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.

President Barack Obama was briefed March 7 by Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen about Mexico's drug wars and the need for US assistance. "They have an urgent need," Mullen told reporters in a conference call from his aircraft as he returned from his first official visit to Mexico. "We all have a sense of urgency about this. And so we're all going to push pretty hard to deliver that capability as rapidly as possible."

In the wee hours of March 8, International Women's Day, 2,000 campesina women occupied a eucalyptus plantation belonging to the Aracruz Celulosa plant, a large paper and pulp mill in Barra do Ribeiro, 56 kilometers from Porto Alegre in southern Brazil. Seven hours later, the women, in an action coordinated with the international group Vía Campesina, marched through Porto Alegre to the Catholic University, where the second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) is taking place, organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The protesters found the gate to the university blocked by police. A tense stand-off and scuffle ensued.

In the Peruvian village of Huanta, Ayacucho region, forensic workers March 9 began exhuming the remains of 49 people from a mass grave, thought to be victims of a massacre during the nation's 1980-2000 conflict with Maoist guerillas. Some 200 relatives of the disappeared gathered at the site, chanting "We demand justice," as the exhumation began on orders of the local prosecutor's office. A lawyer for the relatives, Karim Ninaquispe, said the victims went missing in July and August of 1984. Investigators believe they were taken to Huanta's municipal stadium, where the Peruvian navy had established a base. "In that place they were tortured, executed and their bodies were later made to disappear," Ninaquispe said.