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.

Hamid Karzai is poised for outright victory in Afghanistan's bitterly contested presidential election after officials said he had won more than 50 per cent of the vote.

But his likely re-election without having to face a second round after reaching the milestone with almost all of the votes counted was mired in controversy. United Nations monitors said they had found "clear and convincing evidence" of fraud and election officials ordered a recount of thousands of disputed ballot papers.

from Crikey .....

Steve Fielding is just a media torte. Sorry, tart.

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

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.

from Crikey .....

Four to one: our lobbyist to MP ratio

Terrorism as defined by the U.S. and other organizations is: activities that involve violent... or life-threatening acts... that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and... appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping...."

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.

Americans have lost their ability for introspection, thereby revealing their astounding hypocrisy to the world.

US War Secretary Robert Gates has condemned the Associated Press and a reporter, Julie Jacobson, embedded with US troops in Afghanistan, for taking and releasing a photo of a US Marine who was wounded in action and died from his injury.

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.