Moammar Qaddafi pledged an imminent assault on rebel stronghold Benghazi March 18. "The decision has been taken. Prepare yourselves. We will arrive tonight," the strongman said on state television. "We will chase the traitors from Benghazi. Destroy their fortifications. Show them no mercy. The world needs to see Benghazi free." Invoking again his claims that al-Qaeda is behind the rebellion, Qaddafi said "we will hunt down the miscreants and bearded ones that have destroyed out country and we will punish them without mercy." (AFP, March 18)

A Statement of Continued Resistance by the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade
 —in Exile

"Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose."
— George Orwell

Libyan rebels battled Qaddafi-loyalist forces at Ajdabiya on March 16, as the provisional opposition government in Benghazi, just 150 miles up the coast, prepared for an assault on the city. In response to international calls for a no-fly zone, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the dictator's son, boasted to reporters: "The military operations are finished. In 48 hours everything will be over. Our forces are close to Benghazi. Whatever decision is taken, it will be too late."

Some 200 Syrians defied a state emergency in place since 1963 to gather in Damascus to demand a political opening March 15. "God, Syria, liberty" and "Syrians, where are you?" chanted young men and women, urging their compatriots to join the "peaceful march" which unfolded in a central souk of Old City Damascus. The protesters marched through landmark souks al-Hamidiyeh and Hariqa, drawing dozens of other Syrians with them. But security forces broke up the group and arrested two.

Hundreds of riot police backed up by tanks, bulldozers and helicopters killed at least two and wounded dozens more March 16 as they cleared a protest camp in Bahrain's Pearl Square. The action came a day after an armed intervention force from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates entered the country, and King Hamad declared a three-month state of emergency.

NucNet, "The Nuclear Communications Network," citing the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF), reports March 15 that following the explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, "damage is suspected to unit 2's inner or primary containment vessel (PCV)." Additionally, "spent fuel storage pool at unit 4 has been on fire with radioactivity being released directly into the atmosphere." TEPCO apparently told JAIF that the fuel pond fire has now been extinguished. But wire reports indicate that the fire in reactor Number 4 is getting worse.

Indigenous Mapuche-Tehuelche organizations and allied groups marched in Esquel, in the western Argentine province of Chubut, on March 10 to support Santa Rosa Leleque community members as they filed an appeal in a land dispute with Compañía Tierras Sur Argentino SA, a subsidiary of the Italian multinational Benetton. A decision by Judge Omar Magallanes favoring Benetton had been announced on March 1; Magallanes conceded the multinational 500 hectares where the community is located and ordered the Mapuche residents to leave within 10 days.

A coalition of Puerto Rican feminist organizations held a march in San Juan on March 8, International Women's Day, from the Labor Department building to the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the site of months of student protests against an $800 tuition surcharge. The marchers held a rally when they reached the campus, with an artistic presentation and various speeches. Adriana Mulero, a leader in the student protests, charged that conservative governor Luis Fortuño had worked against women's rights with his austerity program, which she had left many women heads of households without jobs. She also dismissed "Man's Promise," a program Fortuño has promoted as a way to end domestic violence, as reinforcing male stereotypes.