Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida is under heavy pressure in its strongholds in Pakistan's remote tribal areas and is finding it difficult to attract recruits or carry out spectacular operations in western countries, according to government and independent experts monitoring the organisation.

Speaking to the Guardian in advance of tomorrow's eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, western counter-terrorism officials and specialists in the Muslim world said the organisation faced a crisis that was severely affecting its ability to find, inspire and train willing fighters.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she is not offended by Opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott's use of bad language to criticise her.

Leaving Federal Parliament on Thursday night, Mr Abbot said Ms Gillard had been sporting a "shit-eating grin" during Question Time.

Ms Gillard, who spent much of the parliamentary week defending the Government's $16 billion stimulus spend on schools amid claims of mismanagement and wasteful spending, has laughed off the comments.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has delighted his Russian hosts during a visit by announcing that Caracas was recognising the Georgian rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent.

The shock decision, which Mr Chavez said was effective immediately, was a triumph for Russia, which has struggled to convince other countries to follow its lead in granting diplomatic recognition to the two territories.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel says she "deeply regrets" any loss of innocent life, after civilians were killed in an air strike in Afghanistan.

But Mrs Merkel told parliament that Germany's mission in Afghanistan remained necessary.

There has been heavy criticism of the strike, ordered by a German commander.

He has been mocked for wearing stacked heels and standing on tiptoes in official photographs, and now Nicolas Sarkozy is embroiled in a new controversy over the alleged lengths he will go to in order to make himself look taller in public.

By DEXTER FILKINS and CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president’s re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.

Venezuela has agreed to export petrol to Iran, in a sign of closer ties between two of America's most vocal adversaries.

At the end of a two-day visit to Iran, President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would supply 20,000 barrels of petrol a day to the country.

Iran is a major oil exporter but lacks domestic refining capability.

Iranian leaders expressed support for the Venezuelan socialist leader's anti-American policies.

By THOM SHANKER

Tony Blair will be thrust into the controversy

over the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi with questions in Parliament over a secret meeting the then Prime Minister orchestrated that brought Libya in from the cold.

QandA Latest Program: Thursday 3 September 2009 at 9:30pm http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/

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Gus: There are times when one has to pay dues against one's ingrained beliefs. For example one has to admit that Senator Bill Heffernan has "improved"... Even one of my buddies who had seriously bad interaction with him way back in the wild 1980s told me in the afternoon before the show that Heffernam had mellowed and strangely grasped the major issues, including climate warming... Weird...