On March 1, National Police opened fire on a roadblock being maintained by small-scale independent miners on the Interoceanic Highway being built through Peru's Amazon region of Madre de Dios. The roadblock, between the regional capital Puerto Maldonado and the town of Mazuco, had been launched the previous day by some 2,000 miners and indigenous supporters to protest a campaign by military troops against unlicensed gold-mining operations in the region. The local Miners Federation (FEDEMIN) said the police fired without provocation, and that four miners were killed and 15 gravely wounded. The National Police said officers were "forced" to open fire when the protesters began ransacking trucks backed up at the roadblock, that only two were killed, and that several police officers were among the wounded.

President Hugo Chávez has spoken to Moammar Qaddafi about creating a bloc of friendly nations—tentatively dubbed the Committee of Peace—to mediate a resolution to Libya's crisis, Venezuela's Information Minister Andres Izarra said through Twitter March 2. "We can confirm Libya's interest in accepting this proposal, as well as the Arab League's," Izarra said. "Today Venezuela presses ahead with its agenda in the Arab world and the world at large to seek peace in Libya."

Libyan rebel forces launched a successful offensive to drive Moammar Qaddafi's troops from the key eastern oil port of Brega on March 2. "Brega is liberated. We have forced them to 30 kilometers west," said rebel fighter Khalid al-Aqoly. At dawn, Qaddafi's forces, backed by tanks and heavy weaponry, had seized the airport and oil terminal in Brega, the westernmost town held by the comparatively poorly armed opposition. As the battle for Brega raged in a day of fierce fighting, Qaddafi went on television to deny there is any opposition to his 41-year rule. (Middle East Online, March 2)

With much of his army defecting to the opposition that now holds Libya's east, Moammar Qaddafi is notoriously making use of mercenaries from countries to the south in Africa. Recent reports indicate that these prominently include Tuareg fighters from Mali and Niger who flocked to Libya in the 1970s and '80s, recruited into an "Islamic Legion" modeled on the French Foreign Legion. A Tuareg leader in Mali, Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assaleh, said some 16,000 Tuaregs remain in the Libyan security forces. "We've been getting updates from some of them by phone," Assaleh said by telephone. "They say their orders are to protect Qaddafi and they will defend him to the end." (CP, March 1)

Iranian opposition websites say more than 200 people were arrested March 1 while attempting to protest in Tehran, with another 40 detained in Isfahan. Opposition groups had called for rallies over the reported imprisonment of their leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The two men had been placed under house arrest several weeks ago as authorities cracked down on protests staged in solidarity with the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. Their families say that on Feb. 28 they were taken to prison, although the government denies this. (BBC News, March 2)

UN Special Representative to Iraq Ad Melkert issued a statement March 1 expressing concern about reports of human rights violations in the nationwide protest campaign now shaking the country. Melkert said reported violations included "disproportionate" use of force by security forces against protesters. "Fundamental changes are needed for creating stability and trust," said Melkert, who is the head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). (AP, UN News Centre, March 2)

Although the regime has effectively suppressed press accounts, dissident websites in Syria say security forces have dispersed three demonstrations in the past weeks. The last, on Feb. 29, reportedly involved hundreds of women protesting against price hikes. Authorities also arrested a number of people for supposedly organizing demonstrations, while others were beaten while protesting outside the Libyan embassy. The government has imposed a curfew to prevent protesters from gathering, and ordered closed the websites that have reported on them. (YNet, March 1)

Peru's security forces cracked down on illegal gold mining operations in the Amazon region of Madre de Dios in late February, with army troops putting several dredges on the region's rivers to the torch. According to the Environment Ministry, some 20,000 hectares of rainforest are destroyed and 45 tons of mercury dumped into local rivers each year due to the dredging operations. (Reuters, Feb. 20)