Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, said April 2 that highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the ocean, which may help explain high levels of radioactivity in seawater off the coast. The water is coming from an 8-inch (20-centimeter) crack that was found in the concrete pit holding power cables near reactor Number 2, with the radiation level measured at 1,000 milli-sieverts an hour. The annual limit of radiation exposure allowed for Fukushima workers is 250 milli-sieverts. Efforts to seal the crack by pumping in concrete have failed to slow the flow of water into the ocean. TEPCO officials said they will next try using a polymer—a type of quick-setting plastic. The tainted water is pooled up some 10 to 20 centimeters high at the bottom of the pit. (LAT, Kyodo News, April 2)

Moammar Qaddafi's regime rejected a rebel offer of a ceasefire April 1, as fighting continued for the rebel-held city of Misrata in western Libya. In an exact reversal of the situation just ten days earlier, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim called the ceasefire proposal a "trick," telling reporters: "The rebels never offered peace. They don't offer peace, they are making impossible demands. We will not leave our cities. We are the government, not them." NATO warplanes meanwhile strafed positions held by Qaddafi-loyalist forces in the al-Khums and al-Rojban regions east and southwest of the capital Tripoli. (AFP, April 2)

The National Resistance Brigades announced April 2 that the ceasefire was over in the Gaza Strip, following an overnight Israeli air-strike that killed three leaders of Hamas' armed wing. The brigades, military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said they would retaliate to the killings and that Israel "would have to bear the repercussions of this crime."

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on March 29 overturned a lower court's decision granting release to Yemeni Guantánamo Bay detainee Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman. Uthman's 2004 habeas corpus petition challenging his basis for detention was granted when the US District Court for the District of Columbia determined that the government had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Uthman had received and executed orders from al-Qaeda. The appeals court rejected this "command structure test" used by the lower court and struck down the ruling, blocking Uthman's release. The appeals court found that decisions made since Uthman's petition dictate that, regarding the detention authority granted by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)], determinations of whether individuals are al-Qaeda members must employ a functional approach on a case-by-case basis, rather than the formal approach used in Uthman's case.

After backing off at last year's 9-11 anniversary, the wacky extremoid Christian fundi Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, apparently followed through on his threat to burn a Koran on March 20. This prompted wacky extremoid Muslim fundis in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, to storm a UN compound, killing as many as 20 employees and setting fire to several buildings today. (CSM, April 1) We really wish this was an April Fool's joke, but we don't think so.

Libya's opposition is ready for a ceasefire provided Moammer Qaddafi's forces end their assaults on rebel-held cities and repression of protesters, Transitional National Council leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil said April 1. "We agree on a ceasefire on the condition that our brothers in the western cities have freedom of expression and also that the forces that are besieging the cities withdraw," Jalil told reporters after meeting Abdul Ilah Khatib, the UN special envoy to Libya. "Our main goal is to achieve a last ceasefire that will hold." The appeal came as Qaddafi-loyal forces drove rebels back for a third day after sandstorms and clouds hindered NATO air strikes. There was no immediate response to the offer from Qaddafi officials.

Security forces killed at least four people and wounded dozens when they opened fire on protesters in the town of Douma, Syria, just outside Damascus, April 1. Authorities said worshippers emerged from Friday prayers at the city's main mosque and began pelting security forces with stones. (Middle East Online, April 1) That same day, tens of thousands of rival demonstrators rallied in the streets of the Yemen's, Sana'a. Anti-government activists gathered outside Sana'a University to call for an immediate end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule. Supporters of the president gathered in Sabyeen square, chanting and waving Yemeni flags. In a speech to his supporters there, Saleh promised to "sacrifice my blood and soul" for the people of Yemen. (VOA, April 1) Tens of thousands of Egyptians meanwhile gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square, issuing a call to "save the revolution." The Youth Coalition Movement wants the country's institutions purged of members of the former ruling National Democratic Party as well as the restitution of "the millions stolen from the people." Protesters chanted "The people want to purify the country!" (Middle East Online, April 1)

Forces loyal to president-elect Alassane Ouattara took Ivory Coast's administrative capital Yamoussoukro and principal port San Pedro on March 31, and are currently moving on Abidjan, the country's principal city—where rumors are flying about the imminent fall of Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to cede power. Ouattara, the internationally recognized president, said Gbagbo would not be harmed if he agreed to leave. Civilian residents throughout Abidjan, however, do not have such assurances.