Police arrested more than 100 protesters in San Francisco and New York City March 19 as the US marked the fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. "Stop the money, stop the war," protesters chanted outside New York's Stock Exchange as police hauled 44 away for blocking the entrance. The protesters said they were directing attention to defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Halliburton and General Electric, whose profits have soared since the invasion. Thousands rallied against the war in recent days nationwide, including in New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles. (Reuters, March 20)

Saddam Hussein's former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged for crimes against humanity on March 20. Ramadan was sentenced in November to life in jail for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 Shi'ites in the town of Dujail, for which Saddam and two former aides were hanged. But an appeals court recommended he receive the death penalty. New York-based Human Rights Watch raised concerns about the fairness of the original trial and said there was a lack of evidence tying Ramadan to the Dujail killings. UN human rights chief Louise Arbour, who appealed unsuccessfully to Iraq to stop the executions of Saddam and his two aides, had also urged Baghdad to spare Ramadan's life, saying a death sentence would break international law. (Reuters, March 20)

Gunmen kidnapped two Chinese men and a Nigerian man working for a local company in the southeastern state of Anambra March 17. The Chinese were the first foreigners kidnapped outside of the country's oil heartland in the southern Niger Delta. The men were abducted from their workplace in the industrial town of Nnewi. Four men drove into the premises of the Innoson Group of Companies Ltd, a motorcycle assembly plant, shot in the air, hustled the three men into a four-wheel drive and sped off. Police say they suspect a separatist group operating in the southeastern region may have abducted the men. But the Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has denied any involvement. "We are asking for freedom for our people and have no reason to kidnap expatriates," MASSOB spokesman Nnamdi Ohiagu told Reuters.

Suspected Islamist separatists shot and killed three Buddhist women involved with a project for victims of Thailand's insurgency March 19. The victims were headed to work at a farm project funded by Thailand's Queen Sirikit in the Nong Chik district of Pattani province, one of several in the area set up to help distressed women, including some widowed by the political violence. The project teaches the women to grow vegetables, fruit and other basic necessities. Assailants on a motorcycle drove up next to the truck the women were riding in and fired randomly. Thirteen other women escaped unharmed.

At least 10 people were wounded March 19 in fighting between Pakistani tribesmen and Uzbek militants said to be linked to al-Qaeda in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border. The clash took place in Shin Warsak, a village seven kilometers west of Wana. Both sides were armed with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. The region has been tense since March 6, when 17, including 12 militants, were killed in a gun battle between foreign militants and tribesmen. Authorities say hundreds of militants—said to be Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs—have been hiding in Waziristan since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. The March 6 fighting erupted after the militants tried to kill a pro-government tribal leader. (Pakistan Daily Times, March 20)

The Somali capital Mogadishu came under mortar bombardment March 19, leaving at least two dead and several wounded. A mother and daughter died in one neighborhood as more than 20 rounds hit areas including the Bakara Market, the police transport headquarters and streets around the seaport where some 1,200 Ugandan "peacekeeping" troops arrived and set up defences earlier that day. Government forces and Ethiopian troops fired back with artillery. (Reuters, March 19)

Kyrgyzstan has demanded the US hand over for trial an Air Force serviceman who shot dead a Kyrgyz truck driver in December at the Manas airbase. The Kyrgyz government threatened to review its agreement with the US on the use of the base, where US troops have been operating since 2001. The US maintains the troops enjoy similar status to diplomats and cannot be prosecuted by Kyrgyz courts. US officials say the truck driver threatened the airman with a knife at a Manas checkpoint. The serviceman shot him twice in the chest. US officials said the airman "used deadly force in response to a threat". President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has demanded more rent for the Manas base, said the airman should not leave the country until an investigation has taken place. (Reuters, March 19)

Waving Puerto Rican and Iraqi flags, hundreds of demonstrators picketed in front of the US National Guard headquarters in Puerto Rico on March 17 as part of an international weekend of protests against the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, which began on March 19, 2003. The picket line was organized by Mothers Against War and was supported by the Puerto Rican Independence Party, the Socialist Front and the Hostos National Independence Movement (MINH). Thousands of Puerto Ricans are participating in the US military operation. (El Diario-La Prensa, NY, March 18)