The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum reports that following the explosions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, “damage is suspected to unit 2’s inner or primary containment vessel (PCV).”
Indigenous Mapuche-Tehuelche organizations and allied groups marched in the western Argentine province of Chubut to support Santa Rosa Leleque community members in their struggle with Benetton.
A coalition of Puerto Rican feminist organizations held a march 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 National Ballet of Cuba, under the direction of the renowned Alicia Alonso, marked International Women’s Day with a special performance honoring women heroes of the 1959 Revolution.
Mexican social organizations and human rights groups carried out actions in at least eight states, to demand that the authorities end the murders of women and categorize femicide as a special crime.
Women’s rights organizations marked International Women’s Day with street protests demanding that Central American governments take measures to stop the killings of women.
South Americans celebrated International Women’s Day on the holiday’s 100th anniversary, with actions calling attention to the murders of women and with other forms of violence against women.
Two more reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant are reported to have lost cooling functions, as technicians continue their struggle to contain what threatens to become a meltdown.
In a televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation from the three stricken reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant has reached the danger zone. A fourth reactor is now aflame.
A third hydrogen explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant is reported, destroying the outer building of reactor Number 2. All three damaged reactors at the site have now experienced explosions.
It is now clear that the second explosion at the Fukushima plant was at reactor 3—a source of special concern because it contains “mixed oxide” fuel, a highly toxic mixture of uranium and plutonium.
Dozens were injured as police cracked down on protesters in Casablanca and stormed the offices of the United Socialist Party. Leaders pledged to go ahead with a massive mobilization on March 20.
