hardline
position stated by Mr Gbagbo's team might push Africa's presidents towards favouring a power-sharing deal to try to prevent the slide into civil war.
World News from the BBC
Human Rights Watch has criticised Russia for allowing the Chechen authorities to introduce a
compulsory
Islamic dress code for women. The report details the testimonies of women who say they've been victims of intimidation. Here's Sam Wilson.
The report
highlight
s the story of a young woman walking down the street in the Chechen capital Grozny. Her hair is uncovered. A car pulls up, and she's shot in the chest with a paintball gun. Human Rights Watch says such attacks are part of what's been called a "virtue campaign", mounted with the
explicit
support of Chechnya's President Ramzan Kadyrov. It says few women now dare to step out without head scarves and long dresses. The campaign group says Russia's leaders have
turned a blind eye
, even though a religious dress code breaches the country's constitution.
The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has accused the United States and the United Nations of conspiring to
defame
his government. He said criticism by the US and the UN drugs agency over Bolivia's handling of the war on drugs were part of a strategy to falsely link his government to drug trafficking. Mr Morales said the US was trying to force him to invite American anti-narcotics agents, which he expelled in 2008, back in the country.