Iranian security forces turned out in large numbers on the streets of Tehran March 16 to prevent possible opposition protests during a national festival. Iranians are celebrating Chahar-Shanbe Suri, a ceremony held ahead of the Persian New Year, Nowruz. People turned out on smaller neighborhood streets to light bonfires and set off fireworks, but news agencies reported that Tehran's main thoroughfares and squares were largely deserted except for police.

The governor of Bolivia's Chonchocoro prison has been sacked after a number of violent incidents at the facility, as well as revelations that former military ruler Luis García Meza was being housed in a luxury cell. Investigators searched the facility after several prisoners were injured in a turf war between inmates that involved a grenade attack and a shooting. They found that García Meza's quarters included a gym, sauna, tennis table, dining room and barbecue grill. He is serving a 30-year term for abuses dating back to his period in power in the early 1980s. Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti said prison governor Col. Gilmar Oblitas and other police officers would face penalties. (BBC News, March 16)

The Obama administration will halt new work on the $3 billion "virtual fence" planned for the Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced March 16, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes. "Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost-effective way possible," Napolitano said in a statement. "The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines."

Palestinians staged angry protests in Jerusalem March 16 as part of a "day of rage" declared by Hamas, clashing with police and setting fire to tires and garbage bins. Police in riot gear fired back with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas. Some 60 Palestinians and 14 police officers were reported injured, and at least 30 protesters were arrested.

Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, the New York Times reports in a front-page story March 15, based on interview with military officials and business figures in Afghanistan and the US. The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former CIA and Special Forces operatives. The mercenaries, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.

Sudan's security forces arrested a Somali insurgent leader while he was attempting to cross the border to Eritrea, the Somali news website Mareeg Online reported March 14 from Mogadishu. Muse Abdi Arale, defense secretary for the Hizbul Islam group, was reportedly arrested while trying to enter in Eritrea with money embezzled from the rebel group. Sheikh Hassan Mahdi, a senior official from Hizbul Islam, confirmed this version of events to Mareeg Online.

Bolivia will gain access to Atlantic ports in Uruguay in exchange for a pledge of natural gas exports to Montevideo in an agreement signed in La Paz March 14 by presidents Evo Morales and José Mujica. A new road will follow the Paraguay-Paraná river system, while the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) will begin construction of a new pipeline between the countries. The regional grouping URPABOL (Uruguay-Paraguay-Bolivia) has approved the project, and Brazil is also expected to cooperate, with its Puerto Cáceres serving as one hub on the river route. (NNN-Prensa Latina, March 14)

The Bolivian Armed Forces has completed the declassification of files from the years of military dictatorship. According to Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra, Chief of Staff General Ramiro de la Fuente handed over the files to Public Ministry officials three days before schedule last month. The files are mostly from the regime of Gen. Luis García Meza (1980-1981), and will be placed at the disposal of judicial authorities to investigate the disappearance of opposition figures under his rule.