AFP: Thousands protest Georgian election, OSCE approves result 06 January

The former Soviet state's election commission has awarded President Mikhail Saakashvili just over 53 per cent of the vote, avoiding a second-round run-off against his nearest rival Levan Gachechiladze.

Thousands of Georgians demanded that Russian troops leave the outskirts of this strategic Black Sea port on Saturday and took to the streets in protest, while a top Russian general said his country's forces would keep patrolling the area. (Aug. 23)

President Mwai Kibaki beat opposition rival Raila Odinga by a narrow margin to win re-election in Kenya's closest ever vote, the head of the country's electoral commission (ECK) said. Thousands of pro-opposition protesters immediately launched angry demonstrations, burning shacks in the capital's Kibera slum. The opposition party has rejected the result, demanded a recount and plans an alternative inauguration.

Kenya endured a day of violent protests as police fire killed two opposition supporters and wounded several others in rallies nationwide. At a Nairobi press conference, opposition leader Raila Odinga vowed to go ahead with mass rallies planned to protest the presidential election results, despite the police crackdown.

Georgia's pro-Western leader Mikheil Saakashvili was poised for re-election Monday after a presidential election that had been called to heal political wounds, but which has left the former Soviet republic bitterly divided.

Thousands of supporters of Thailand's ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra have demonstrated calling for the end to military rule. Police said about 10,000 people filled a plaza in central Bangkok on Saturday, the latest in a series of public rallies to push for democratic elections. Comment from the former spokesman of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party, which was dissolved by a tribunal last month, and images of the rally.

Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin was born in the industrial city of Gori in central Georgia - a source of pride for the city which has a museum dedicated to the dictator. As the country prepares for presidential elections on Saturday, leader Mikheil Saakashvili's pledges for closer ties with the West fall on deaf ears here. Many are still nostalgic for the Stalin era. An AFPTV report.

Samsung Heavy Industries and Chinese firm Hebei Ocean Shipping - owner of the supertanker holed by a crane on a Samsung barge - have been charged with polluting the ocean. But tens of thousands of residents who've lost their livelihoods thanks to the December 7th disaster, are still waiting for compensation and an apology.

The humanitarian crisis in Kenya is growing -- a quarter of a million people have fled their homes and police say some 600 have been killed since the presidential election on December 27. The United Nations said that in total, between 400,000 and 500,000 people have been affected by the unrest. Much of the violence is ethnically motivated, particularly against President Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu. The Kenyan Red Cross, assisted by hundreds of volunteers, are trying to help the displaced. An AFPTV report.