>> this is "dw news," live from berlin could tonight, rolling out the red carpet. stars, film industry bigwigs, and offense turnout for one of europe -- their fans turn out for one of europe's top cinematic events. the berlin international film festival starts this evening and we will bring yo the latest from, you guessed it, the red carpet. nato takes on human traffickers. nato ships begin patrolling the seas between greece and turkey in an effort to stop people smugglers. and catching a wave. researchers in the u.s. say they have detected gravitational

waves which have eluded physicists for decades, but what are they? we will do our best to explain. i am brent goff. good to have you with us. lights, camera, and the berlin international film festival. it kicks off this evening with plenty of store power on hand. the president of this year's seven-member jury is the u.s. actress meryl streep. she told the press earlier that she has "no idea how to run a jury." streep is joined on the panel by an actress in germany and clive owen from britain, among others. it will decide who gets the top prize, the golden bear for best picture, which is due to be awarded next saturday.

what an exciting time it is in berlin rght now, and my very lucky colleague sarah hartman is standing right beside the red carpet this evening. good evening to you. you always get the lucky assignments in february, i have to say. you were able to see the opening movie, right? sarah: i was. brent: what was your impression? sarah: should i tell you about it or should i tell you about the red carpet? the opening movie was "hail, caesar!" with george clooney that was enough to get people excited, and this was directed by the coen brothers, who are a pretty big deal. they did "the big lebowski," i'm sure you have seen their films, and it also had tilda swinton. everyone loves her in berlin. she is here to remember david the week, one of those being honored after he passed away just -- remember david bowie one

of those being honored after he passed away a few weeks ago. it also has channing tatum with a tap dancing number. it is a great film in a film really abot old hollywood, is very nostalgic. i think you will like it. brent: who showed up for the opening movie besides the stars you mentioned? sarah: well, of course we had a jury president meryl streep and i know you have a special crush on her. she had so much support. people were standing out with "we love meryl" posters in size and she got a huge round of applause. she said she had no idea how to run a jury could anyone who saw her in "the devil wears prada" knows she could run the world if she wanted to. the festival director has been around for hours welcoming celebrities. he is a real berlin fixture

should people here know him and he always takes time to talk to the press. i had a chance to talk to a german household name, a lot of international people are getting to know him, he was in "inglorious basterds," and i asked him if he saw his home more in european cinema or in hollywood, and he told me that his future and his heart are here in europe. it is also very true for berlin, their focus not so much on the hollywood films, although we did have one that, but international films and smaller, more indie films. brent: you were at the press conference after the showing of "hail, casear!" who was there? sarah: all the cast, close the coen brothers. germany to begin a million refugees last year and that is a topic that is on a lot of people's minds.

they are having some screenings for refugees, and one reporter got up and asked george clooney, what are you doing to help refugees, and you don't really see this guy lose his cool, but he got tense and he said very directly come "what are you doing to help refugees?" you could see he felt the little defensive almost, and that was a very berlin moment because the emphasis on the political is always very present here in berlin. everyone's mind is on the refugee crisis even as we roll out the red carpet and celebrate celebrities. brent: every time you point a finger there are 4 fingers running back at you, a wise woman once told me. sarah harman, we will be talking to you later on in the day. thank you very much. what to do about syria? that is the question tonight as foreign ministers from 17 nation's meet in munich.

their goal, getting the syrian government and opposition groups to talk to each other again. the biggest hurdle for peace talks at the moment is the ongoing fighting in and around the syrian city of aleppo. kurdish fighters, rebel groups, and syrian government troops backed by russian airstrikes are fighting for control of the city. it was once syria's most populated city. 50,000 people have fled the recent fighting. the u.s. secretary of state john kerry and his russian counterpart, sergei lavrov, discussed their positions before the conference began. moscow signaled ahead of the meeting that it wants to talk about a cease-fire. germany's foreign minister is at that meeting as well. he said many of those present are expecting some kind of breakthrough. >> anyone following the events in syria knows we are at a crossroads.

