Top News Stories –

Grand Theft Auto deer causes chaos in game world –
An indestructible, teleporting deer is causing chaos in a version of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) V game. Artist Brent Watanabe has programmed the virtual deer to wander around the large San Andreas game world. In its first few days of wandering, the deer has been caught in a gangland gun battle, invaded a military base and been chased by the police. More than 200,000 people have tuned in to watch the deer via a video stream on the Twitch site. [BBC]
CGI deer in Grand Theft Auto

Microsoft chatbot is taught to swear on Twitter –
A chatbot developed by Microsoft has gone rogue on Twitter, swearing and making racist remarks and inflammatory political statements. The experimental AI, which learns from conversations, was designed to interact with 18-24-year-olds. Just 24 hours after artificial intelligence Tay was unleashed, Microsoft appeared to be editing some of its more inflammatory comments. The software firm said it was “making some adjustments”. “The AI chatbot Tay is a machine learning project, designed for human engagement. As it learns, some of its responses are inappropriate and indicative of the types of interactions some people are having with it. We’re making some adjustments to Tay,” the firm said in a statement. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Aftermath of the 2016 Brussels bombings
  • Six suspects are arrested in the Brussels Schaerbeek district. (BBC) (CNN)
  • Belgian officials confirm 24-year-old suicide bomber Najim Laachraoui, who also used the pseudonym Soufiane Kayawas, was suspected of being the bomb-maker who supplied suicide vests for theNovember 13, 2015, Paris attacks. (NBC News)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • The Nigerian Army claims to have rescued more than 800 hostages from Boko Haram while performing a “clearance operation” in the Northeastern part of Nigeria with fighting killing 22 insurgents. (Al Jazeera)
• Military intervention against ISIL
  • The Pentagon announces the death of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant finance minister and deputy leader, Abu Ala al-Afri. (CNN)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Palmyra offensive (March 2016)
    • The Syrian Army and allies make major advances near Palmyra against ISIL as the group start pulling out its equipment from the town. (BBC) (NYTimes)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • Iskandariya suicide bombing
    • At least 30 people are killed in a suicide attack on a football stadium south of Baghdad, Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for attack. (FOX News)
• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • 2016 Aden car bombing
    • At least 22 people are killed following three suicide bombings in the Yemeni port city of Aden. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the bombings. (BBC)
• War in Donbass
  • The body of Ukrainian lawyer Yurij Grabovsky, who defended two ex-Russian soldiers charged in Eastern Ukraine with terrorism and waging an aggressive war against the country, is found on the grounds of a former farming collective in Zhashkiv, Ukraine. Grabovsky went missing from Kiev on March 9. Information from one of two men being held in this case led police to the remains. (Reuters) (Jurist)

Disasters and accidents

• Callaway train crash
  • The evacuation order for the 200-person town of Callaway, Minnesota, which was emptied after a Canadian Pacific train crashed with a propane truck, is lifted. None of the train cars were carrying hazardous materials. (Valley News Live) (KMSP-TV)
• Twelve Portuguese nationals, who were residents of Fribourg, Switzerland, are killed in a head-on collision between their minibus and a truck, on a highway 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Paris, France. The only survivor from the bus is the driver; the two Italian occupants of the truck are slightly injured. (Post-Bulletin)
• An air ambulance helicopter crashes in Iran‘s southern Fars Province, killing everyone on board. The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) put the death toll at 10. (Reuters)

International relations

• Japan–Russia relations, NATO–Russia relations
  • Russia announces it will deploy state-of-the art missile defense systems to the far eastern Kuril Islands where they and Japan have rival territorial claims dating to the end of the Second World War. Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu also says that Russia will form new defence units in the country’s Western Military District in response to NATO’s recent deployment of forces to member statesnear its border. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Law and crime

• A United States federal district judge rules unconstitutional a provision in an Alabama state law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. A Florida law enacted today contains a comparable provision to Alabama’s. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments a few weeks ago on the constitutionality of similar abortion restrictions in Texas. (Reuters) (Alabama Media Group) (AP via Bristol Herald Courier)

Science and technology

• Netflix acknowledges it’s been slowing its video transmission on wireless mobile carriers around the world, including Verizon and AT&T, for five years to “protect consumers from exceeding mobile data caps.” Last week, these carriers were accused of this. The company told The Wall Street Journal that T-Mobile or Sprint users weren’t affected because, “historically those two companies have had more consumer-friendly policies.” In May, Netflix plans to shift some of that control to viewers themselves. (C|net) (PC Magazine)

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