Workers at a Sony plant in Pontonx-sur-l'Adour, France, who took hostage the chief executive of the Japanese group's French arm, released him and other managers after they agreed to discuss severance terms. Serge Foucher and the other executives were released March 13 after workers obtained guarantees that they would open a new round of negotiations.

"Violent drug trafficking organizations threaten both the United States and Mexican communities," Vice President Joe Biden said at a ceremony to nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the new drug czar. Biden said Kerlikowske would oversee a strategy to improve intelligence sharing and boost interdiction of drugs into the US and guns and cash into Mexico. "It is a strategy we need...in order to bring the situation under control, to protect our people, and to bring about the demise of the Mexican drug cartels," Biden said.

An urgent plea for the protection of the lands of uncontacted indigenous peoples in the Gran Chaco, a region of scrub forest and arid plains in western Paraguay, has been issued by nine local organizations after round-table talks sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme. The Totobiegosode, a sub-group of the Ayoreo, are living in voluntary isolation as Brazilian cattle ranchers encroach on their territory.

Bolivian President Evo Morales ate a coca leaf in front of delegates at the Vienna meeting of the UN Commission for Narcotic Drugs (CND) March 12, to press his demand that the crop be removed from the UN's list of prohibited drugs. "We're for the coca leaf but against cocaine," Morales said. "The coca leaf should no longer be vilified and criminalized!"

Italy's highest court ruled March 11 that an investigation into the role of US and Italian intelligence agents in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terrorism suspect breached state secrets. It was not immediately clear whether the Constitutional Court's ruling will force a lower court to shelve the trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians when proceedings resume on March 18.

The Central Criminal Court of Iraq March 12 sentenced Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist accused of throwing his shoes at former US president George W. Bush, to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign leader. The verdict came after a three week postponement during which the court considered arguments from al-Zaidi's counsel that Bush's visit was not official and that the assault charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, should not apply because al-Zaidi sought to insult but not injure the US president.

Pakistani government forces conducted raids and arrested hundreds of opposition members, including leaders of the country's lawyers' movement, prior to a protest rally led March 11 by former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif. Among those targeted were lawyers' movement leader Aitzaz Ahsan and Imran Khan, founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Following the raids, many opposition politicians and party leaders—including Khan, who avoided arrest—went into hiding.

The US Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation of the sheriff's office in Arizona's Maricopa County following months of complaints that deputies are discriminating in their enforcement of federal immigration laws. Officials from the Department's Civil Rights Division notified Sheriff Joe Arpaio March 10 that the investigation will focus on whether deputies are engaging in "discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures." Arpaio replied to the Arizona Republic: "We have nothing to hide." he said.