Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was elected president of Pakistan Sept. 6 by a wide margin. Zardari—who spent 11 years in prison on corruption charges that remain unproved—succeeds Pervez Musharraf, who resigned last month under threat of impeachment. He is expected to be sworn in next week. The day of his election, a suicide car bombing on a police post in Peshawar killed at least 30 people and injured dozens others. Elsewhere in the city, a suicide attack on a military checkpoint killed 16 people. At Tehsil Matta village in the Swat valley, 24 people were killed as residents foiled an attempted kidnapping by local militants. (IHT, Sept. 7; AP, Australian Broadcasting Co., Sept. 6)

The Zapatista Good Government Junta (JBG) "Corazón del arcoiris de la esperanza," based in the Chiapas jungle village of Morelia, issued a statement denouncing aggression by followers of the Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC) in the community of K'an akil, autonomous municipality Olga Isabel. Various shots were fired "without reason or motive" in the Aug. 29 attack against Zapatista campesinos—one of whom was wounded in the abdomen.

Bolivia's opposition governors in the eastern lowlands Sept. 3 demanded the national government withdraw its forces from Trinidad, the capital of Beni department, accusing them of repression at a youth protest occupation of the National Tax Service offices. The building was surrounded by National Police who stopped the action. Military forces have been reinforced in Trinidad since then. (Xinhua, Sept. 4)

Venezuela Aug. 31 rejected US requests to resume Drug War cooperation, saying Washington should focus on slashing demand for drugs at home rather than blaming setbacks on other nations' supposed lack of cooperation. "The anti-drug fight in Venezuela has shown significant progress during recent years, especially since the government ended official cooperation programs with the DEA," Venezuela's foreign ministry said in a statement. President Hugo Chávez responded angrily to recent comment by US Drug Czar John Walters, calling him "stupid" for suggesting that drug smuggling through Venezuela has increased. (AP, Sept. 1)

A car bomb exploded early Sept. 1 near the Palace of Justice in Cali, Colombia, killing four and wounding up to 20. The dead were identified as one police officer and three street vendors. Authorities said they suspect the blast was the work of the FARC guerillas' "Columna Manuel Cepeda Vargas". The Palace of Justice was damaged in the blast, along with dozens of shops and homes. (LatinoMadrid, Sept. 6; CCTV, Sept. 2; NYT, Sept. 1)

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: