Daesh has been using chemical weapons like sulphur mustard, claimed the CIA
WASHINGTON Daesh has used chemical
weapons and can make small quantities of chlorine and mustard gas, CIA
Director John Brennan has said,
warning of the possibility that the
dreaded outfit could seek to export
the weapons for financial gain.
We have a number of instances
where Daesh has used chemical munitions on the battlefield, Brennan
told CBS Newsin an interview, the excerpts of which were released on
Thursday.
There are reports that Daesh has
access to chemical precursors and

ammunitions that they can use,

Brennan said in response to a question.
According to the CBS news, CIA
believes that Daesh has the ability to
manufacture small quantity of chlorine and mustard gas.
Brennan warned of the possibility that Daesh could seek to export the
weapons to the West for financial
gain.
I think there is always a potential
for that (exporting those chemicals).
That is why it is so important to cut off
the various transportation routes,

the smuggling routes that that have

used, he said in response to a question. Brennan said the US intelligence is actively involved in part of
the effort to destroy Daesh and get as
much insight into what they have on
the ground inside Syria and Iraq.
Early this week, James Clapper,
director of National Intelligence,
told members of the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence that
Daesh has used chemical weapons in
Iraq and Syria.
Chemical weapons continue to
pose a threat in Syria and Iraq. Damascus has used chemicals against
the opposition on multiple occasions since Syria joined the chemical
weapons convention, he had said.
Daesh has also used toxic chemicals in Iraq and Syria, including the
blister agent, sulphur mustard.
The first time an extremist group
has produced and used a chemical
warfare agent in an attack since Aum
Shinrikyo used sarin in Japan in
1995, Clapper had said.
Mustard gas is a class chemical
warfare agent with the ability to form
large blisters on the exposed skin and
in the lungs.
Chlorine gas is a toxic gas and pulmonary irritant with intermediate
water solubility that causes acute
damage to the receptors in the epithelium of the respiratory tract. PTI

THATSWEIRD

ELSEWHEREINTHEWORLD

SPANIARDS SIX-YEAR SICK LEAVE WENT UNNOTICED BY BOSS

CESSATION OF SYRIAN HOSTILITIES

MADRID A Spanish civil servant has

been fined 27,000 ($30,000) after not

going to work for at least six years, BBC
reported.
Joaquin Garcia, 69, was working as
a supervisor of a building at a waste water treatment plant, and has since retired.
However, his absence was noticed
when he was due to receive an award - a
plaque -- for 20 years of his service.

That is when his boss realised that

he had not seen Garcia for at least six
years.
Garcia denied the allegation and
said that he had been a victim of bullying. He claimed that he had been transferred to that position because of his
family politics.
However, he did not object to it as he
had his family to look after. Instead, he
took the six-year sick leave. AGENCIES

MUNICH Diplomats agreed on Friday to work

toward a temporary cessation of hostilities in

Syria's civil war within a week, although efforts to secure a lasting cease-fire fell short.
The deal appeared to be the result of a
compromise between the United States and
Russia. which had proposed one to start on
March 1. The deal necessarily means an
agreement to accelerate and expand deliveries of humanitarian aid to Syria beginning this
week.
AP

istered vibrations on the order of thousands

of the diameter of a proton.

HAWKING HAILS DISCOVERY

The discovery of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, could "revolutionise astronomy", according to renowned UK physicist Stephen Hawking who congratulated
scientists on their groundbreaking work. He
said the breakthrough tallied with predictions he made more than 40 years ago at Cambridge University. "The area of the final black
hole is greater than the sum of the areas of the
initial black holes as predicted by my black
hole area theorem," he said.
AGENCIES

NY cop guilty of killing

unarmed black man
NEW YORK A jury found a rookie New
York police officer guilty of manslaughter in the 2014 fatal shooting
of an unarmed black man an incident that fuelled US protests against
police tactics.
Peter Liang now faces up to 15
years in prison for the death of Akai
Gurley, a 28-year-old father who
was struck in the chest by a bullet
that ricocheted off the wall in the
stairwell of a Brooklyn public housing project.
The jury found 28-year-old
Liang guilty of second-degree manslaughter and official misconduct
after a two-week trial in Brooklyn,
prosecutors said. The jury had begun deliberations on Tuesday.
Today's verdict represents justice for Akai Gurley who was totally
innocent when he was shot and
killed that night, said Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson.
The trial was a rare case of a US

police officer criminally charged for

opening fire and comes at a time
when departments are under scrutiny for the shootings of unarmed suspects, many of them black, and other alleged brutalities.
During the trial, prosecutor
Marc Fliedner said Liang "fired for
no reason" then "wasted precious
time arguing with his partner," worried that he would be sacked. Liang
had been on the job just 11 months
before the shooting.
AFP

Pak foils attempt to free

Daniel Pearl killer, 97 held
KARACHI Pakistan Army on Friday
said it has arrested nearly 100 militants and foiled an imminent jailbreak attempt to free top al-Qaeda
leader Ahmed Omar Saeed
Sheikh, sentenced to death for the
murder of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The militants, belonging to top
terror networks like the al-Qaeda in
the Indian subcontinent, Lashkar-eJhangvi and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, had set up a joint task team to
carry out terror attacks in the country, army spokesman Lt Gen Asim
Saleem Bajwa said.
Our conclusion is that all of the
terrorist groups are trying to cooperate with each other in order to carry
out terrorist attacks, he said.
Bajwa said as many as 97 terrorists, who had been involved in several major terror attacks including
on the Mehran airbase, Jinnah airport, PAF base in Kamra and several

others, were arrested from Pakistans biggest city here.

The arrested militants were also
planning to break Hyderabad jail to
release top al-Qaeda leader Omar
Sheikh, sentenced to death for the
killing of 38-year-old Pearl, the
South Asia bureau chief for The Wall
Street Journal, while he was in Pakistan investigating a story on the alleged links between the country's
spy agency, ISI, and al-Qaeda.
PTI