A Yemeni protester died of gunshot wounds March 9 after being hit when police opened fire overnight on anti-regime demonstrators outside Sanaa University. Three other demonstrators were also wounded by gunfire, while some 60 others were lightly hurt due to being beaten by police batons or inhaling tear gas, officials said, who also charged that 12 policemen were injured by rocks hurled by demonstrators. Police had intervened to prevent protesters from erecting tents in a street close to the University Square, where demonstrators have been camping since Feb. 21 in a protest demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled in power. (Middle East Online, March 9)

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Alaska refused March 7 to order ExxonMobil to pay an additional $92 million in damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Under a 1991 settlement agreement, Exxon paid $900 million in civil damages. The US and Alaskan government sought in 2006 to reopen the settlement agreement, saying more money was needed to clean up the crude oil that was still tainting Prince William Sound. Environmental activist Rick Steiner had filed a motion seeking court intervention to bring the re-opener process to a close. Judge H. Russel Holland, who has presided over much of the litigation stemming from 1989 spill, found that the US and Alaskan governments appeared to be close to reaching an agreement with ExxonMobil, refusing to order the payment.

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 7 issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a recent Ecuadoran court judgment against US oil company Chevron. The injunction blocks plaintiffs from attempting to secure $8.6 billion in damages from the company, which were awarded last month by the Provincial Court of Sucumbios after finding that Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron in 2001, polluted large areas of Ecuador's rainforest.

On March 8, International Women's Day 2011, the voices of many prominent human rights defenders were absent from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Within the past 14 months, human rights campaigner Josefina Reyes, poet Susana Chávez and activist mother Marisela Escobedo all have been murdered, while Cipriana Jurado of the Worker Solidarity and Research Center (CISO) and Paula Flores have been forced to flee the city.

Some 20 prisoners escaped in Burkina Faso on March 8 after middle and high school students set four police stations on fire to protest the killing of four youth by police last month. The police stations were burned down in the towns of Yako, Koupela, Gourcy and Dori. Peaceful protests were held in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second city, and six other towns. Six people, including four students and a police officer, were killed in riots in late February in the town of Koudougou, 100 kilometers west of the capital Ouagadougou, after a student died in disputed circumstances. (SAPA, March 8)

International consensus is growing for some kind of foreign military intervention in Libya as Moammar Qaddafi's forces continue to press their offensive against rebels both east and west of Tripoli. The Organization of the Islamic Conference joined calls for a no-fly zone over Libya on March 8. The demand was also raised by the the Gulf Cooperation Council, made up of six Arab states on the Persian Gulf. Britain and France are drafting a UN resolution calling for such a no-fly zone, although Russia is expected to use its veto power against it.

US President Barack Obama on March 7 issued an executive order allowing military commissions for Guantánamo Bay detainees to resume. New charges in the military commission system have been suspended since shortly after Obama took office in 2009. The new order also establishes a procedure for establishing a review process for detainees who have not been charged, convicted or designated for transfer. In a statement, Obama said:

Muslim student Yasir Afifi and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a lawsuit against the FBI on March 2 after Afifi discovered a global positioning system (GPS) device on the undercarriage of his car. The suit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Afifi's rights were violated when FBI agents attempted to retrieve their tracking device, without explanation for why Afifi was being tracked. Afifi's suit alleges civil rights and constitutional violations, specifically unlawful search under the Fourth Amendment, chilling and recording of First Amendment activities, and unlawful agency action: