From AP, March 23:

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. and British troops Thursday freed three Christian peace activists in a rural area of Iraq without firing a shot, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street.

From AP, March 22:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Authorities launched a probe today into the killings by Afghan security forces of at least 15 people, who an Afghan army commander claimed were Taliban rebels but locals said were tribesmen wanting to attend a religious festival.

On March 16, 2003, Washington state-born activist Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while acting as a "human shield" against the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah, on the Gaza Strip. Last year, Katherine Viner, an editor at The Guardian, and actor Alan Rickman (known for roles in Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually) adapted 184 pages of Corrie's journals and e-mails, beginning at the age of 10, into a stage play. My Name is Rachel Corrie, directed by Rickman and starring Meghan Dodds, ran to wide acclaim in London. It was scheduled to arrive on March 22 at the New York Theater Workshop, known for embracing such controversial material as Tony Kushner's Angels in America; Homebody, Kabul and the original pre-Broadway Rent. In late February, just weeks before the play was to begin, the theater's artistic director, James Nicola, announced in a statement that the play would be "postponed indefinitely," citing a "very edgy situation" following the illness of Ariel Sharon and the election of Hamas.

Tens of thousands of Mexican miners went on strike from March 1 to March 3 at 70 companies in at least eight states--Hidalgo, Coahuila, Guerrero, Chihuahua, Queretaro, Michoacan, Guanajuato and Mexico state--in a wildcat action protesting local conditions and government intervention in the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM).

Another escalation in the ongoing struggle in West Papua. From AP, March 20:

Calm returned to Papua Province yesterday after three days of tension following a deadly protest against a massive US-owned gold mine in the eastern Indonesian province.

Paula Palmer writes for Global Response Action Alerts:

In late January at the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuelan indigenous leaders asked Global Response to support them in their struggle to stop construction of open-pit coal mines in their territories. I joined them in an all-day march through the streets of Caracas, carrying banners saying "No al Carbon!" (No to Coal).

From the New York Times, March 16:

The U.S. military has sent about 800 troops from Kuwait to Iraq for extra security to coincide with an expected surge of pilgrims to Muslim shrines in coming days, officials said in Baghdad on Wednesday.

From the New York Times, March 15:

Ice Retreats in Arctic for 2nd Year; Some Fear Most of It Will Vanish
For the second year in a row, the cloak of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean failed to grow to its normal winter expanse, scientists said yesterday. The finding led some climate experts to predict a record expansion of open water this summer.