Andrew Cawthorne

Britain notched their highest gold medal tally in a century on Tuesday with four victories in running, cycling and sailing for the 2012 hosts.

American swimmer Michael Phelps needed a little help from his friends to pip France in the relay on Monday and keep alive his dream of eight golds.

Swimmer Michael Phelps smashed his own world record to take a first gold on Sunday in the quest for an unprecedented eight wins.

Attackers killed 16 police in a restive western region of China on Monday, in just the sort of violence Beijing had hoped to avoid.

In Kenya, they name babies after him and quaff ''Senator'' brand beer in his honour. Global TV networks camp outside his grandmother's rural home.

Kenya's prime minister openly dissented with the president on Tuesday in a row over amnesty for post-election crimes. President Mwai Kibaki's government and Prime Minister Raila Odinga's opposition came together in April to form a ''Grand Coalition'' after violence that killed at least 1 300.

Most nations erect grandiose monuments to their historical triumphs. Eritrea put up a pair of sandals. The sculpted black metal shoes in Asmara's Shida (Sandal) Square, recalling the footwear of Eritrea's rebels, were a symbol of its remarkable 30-year independence war against its giant neighbour, Ethiopia, which ended with secession in 1991.

Fisherman Ali Osman grins as he hauls a large, yellow-and-silver emperor fish out of the shallow Red Sea waters off Eritrea. A minute later, his friend pulls out a baby shark, sweating in the heat as he chucks it on the rocks. Other fish flop on the sea's flat surface as four young fishermen wade through the high tide to take back an impressive haul to their village, Hirgigo.

When Italian architect Giuseppe Pettazzi inaugurated Eritrea's plane-shaped Fiat Tagliero service station in 1938, he stunned onlookers by pulling out a gun. There, the story behind Africa's finest piece of Futurist architecture goes hazy.

Kenyan security forces have tortured more than 4 000 people in an indiscriminate offensive against rebels in the remote Mount Elgon area, local rights groups said on Sunday. Activists said the systematic abuses -- including crawling on barbed wire -- was the worst wave of torture in Kenya under the government of President Mwai Kibaki.

Amnesty International accused Ethiopian soldiers on Wednesday of killing 21 people, including an imam and several Islamic scholars, at a Mogadishu mosque and said seven of the victims had their throats slit. The rights group said the soldiers had also captured dozens of children during the raid on the al-Hidaaya mosque.

It's the mecca of world-class distance running: Kenya's Rift Valley. Everywhere I looked, knots of star runners jogged over the hills, disappeared into forests, sprinted toward the horizon. The glorious views and high altitude added to the intoxication.