if we don't succeed now in breaking the spiral of violence, this terrible civil war will go on even longer and result in even more victims. that's why we foreign ministers have met today for a round of discussions in which everyone necessary is present. the americans and europeans on the one hand, and the iranians masou, saudis, and many of syr's neighbors on the other. brent: that was the german foreign minister. let's bring in our foreign correspondent come in munich. good evening to you. let's pick up on the positive attitude of the german foreign minister, considering what is going on in syria. what could give reason to believe we could see some type of cease-fire? reporter: well, he himself said that all the right people are

around the table to make it happen but he said he himself wasn't sure whether they would come together and actually find some kind of common ground on actually deciding a kind of cease-fire. but there is an offer at least being talked about at the russian side, could be prepared to go for some kind of cease-fire with even dates being reported by the russian news agency, which could see some kind of cease-fire within the coming weeks. the syrian opposition spoke year, and for them, it is more a matter of hours and days under severe pressure. cities are being bombarded the much as we speak, and they are concerned there might be some kind of other strategy going on that good see them basically bombed out of these hold syria talks, a real fact to be reckoned with. for them, certainly, the time is ticking. brent: what do you think the

united states is going to do? the russians are putting some type of date for cease-fire on the table. what do the americans do now? michaela: well, certainly, the americans are interested in seeing that actually happening, but the question is would that be enforced? would it be something that gets dragged out? we have seen something similar happened to ukraine, basically, or you have a frozen kind of conflict. i think it will be in the details. also questions like humanitarian access, prisoner release, whether some pressure can be taken out of this region, the united states leading this operation against the islamic state there on the ground. brent: michaela kuefner, thank you very much grade in mexico, 52 guards and inmates are reported to have been killed and several more injured in a prison riot. local media are reporting that

the right broker before dawn and the situation is now under control. it happen in the trouble chico prison in the northeast city of monterey. it comes days ahead of a planned visit by pope francis to another prison in the region. all right, our correspondent is in mexico city and he joins us with more on the story. do we have monday deals on what happened inside the prison -- do we have more details on what happened inside the prison? reporter: well, details are still sketchy but we know is that the right started 11:30 yesterday evening and him family was between 2 groups of inmates. the fight left -- went on for at least two hours and authorities regained control around 1:30 in the morning. on the outside of the prison, relatives are still trying to find out what happened to the people they know who are inside,

and that led to tensions earlier this morning when they tried to get into the prison and break through the game. they were repudiated by the police inside. brent: what does this mean for the pope's visit in the region, his upcoming visit? reporter: well, it is certainly going to add a next relator attention, especially considering the fact that pope francis plan a prison meeting. a prison that has seen its own share of riots and violence in recent years. the riots today happened on top of a report from the commission that was published a few weeks ago in which the exact causes of these riots, overpopulation, were still very, very much criticized. everybody is waiting with her pope francis is going to -- whether pope francis according to comment on what happened earlier today. brent: reporting from mexico

city on the prison riot. thank you very much. the german president is in nigeria as part of his official visit to africa. one issue high on the agenda has been terrorism. the islamist extremist group boko from has killed thousands of civilians in nigeria as part of its campaign to establish an islamic state. even today, suicide in the northeast of the country claimed at least 58 people. the president paid a visit to a refugee camp to get a better picture of what is going on. reporter: most of the time, is in front of the house surrounded by children. a teacher, she had to flee from boko haram two years ago and since then has been living in a refugee camp. german president joachim gauck is on his way to the cap and she hopes he is able to help. >> if nigeria can push boko

haram out our state or our country. if possible, i would like it so it push this boko haram out. reporter: finally, she gets a chance to speak president gauck. >> we appreciate it. i'm a teacher. president gauck: and how many do you have here? reporter: when it comes to hopes of german military engagement, gauck has to disappoint. when you have been forced from your home, you want radical change, but germany is not going to lean in directory. "what we are doing is supporting military training as we are doing in mali." gauck spends more than an hour talking to the people in the camp. he says he wants to see more help, especially for traumatized women and children.

