Twelve days after they first rolled in, Russian tanks are still in Georgia and show no signs of pulling out.

At least 10 000 people have been detained over the past week in a major crackdown on crime in emergency-ruled Bangladesh, the country's police chief said on Wednesday.

Malawi's former president Bakili Muluzi on Tuesday laughed off accusations that he was trying to topple his successor as his lawyers launched a high court bid to end his house arrest. Muluzi has denied any knowledge of documents which purportedly linked him to a coup against President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Burma's junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, a move likely to dismay Western nations who promised millions of dollars in aid after Cyclone Nargis. Officials drove to the Nobel laureate's lakeside Rangoon home to read out a six-month extension order in person.

A month before a presidential election run-off, Zimbabwe's opposition said on Tuesday conditions were not conducive for a free and fair poll, but still expressed confidence it would oust Robert Mugabe. "As of yesterday [Monday], at least 50 of our supporters had been killed in violent attacks." the Movement for Democratic Change said.

Australian soldiers are ashamed of their low-risk missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and are scorned by troops of other nations, two officers charged in comments published on Tuesday. "The restrictions and policies enforced on infantrymen in Iraq have resulted in the widespread perception that our army is plagued by institutional cowardice," Major Jim Hammett said.

President Thabo Mbeki faces an uphill battle to remain politically relevant in his last year in office after his failure to contain an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of foreign workers in South Africa. Mbeki was already under fire for failing to prevent a crippling power shortage when mobs went on the rampage this month.

The secretary general of the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said on Monday his country was on the brink of a new north-south civil war, and called on northern forces to leave a disputed oil town. "We're on the brink of war. Clashes have already happened," SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum told a news conference.

The South African government came under pressure on Monday to deal with the aftermath of deadly anti-foreigner violence that has displaced an estimated 35 000 people. As thousands headed for the borders, a growing humanitarian crisis was developing domestically with crowds of foreigners sheltering at police stations.

Rebels from Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta said on Monday they had attacked a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline and killed 11 soldiers, but the army denied there had been any attack. The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement that it had sabotaged the Shell pipeline at Awoba flow station.