Libreville - Unidentified killers have murdered Rene Ziza, who was in charge of all Gabon's maritime transport, the General Council of Shippers , which he headed, announced Thursday.

IFC announced yesterday that it will issue a $43m local currency bond in Central Africa, a first for the World Bank institution, and alsoa first for a non-local financial institution.

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Now that judges have refused to pursue the complaint, observers say, Bongo junior is ready to resume business as usual with his French allies and is due in Paris for a three-day visit and talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Gabon's National Communications Council has suspended at least six publications for what it says are ethical violations of journalism.

Six independent newspapers have been suspended in Gabon for "violations of the principles of professional conduct and ethics" and two other titles were "warned to respect the regulations." Among their "violations" was to criticise the contested September election of Ali Bongo Ondimba as president of the oil-rich equatorial African nation.

A few years on, residents in disadvantaged areas of Libreville no longer look twice at the men and women wearing overalls, boots and protective masks as they push their wheelbarrows full of bin bags through the streets of the capital.

Gabon's National Council for Communication has suspended six independent newspapers for "violations of the principles of professional conduct and ethics," a CNC statement published Wednesday said.

The resignation of a top aide to President Ali Bongo over a 25-million-euro corruption scandal marks a turning point for the country, Gabon's communications minister said on Tuesday.

Opposition groups staged their own rally as the NDP's sixth annual conference was in full swing, reports Mona El-Nahhas "This is Egypt, not Gabon", the title of a conference held by the 6 April Youth group to run parallel to the sixth annual conference of the ruling National Democratic Party , made reference to the succession scenario in Gabon, ...

Sixteen Cuban crewmen were stranded Thursday in a backwater African port, with little cash and owed up to 11 months of salary, after their cargo ship began listing with a possibly illegal lumber cargo aboard.

Oil firms operating in Gabon will be banned from flaring gas in 2010, the government said in a statement.

"The Sino-African cooperation is a win-win situation. Each party benefits from the cooperation.

Since independence in 1968, Equatorial Guinea has been ruled by two men - from the same family - who have been described by a variety of human rights organisations as among the worst abusers of human rights in Africa.

On Saturday mornings, Erick Miguel Poaty hoists a cardboard box on his shoulders and knocks on doors in two of the city's poorest apartment complexes.

The head general of Gabon's national council for security has been detained in prison in Libreville for the last four weeks, a Gabonese bi-monthly reported on Friday.

Gabon's new government will put a ceiling on public sector wages, it announced on Thursday through the media, in line with new President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba's pledge to cut public spending.

A French appeals court has halted a lawsuit against three African leaders accused of embezzlement.

" We must form a united front against the exploitation of man by man; we must cure ourselves of our complexes by a supranational awareness, a national consciousness.

Quebec TV prankster Jean-Rene Dufort is seen in this 2005 file photo. Dufort voted in last weekend's ADQ leadership race, using the name of dead Gabonese dictator Omar Bongo.