In Belgium, police arrested around 100 at a protest outside NATO's headquarters in the capital Brussels March 21. The police intervened when the protesters tried to force their way into the headquarters building. Anti-NATO protests also took place in the Netherlands, where police arrested 35 people outside the air force base at Nieuw Milligen. Some were detained while attempting to climb over the base's fence.

In a major setback for Pentagon plans to install a US military radar base in the Czech Republic, the Prague government March 17 temporarily withdrew its proposal to ratify an agreement on the installation. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek halted the ratification process when it appeared that the Chamber of Deputies would likely reject the agreement. According to Jana Glivicka, a leader of the grassroots No Bases Initiative, this is a significant retreat, since the radar has been promoted as one of the key accomplishments of the current government.

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.

An improvised bomb exploded March 9 outside a Citibank branch in Athens, gutting the ground floor of the two-story building but causing no injuries. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but authorities say they suspect Revolutionary Struggle, a militant group that fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the US embassy in Athens in 2007. Last month, police deactivated a bomb outside Citibank's administrative headquarters in Athens. (NYT, March 10)

The "Real IRA" has claimed responsibility for the March 7 attack in which two soldiers were shot dead and four others, including civilians, seriously injured at the British army's Massereene Barracks in Antrim, Northern Ireland. The assailants, who attacked as pizzas from a local business were being delivered, all escaped. Massereene Barracks is the Northern Ireland headquarters of the British army's engineering division. Since the Good Friday Agreement, the number of troops there has been reduced and the base is due to be closed next year.

Facing a trial at The Hague that could send him to prison for life, former Serbian intelligence chief Jovica Stanisic has called in a favor from his CIA allies. In an exceedingly rare move, the CIA has submitted a classified document to the court that lists Stanisic's collaboration with the US spy agency's intelligence activities in the ex-Yugoslavia. Stanisic's former CIA handler William Lofgren, now retired, said the agency drafted the document to show "that this allegedly evil person did a whole lot of good." Lofgren doesn't claim to disprove the charges against Stanisic. "But setting the indictment aside, there are things this man did that helped bring hostilities to an end and establish peace in Bosnia."

A court under the European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) reached its first verdict March 3, sentencing Kosovar Albanian Gani Gashi to 17 years in jail for murder, attempted murder, and grievous bodily harm. A three-judge panel, composed of two EULEX judges and a judge from Kosova, found Gashi guilty of crimes committed during the Kosova-Serbian conflict in 1998-1999. The EULEX court is charged with aiding the restoration of the rule of law in Kosova. EULEX prosecutor Theo Jacobssaid: "This trial shows that EULEX is serious about investigating and prosecuting war crimes cases whenever they took place, as long as we have enough evidence for a successful prosecution to proceed."

Former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic refused to enter pleas March 3 to 11 amended charges including genocide and crimes against humanity in a hearing before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Last month, the ICTY granted in part the prosecution's motion to amend the indictment against Karadzic. When asked by Judge Iain Bonhomy whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty on the first charge of genocide, Karadzic responded that he would not enter pleas because he believes the court has no right to try him. Bonhomy then entered on Karadzic's behalf not guilty pleas for all 11 charges.