Qaddafi pledged an imminent assault on rebel stronghold Benghazi that would show “no mercy,” while France promised air-strikes on Qaddafi’s forces “within hours” after the UN Security Council approved military action.
Libyan rebels battle Qaddafi-loyalist forces at Ajdabiya, as the provisional opposition government in Benghazi, just 150 miles up the coast, prepare for an assault on the city.
Some 200 Syrians defied a state emergency in place since 1963 to gather in Damascus to demand a political opening, chanting “God, Syria, liberty” and “Syrians, where are you?”
Hundreds of riot police backed up by tanks, bulldozers and helicopters killed at least two and wounded dozens more as they cleared a protest camp in Bahrain’s Pearl Square.
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.
