decree a week after 26 people were killed in clashes between the security forces and mainly Coptic Christian protesters. The new decree will impose stiffer penalties for anyone found guilty of discrimination on the grounds of race or religion.

The head of the election commission in Liberia has rejected claims from opposition parties that Tuesday's presidential poll was

fraudulent

. The commission chairman James Fromayah said both local people and international observers had declared the election to be free and fair. Partial results suggest the

incumbent

, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is slightly ahead but without enough votes to avoid a run-off. The second-placed candidate Winston Tubman is among those claiming the vote was flawed. He told the BBC that voting material had been

tampered with

.

"We've seen film, video of people opening ballot boxes. Many things are flawed. We've seen documents where things were written over, figures on the original differed from what was showing on the subsequent copies, and this was clear tampering."

The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he's travelling to Cuba for a health checkup four months after he had surgery for cancer there. Mr Chavez, who's also had

chemotherapy

, said tests would determine if any cancerous cells remained in his body.

The Venezuelan leader has previously described his treatment as successful, but correspondents say secrecy about the exact nature of his cancer has fuelled speculation that his illness may be worse than officially stated.