Top News Stories –

Ninjas wanted as Japan region promotes ‘warlord tourism’ –
Sharpen your shuriken, Japan’s Aichi prefecture is looking to hire six ninjas in a bid to boost tourism. The roles are full time and the pay is ¥180,000 ($1,600; £1,100) a month, the job ad says (in Japanese). Physical fitness and acrobatic skills are a must says Aichi prefecture, which hopes to promote “warlord tourism”. Ninjas were 15th Century Japanese mercenaries specialising in espionage, assassination, sabotage and other forms of irregular warfare. [BBC]

Saudi Arabia: All female Brunei crew in historic flight –
Three Royal Brunei Airlines pilots have made history by being the company’s first all-female flight crew, making their first journey to Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive. The women flew the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Brunei to Jeddah. The milestone coincided with Brunei’s National Day to celebrate independence. February’s flight Captain was Sharifah Czarena, assisted by Senior First Officers Sariana Nordin and Dk Nadiah Pg Khashiem. Captain Czarena trained in the UK and in December 2013 became the first Royal Brunei pilot to fly out of London Heathrow in its flagship Boeing 787 Dreamliner. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• March 2016 Ankara bombing
  • Turkey’s Interior Minister Efkan Ala says the results of the investigation into yesterday’s bombing in Ankara will be made public later today. Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu says 125 people were transported to a hospital, with 19 in critical condition. Two Kurdish militants have been blamed for the bombing. (BBC) (News.com.au), (Fox News)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–present)
  • Three Palestinians are shot and killed by Israeli Defence Forces after attempting to run over Israeli soldiers. Multiple guns were found in their car. (AP via The New Zealand Herald)
• Mexican Drug War
  • At least nine suspected cartel members are killed in gunfights with government forces during an anti-cartel operation in the city of Reynosa, Mexico. (Appeal Democrat)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • A United Arab Emirates Air Force fighter jet crashes in a mountainous area near the southern Yemeni city of Aden, killing both pilots. (BBC)
• Syrian Civil War, Russian military intervention
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu to start the withdrawal of Russian Armed Forces from Syria, saying during a meeting with Shoygu, “I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow.” (RT) (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

• Flood warnings are put in place and roads are closed after a heavy rain continues to fall in the northern parts of the Australian state of Queensland. (AAP via NineMSN)
• Siam Commercial Bank reports eight people were killed and seven others injured in the basement of its Bangkok, Thailand, headquarters during an upgrade of the building’s fire safety system Sunday evening. It appears that workers mistakenly activated a system that released pyrogen, a chemical that deprives a fire of oxygen. (AP) (BBC)
• An Amtrak passenger train derails west of Dodge City in the American state of Kansas. (CBS News)

International relations

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • North Korea‘s supreme leader Kim Jong-un says his country will soon conduct a nuclear warhead test and test launch ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to North Korea’sstate media. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Status of press freedom worldwide
  • Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the government is very concerned about Saturday’s arrest and detention of two Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalists who attempted to interviewMalaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. The pair, who are in Malaysia to investigate allegations of corruption and bribery involving the prime minister, were detained by Malaysian police for six hours, and told not to leave the country. (AP via The Washington Post) (Reuters) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Science and technology

• The joint European Space Agency and Russian Federal Space Agency ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (BBC)

Sport

• The National Football League‘s top health and safety official acknowledges a link between American football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. (ESPN)
• 2015–16 NCAA Division I women’s basketball season
  • The field of 64 teams for the NCAA Tournament is announced. Unbeaten Connecticut is the top overall seed, with Baylor, Notre Dame, and South Carolina rounding out the #1 seeds.(ESPN)

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