Scientists say the earthquake in Japan in March 2011 was so big that its effects were felt at the edge of space. The earthquake caused a devastating tsunami which killed nearly 16,000 people. Writing in the journal "Geophysical Research Letters", the researchers said the earthquake emitted such a powerful ripple of sound that traces of it were picked up by the Goce satellite, 255 kilometers above earth.
A fire in a block of apartments in Germany has killed eight members of a family of Turkish origin, a mother and her seven children. The blaze broke out on Sunday morning, in the town of Backnang near Stuttgart. Steve Evans reports from Berlin. The fire broke out in a flat in an old three-storey leather factory converted into apartments. Four people were rescued from a balcony but the flames and smoke were too intense to reach the mother and her children. Investigators were concentrating on an oven in the building as the likely source. The building also houses the offices of a Turkish cultural association. But the police said there was no evidence of racist attack. There will be keen interest though, because in the past, the police have been accused of being slow to see any racist connection to crime.
World news from the BBC.
The people of Falkland Islands are voting in a referendum on whether to remain an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. Voters are widely expected to support retaining their current status. But Argentina has called the exercise illegal and meaningless.