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On August 22, well-known US televangelist Pat Robertson made headlines around the world when he called for the assassination of left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

On August 18, Richard Lugar, chairperson of the US Senate foreign relations committee, and acting as a special envoy of US President George Bush, oversaw the release by the Polisario Front of Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara of the last remaining Moroccan prisoners of war.

The media are wrong. The people who have come out to Camp Casey to help coordinate the press and events with me are not putting words in my mouth, they are taking words out of my mouth. I have been known for sometime

The Queensland Labor government has suffered its first major electoral setback since its massive win in the February 2004 state election. In by-elections held on August 20, the ALP lost two "safe" seats in the Brisbane region, Chatsworth and Redcliffe, with swings of 13.8% and 10% respectively.

David Llewellyn faced a barrage of criticism and no-confidence motions over his handling of the health portfolio when Tasmania’s parliament resumed on August 23.

On August 6, members of the first Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade visited the Barrio 23rd of January. From the time we entered barrio's public housing, located in an old military area that had been taken over by residents, it was clear this was a place of heightened political activity and organisation.

The following "Statement to the Muslims participating at the PM's Summit", signed by 51 Australian Muslim organisations, was issued on August 22.

"War, what is it good for?", asked Edwin Starr in his 1970 hit single "War". The answer he gave was "absolutely nothin'!", a sentiment no doubt shared by most people.

Refugee-rights activists rallied and marched in cities around the country on August 26-28, to mark the anniversary of the Tampa crisis in 2001. In Melbourne, Chris Peterson reports, around 500 people rallied at the State Library on August 26, and

Without a doubt, the Zionist occupiers of Palestine did not evacuate the Gaza Strip settlers out of good will. The occupiers understood they would never be able to defeat Palestinians in Gaza, and despite all the Israeli crimes, sieges, and massacres, that the Palestinian resistance could not be broken.

The knifing of former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib near his home in Sydney in the early hours of August 23 was not a random attack.

Queenscliff artist Peter Forward's paintings explore the outcomes of rapid change in a volatile world. "Wars are being undertaken on our behalf for spurious reasons", Forward explained in a statement about his work.