the people here in the refugee camp have high hopes after the visit from the german president. it is long ago that they say a nigerian president came to visit them, and they hope that german president gauck will address their issues when he needs the nigerian president. full military honors outside the presidential office. president gauck points to comments by the european union. they promised 60 million euros for the fight against terrorism . in return, nigerian president mohammed abu hari promises to crackdown on corruption in the army. >> a number of senior offices are being interrogated and at least billions of dollars have been applied and appropriated. reporter: in the meantime, it is

that to the daily grind. she works in a makeshift school in the camp and she admits she up and hoping that the german president would make some more concrete commitments. but now she says she at least has a feeling that her life is being noticed by the rest of the world. brent: we will be right back after a short break.

brent: welcome back. you are with "dw news," live from berlin. our top stories -- stars, executives from the film industry, and lots of fans turn out for one of europe's top cinematic events. the berlin film festival is underway. an international team of physicists come they have announced what is called one of the scientific highlights of the century. lead researchers from the light go project -- ligo project say they have detected waves in the fabric of space.

albert einstein theorized about the existence of those waves 100 years ago, but no one has been able to measure them until now. now this team has convincing proof that they do indeed exist. what are gravitational waves? here is a primer about an elusive phenomenon that will change how we view our veryown universe. reporter: gravitational waves are very hard to detect, even though they are made by huge celestial objects. astronomers have been hunting them for decades. proof they exist after losing a whole new era in cosmology -- a whole new era in cosmology could "it would provide a whole new tool for us in understanding the universe. it would enable us to observe things that have been hit in so far, things only visible in gravitational waves." albert einstein would have been delighted. he predicted gravitational waves century ago in his general

theory of relativity, but he thought they would never be observed. when an object falls into a pond that creates waves in the water, in a similar way, massive celestial objects like black holes cause distortions in the fabric of space-time, gravitational waves that spread at the speed of light. being able to observe them will help reconstruct a time that is a future in trust astrophysicist -- huge interest to astrophysicist. what happened after the big bang, when the universe was a tiny fraction of a second old? the gravitational waves the ligo project has detected should allow us to look back to the very beginning of time and space. brent: all right, this is a huge deal, particularly in the world of physics. our science correspondent derek williams is the man with the plan. he is here to explain this to us. why is this such a big deal?

derek: well, it is a big deal, the biggest reason is due is a big deal is einstein predicted this a century ago. his mathematical models, this is the last big piece of the puzzle , a prediction that he originally came up with back in 1960 that is proven to be true. he never believe we would be able to prove the existence of these gravitational waves because the technology was just not around then. brent: all right, gravitational waves. we have the technology of our wonder wall. use this wall and explain to us what it is that has been discovered today or detected today. derrick: these are 2 giant black holes orbiting around one another. these orange waves that you see spewing off of them crippling and undulating out of space, those are the gravitational waves. you can tell as they start to move quicker, the patterns change. brent: they are visible

patterns. derrick: well, they are visible in this graphic but not something you can see with the naked eye. eventually this falls into a state of stasis when the 2 black holes collide and merge into -- they are releasing these titanic energies that are sending ripples through the fabric of space-time. brent: derrick, what happens when you have these two black holes that basically bump into each other? derrick: they make one big one at that point and things like gravitational waves stop happening. brent: do we know when 2 black holes come together, doing know what is on the other side? derrick: no one knows what is on the other side. brent: it is kind of like "star trek." derrick: well, in one way, yet ah. brent: the european space agency -- is this the death knell for the european project? derrick: not at all. this was an international

project that took decades and people from all over the world to make this happen. the satellite project, the european space agency project, which was also aimed at protecting these, is going to be the next step. this is a brand-new era for astronomy and it is a very exciting time. brent: what would the next step be? for a lame man to understand -- layman to understand, what else should we be measuring and detecting? derrick: these waves are different frequencies. the frequency out in space is different from one down here on earth for a variety of different technical reasons. we can not only look at things like black holes but also other giant, dark objects out in the universe. brent: this is basically change the way we live. what is really cool about it, if i'm hearing you like him is it basically changes will we know about the universe that we live in and that is really cool. derrick: it is not going to pay

her mortgage or make space travel suddenly really easy, but it does or will tell us in the future a lot more about the universe we live in. brent: exciting stuff and thank you for the great graphics and for explaining it to us. derrick: got lots more on our website. brent: our website, dw.com. derrick, thank you very much could all right, i'm going to bring it back down to earth to a level we can understand it helen is here to talk about business news. helen: bloodshed on trading floors today as anxiety over the global economy drags the economy down. in new york, wall street is trading lower with the dow jones shedding almost 2%, that after fed chair janet yellen underscored confidence in u.s. economy in testimony before lawmakers. u.s. stocks also have an eye on the european trading day, which sought fierce selloffs on the stock market across the board.

reporter: on thursday, traders in frankfurt lost any illusions they might have had that the stock selloff is going to end anytime soon. they only had to look up to the board. germany's blue-chip index sunk well below 9000 points. financial stocks were especially badly hammered. the biggest worry is primarily the bank stocks most german banks are weak and we could be seeing part two of the banking crisis, and on top of that, and of the low oil prices and the overall economic situation, which is negative. and that is putting downward pressure on the stock market. the dax closed at 8752, down almost 3%. >> another rough day at the frankfurt stock market. the german blue-chip's are still in the red and even wall street is in a negative territory, from the beginning of today's trading

the obviously, international investors are fleeing to save haven assets. reporter: and so there weren't just losers on this thursday, but one big winner, gold. it's priced sorted to a 12-month high. we are seeing reflexive flights scenarios when the stock market is as jittery as it is now. people try to find a safe haven and gold is one of the safe havens. that is why it's prices high. the price of gold may be determined by the u.s. federal reserve's monetary policy. if the fed raises interest rates, money will likely flow into the bond market. but for now, just about all that is littering is gold. helen: in the wake of lester's terror attacks in france and the assaults against women in new year's eve in cologne giving way to a rise in anti-immigration sentiment, germany has become a boom market for salt offense

devices. -- self-defense devices. stun guns are legal in germany, and one manufacturer located in the czech republic seems to have corner the market. reporter: stun guns from your security products. esp has been flooded by new orders from germany. it can hardly keep up with demand from dealers. in september, the orders started to really come in. one and ordered 1000. another ordered 100,000. "we are getting them weekly." ramping up production is not easy for the small-company. although stun guns are assembled and glued by hand. esp were the first manufacturer to meet the requirements passed in 2012. now it comes 90% of the german market. this stunning little number is targeted at the growing number

of women who want to be able to defend themselves. gunshots in germany are enjoying a brisk trade, not jus -- gun shops in germany are enjoying the street not just in stun guns but other topics like pepper spray and stab proof vests. "it started before new year. people do not know themselves why they bought. it was a more diffuse fear. after new year's, the will to self-defense exploded." experts warn that self-defense products could give people a false sense of security. the products also have the potential of escalating threatening situations. helen: that is your latest business news. brent: no tasering between us. helen: i'll hold off. brent: stars, industry bigwigs,

and fans have turned out for one of europe's biggest film events. the berlin film festival opened this evening in the german capital. the nato secretary-general says nato ships will start patrolling the seas between greece and turkey in an effort to stop people smugglers from sending migrants across the sea. you are watching "dw news," live from berlin. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. i hope you will join me. [captioning performed by the national captoning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

. this week on "wealth track." swimming against the tide with deep value investor, the longtime portfolio manager finds his best investments in rough seas others flee. his contrarian ideas are next exclusively on "consuelo mack wealthtrack." >> announcer: new york life along with mainstays family of mutual funds offer investment and retirement solutions so you can help your clients keep good going. >> additional funding provided by luma sales, investors seeking exceptional opportunity