Seawater near Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant shows significantly higher levels of radioactive iodine than in recent days, Japan's nuclear safety agency reported March 30. Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said that seawater collected about 300 yards from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was found to contain iodine 131 at 3,355 times the safety standard, the highest levels reported so far. Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the plant, acknowledged for the first time that at least reactors 1 through 4 of the six-reactor complex will have to be written off. (NYT, March 31) A US engineer who helped install reactors at Fukushima, speaking anonymously to the Scandinavian environmental NGO Bellona, said he believes the radioactive core in reactor Number 2 may have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor—a development that would pose a grave risk to soil and groundwater. (Bellona, March 31)

Moammar Qaddafi's forces pushed the Libyan rebels back to the east March 30, re-taking towns they had ceded just days ago. Rebel forces have now been pushed east of Brega and are headed for Ajdabiyah. Even amid Qaddafi's advance, his foreign minister Moussa Koussa defected to the UK. The first Allied air-strikes on Libya's east in two days were carried out, to check the Qaddafi forces' advance on Ajdabiyah. The Obama administration has sent teams of CIA operatives into Libya to establish ties with the rebels, the New York Times reported. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, said that Obama had signed a presidential "finding" authorizing covert aid to the rebels—which the administration would not confirm or deny. "No decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any groups in Libya," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "We're not ruling it out or ruling it in."

Israel's Knesset on March 28 passed a law enabling the judicial system to revoke the citizenship of anyone convicted of terrorism, espionage, treason or helping the enemy during times of war. The bill, which was passed by 37-11 in a late-night session, was initiated by two Knesset members from the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. "Without loyalty, there can be no citizenship," Lieberman said just minutes after the bill was passed. "Any person who harms the country cannot enjoy the benefits of citizenship and its fruit." The law is part of Lieberman's "no loyalty, no citizenship" campaign, which is widely understood to target Israel's Arab minority.

Security forces stormed the provincial council building in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on March 29 after an hours-long shootout with gunmen that left 41 dead and 95 wounded. The gunmen, wearing military uniforms and suicide vests, swarmed into the council building immediately after a suicide bomber detonated his payload and cleared the way. A car bomb exploded shortly afterwards as police reinforcements were arriving. Those who did not die as a result of explosions were murdered, execution-style, by the gunmen, authorities said. A curfew was imposed in Tikrit, capital of the Sunni-majority Salaheddin province, which has long been a bastion of the insurgency.

In a long-awaited public address, President Bashar Assad blamed foreign conspiracies for Syria's unrest March 30. "Syria is a target of a big plot from the outside," Assad said as Syrians gathered around television sets at homes and in town squares. He said protesters have been "duped" into taking to the streets. Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri on March 29 tendered his government's resignation to Assad, who promptly re-appointed him caretaker premier. The next government, expected to be formed in the coming days, will be charged with implementing reforms promised after protests erupted in mid-March. The reforms are expected to include the end of emergency rule, in place since the Baath party came to power in 1963, and the liberalization of laws on media and political parties.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters again took to the streets in Yemen on March 30—despite a new offer from the President Ali Abdullah Saleh to remain in office until the end of the year but only in a ceremonial role. Opposition officials negotiating with the president said that Saleh’s offer would see him handing over the bulk of his powers to a transitional ruling council until elections are held at the end of the year. The opposition said it is still considering its response, but protesters accused Saleh of stalling and seeking unduly to influence the appointment of his successor. "The president throws his different cards here and there every minute and every day and manoeuvres... in an attempt to remain in power," said Mohammed Qahtan the parliamentary opposition's spokesman. (The Telegraph, March 30)

Activists for women's rights in Saudi Arabia decried the regime's decision March 28 to keep a voting ban in place at a time when Arab governments are taking steps to avert pro-democracy uprisings. The announcement came from the head of the electoral committee charged with preparing for next month's municipal polls. "We are not ready for the participation of women in these municipal elections," said Abdulrahman al-Dahmash, while renewing pledges that authorities will allow women to take part "in the next ballot." The Saudi monarchy announced last week that it is to hold municipal elections for only the second time, kicking off on April 23 from region to region. The March 28 announcement is "an outrageous mistake that the kingdom is committing. It's just repeating the same mistake of 2005," said Hatoon al-Fassi, a history lecturer at King Saud University in Riyadh.

Plutonium has been found in soil at various points in and around Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted March 28. TEPCO vice president Sakae Muto told journalists at the company's latest briefing that test results showing the plutonium came from samples taken last week—while of course insisting that the contamination poses no threat to the public. The plutonium presumably comes from partially-melted MOX fuel from reactor Number 3. (Reuters, DC Bureau, March 28)