South Africa said Monday it will ask Mozambican authorities to investigate reports of sexual abuse of its female nationals held in the neighboring country's jails.

A local newspaper reported at the weekend that 15 South African female prisoners in Mozambique were suffering sexual exploitation by prison warders in exchange for food, sanitary pads, toothpaste and other basics.

Suspected members of Mozambique's ex-rebel movement turned opposition Renamo killed four policemen and wounded five others at the weekend, local media reported on Tuesday.

"Four members of the border police died and five were wounded as a result of an attack by armed men from Renamo on Sunday morning in the district of Gorongosa," independent daily, O Pais said.

More than 200 Mozambican construction workers have downed tools in protest at alleged beatings by their Chinese employers and poor working conditions, some of the strikers said Wednesday.

The 230 workers, who are employed by a Chinese state-owned construction company to build a three-kilometer (two-mile) bridge and a 74-kilometer ring road in the Mozambican capital Maputo, have been on strike since Saturday.

Mozambique's government said Wednesday that Renamo rebels have killed 10 people during six weeks of unrest, and warned that the military may soon go on the offensive.

"Ten people lost their lives and around 26 people have been injured... as a result of attacks by Renamo guerrillas," defense ministry spokesman Cristovao Chume said.

Police on Saturday found the burned wreckage of a Mozambican Airlines plane the day after it went missing in northeastern Namibia, saying none of the 33 people aboard had survived.

The crash in the remote, swampy terrain of Namibia's Bwabwata National Park killed victims from several countries and is one of the worst accidents on record in Mozambique's civil aviation history.

A Mozambican Airlines airplane carrying 28 passengers and six crew members went missing en route from Mozambique to Angola on Friday, the airline said.

Flight TM470 took off from Maputo at 09H26 GMT and had been due to land in the Angolan capital Luanda at 13H10 GMT, but never arrived, the airline said in a statement.

Police fired tear gas Wednesday to disperse youths rioting in central Mozambique after reports of forced conscription as the military battles a revived rebel group, a rights group and residents said.

Security forces clashed with protesters in central city Beira, according to the Human Rights League (LDH).

Mozambicans turned out Wednesday to cast ballots in local elections despite concerns that an upsurge in political violence would mar voting.

Polling was calm in zones worst affected by recent, deadly fighting between government troops and supporters of the main opposition party Renamo, according to local media reports.

Tunisian security forces on Wednesday arrested five Salafist "terrorists" with links to two failed attacks in coastal resort towns, the first suicide bids in the country for more than a decade.

The presidency insisted the attacks, which have yet to be claimed, would not "derail" the country's democratic transition.

Mozambique troops have seized a second military base of the former Renamo rebels, the presidency said Tuesday, as tit-for-tat attacks raise concerns of renewed conflict after two decades of peace in the country.

Presidential spokesman Edson Macuacua, said the latest raid occurred on Monday in Maringue in central Mozambique.