Venezuelan National Guard troops in Maracaibo Sept. 4 captured fugitive former Colombian senator, César department governor and national agriculture minister Alvaro Araujo Noguera, 75. Araujo Noguera, who had been wanted for a year and a half, is expected to be extradited shortly. He is accused of collaborating with paramilitary warlord "Jorge 40" in the kidnapping of a rival, businessman Víctor Ochoa Daza. The scandal has embroiled Araujo Noguera's family and prompted his daughter María Consuelo Araujo to step down as foreign minister. His son, ex-senator Alvaro Araujo Castro, was imprisoned last year on charges related to the case. (AP; El Tiempo, Bogotá; El Espectador, Bogotá, Sept. 5)

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced his government will formally recognize the independence of the breakaway Georgian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia—becoming the first country other than Russia to do so. The Nicaraguan decree was read in a Sept. 5 press conference at the Foreign Ministry. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has expressed support for recognizing the breakaway enclaves, but has not yet taken formal action. (AP, Sept. 5)

Iranian-born, neocon-friendly pundit and "journalist" Amir Taheri has been implicated in fabricated news reports—so take his sneering analysis of Barack Obama's recently released foreign policy positions as a propagandistic exercise. What he is aghast at we can perhaps take heart at. Will Barack Obama be the post-GWOT president? From the United Arab Emirates' Gulf News, emphasis added:

The Democratic Party website ExxonMcCain, delineating the Big Oil connections of several advisors to the GOP candidate, includes the dish on Randy Scheunemann—recently identified by Robert Scheer as a lobbyist for the Georgian government to grease NATO entry, and a veteran of the Project for a New American Century:

In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County prosecutors have formally charged eight alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with "conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism." Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to seven and a half years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty.

Pakistan opened an investigation Sept. 1 into the killings of five women in Baluchistan who tried to choose their own husbands, after a federal lawmaker from the province defended their deaths, asserting that "only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid." Sen. Israr Ullah Zehri told the parliament chamber Aug. 30, "These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them."

NATO-led forces killed three Afghan children and injured seven in artillery fire Sept. 1 after a patrol came under fire from presumed Taliban insurgents in Gayan district, Paktika province. The rounds fell close to a house where the children were later found dead, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). "ISAF deeply regrets this accident and an investigation as to the exact circumstances of this tragic event is now under way," the statement said. Afghanistan's government counts more than 500 civilians killed during operations by foreign and Afghan forces this year.

Georgia on Sept. 2 formally broke diplomatic relations with Russia following its occupation of a "security zone" in the north of the country and its Aug. 26 recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries. (AFP, Sept. 2) Russia responded by accusing Georgia of mobilizing commando units near its border with South Ossetia. "According to our information, Georgian security forces are trying to restore their [military] presence in Georgian populated villages in South Ossetia," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said. "With this aim, Georgia is mobilizing its special forces from the interior and defense ministries near the administrative border with South Ossetia." (RIA-Novosti, Sept. 2)