Militant factions in the Gaza Strip announced that their recently declared ceasefire is over following an overnight Israeli air-strike that killed three leaders of Hamas’ armed wing.
Libya’s rebels, in retreat for a third consecutive day, appealed to Qaddafi for a ceasefire—as they announced the signing of a deal with Qatar to market oil from fields under their control in exchange for weapons.
Security forces again fired on protesters in Syria, as rival pro- and anti-government demonstrators filled the streets of Yemen, and Egyptians again filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a rally to “save the revolution.”
As pro-Alassane Ouattara forces move into Abidjan, residents who support rival Laurent Gbagbo fear reprisals. Reports of atrocities on both sides are mounting—including people being burned alive.
A US engineer who helped install reactors at Fukushima, speaking anonymously, said he believes the radioactive core in reactor Number 2 may have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor.
The White House and Paris both publicly broached arming the Libyan rebels as Moammar Qaddafi’s forces pushed the insurgent army back in a sweep to the east—despite ongoing Allied air-strikes.
Israel’s Knesset passed a law enabling the courts to revoke the citizenship of anyone convicted of terrorism, espionage or treason. Tel Aviv also pressured Facebook to shut down a page calling for a Third Intifada.
Security forces stormed the provincial council building in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on March 29 after an hours-long shootout with gunmen that left 41 dead and 95 wounded. The gunmen, wearing military uniforms and suicide vests, swarmed into the… Read moreIraq: 40 killed in Tikrit attack
In a long-awaited public address, President Bashar Assad blamed foreign conspiracies for Syria’s unrest, while calling hundreds of thousands of his supporters to the streets in a massive show of force.
Hundreds of thousands again took to the streets in Yemen to demand the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as protesters charged official complicity in a deadly blast at a munitions plant that authorities blamed on al-Qaeda.
Activists for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia decried the regime’s decision to keep a voting ban in place at a time when Arab governments are taking steps to avert pro-democracy uprisings.
Plutonium has been found in soil at various points in and around Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear complex, officials admitted. The plutonium presumably comes from partially-melted MOX fuel from reactor Number 3.
