Rupert the gorilla is a survivor, 21-years-old and an imposing 250 kilos (550 pounds), he lives in a Congolese sanctuary with other orphans of his species, far from the reach of poachers.

Rupert the gorilla is a survivor, 21-years-old and an imposing 250 kilos (550 pounds), he lives in a Congolese sanctuary with other orphans of his species, far from the reach of poachers.

LIBREVILLE, Oct 25, 2008 (AFP) - Thirteen ritual murders have been recorded in the west African country of Gabon since September, activists charged Saturday, accusing authorities of not doing enough to stop the killings.

LIBREVILLE, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Gabon's Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong announced Tuesday a reshuffle of the cabinet, with Paul Toungui moving from the economy and finance ministry to the foreign ministry.

Toungi, one of the barons in the government of President Omar Bongo Ondimba and had managed the country's finances since 2002, replaces Laure Olga Gondjout as foreign minister.

LIBREVILLE, Oct 4, 2008 (AFP) - Some 2,000 people protested in Libreville on Saturday against French non-governmental groups that have denounced Gabonese President Omar Bongo Ondimba's acquisition of luxury homes in France.

LIBREVILLE, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - Gabon said Thursday it would send back to China tens of thousands of Chinese milk products, most of which contain the toxic chemical at the centre of a widening child infection scandal.

A number of other African countries have meanwhile suspended imports of Chinese milk products.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon has appointed Nicolas Michel of Switzerland as his special adviser and mediator in the border dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, his press office said Wednesday.

BRUSSELS, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - The European Commission dropped on Thursday Iran's Mahan Airlines from its safety blacklist of carriers banned from EU skies, but kept Indonesian airlines on the list in an update.

LIBREVILLE, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - Air traffic controllers at Gabon's Libreville Airport went on strike Monday for the second time in three months, stranding travellers and delaying about 20 flights, aviation officials said.

Starting Monday morning, controllers went on strike for a 24-hour renewable period, the ASECNA aviation security agency that employs them told AFP.

LIBREVILLE, July 2, 2008 (AFP) - Three more bodies were discovered Wednesday on beaches around Libreville in Gabon, a coastguard chief said, taking the toll of would-be immigrants to 18 after their boat sank off Africa's west coast.

LIBREVILLE, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - A small boat carrying would-be illegal immigrants sank overnight off the coast of the Gabon capital drowning at least 15 people, police said Tuesday.

An AFP journalist witnessed 12 bodies washed up on a Libreville beach and police said later that three more corpses had been discovered.

LIBREVILLE, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - A small boat carrying would-be illegal immigrants sank overnight off the coast of the Gabon capital drowning at least 12 people, police said Tuesday.

An AFP journalist witnessed bodies washed up on a Libreville beach and police said it was possible more corpses would be discovered.

LIBREVILLE, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - A small boat carrying would-be illegal immigrants sank overnight off the coast of the Gabon capital drowning at least 12 people, police said Tuesday.

An AFP journalist witnessed bodies washed up on a Libreville beach and police said it was possible more corpses would be discovered.

LIBREVILLE, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - At least 12 would-be illegal immigrants to Gabon died when their small boat sank off the capital overnight Monday, said an AFP journalist on a Libreville beach Tuesday where their bodies had washed up.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, June 30, 2008 (AFP) - Veteran African leader and Gabon President Omar Bongo told journalists at an African Union summit on Monday that Robert Mugabe 'is president' of Zimbabwe, despite the way he was elected.

The crisis in Zimbabwe over the much criticised election is dominating the two-day summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

LIBREVILLE, June 5, 2008 (AFP) - A French couple who killed an 18-year old bystander when the wife's car rammed her husband's vehicle after seeing his mistress in the passenger seat, causing it to crash, were jailed for three months Thursday.

LIBREVILLE, May 26, 2008 (AFP) - A Gabonese government source said Monday that the west African nation has signed a revised agreement with Chinese investors to mine iron ore deposits on the edge of a national park.

LIBREVILLE, May 19, 2008 (AFP) - Oil-rich Gabon will accord 500,000 dollars in aid to China after last week's devastating earthquake, the presidency said on Monday.

Beijing has appealed for humanitarian aid, including tents to shelter some five million people who were left destitute after the quake struck last Monday, followed by at least two dozen deadly aftershocks.

LIBREVILLE, May 6, 2008 (AFP) - The government in Gabon Tuesday announced a six-month ceiling on profit margins for rice and flour sales to curb soaring food prices following riots in this poverty-stricken west African country.

Police last month broke up street protests against sharply rising food prices in the capital Libreville.

ADDIS ABABA, April 28, 2008 (AFP) - Gabon's former foreign minister Jean Ping on Monday took over the presidency of the African Union Commission from outgoing chief Alpha Oumar Konare.

The 65-year-old Ping was elected in February to head the bloc's executive arm during an AU heads of state and government summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

LIBREVILLE, April 27, 2008 (AFP) - Gabon went to the polls Sunday in municipal and regional elections seen as a platform for future leaders jostling within President Omar Bongo Ondimba's party entourage.

LIBREVILLE, April 25, 2008 (AFP) - Police violently broke up fresh protests on Friday against soaring food prices in the capital Libreville, witnesses and organisers said, a day after Gabon decided to suspend food taxes temporarily.

LIBREVILLE, April 25, 2008 (AFP) - The west African state of Gabon is suspending duties for six months on basic foodstuffs including milk, flour and rice to curb inflation, the government announced Friday.

LIBREVILLE, April 22, 2008 (AFP) - Roughly a hundred people demonstrated in Gabon's capital Tuesday under pounding rain against the high cost of food and other commodities in the latest such protest to hit Africa.

LIBREVILLE, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - A strike that has paralyzed production at Shell-Gabon and an oil terminal used by other companies since March 20 was called off late Tuesday after mediation by Gabonese President Omar Bongo between unions and management, both sides said.

LIBREVILLE, March 31, 2008 (AFP) - Police in Gabon on Monday moved in to a Shell oil terminal at Gamba in the southwest of the country where production has halted since a strike began on March 20, a trade union spokesman said.

LIBREVILLE, March 29, 2008 (AFP) - Experts say they are making progress in the battle against the horrifying Ebola virus with a congress here told that a vaccine could be ready in five years.

LIBREVILLE, March 28, 2008 (AFP) - An oil workers strike which has paralysed production at a Shell subsidiary in Gabon, west Africa, is set to become an industry-wide dispute, union officials warned Friday.

LIBREVILLE, March 27, 2008 (AFP) - Popular culture and fears of bioterrorism have stoked the public's fear of the Ebola virus, which -- despite terrifying symptoms and high mortality rate -- has only taken 600 lives in 40 years.

LIBREVILLE, March 27, 2008 (AFP) - Pre-election ritual killings in Gabon are on the rise, carried out by secret networks, scavenging for blood or body parts in pursuit of boundless health, wealth, success and power.

LIBREVILLE, March 26, 2008 (AFP) - The board of Shell's oil subsidiary in Gabon said Wednesday it was working flat out to resolve a strike which has halted production for the last seven days.

'We are working very hard to find a resolution,' said managing director Hans Bakker. 'We are doing all we can to get production flowing again as soon as possible.'

LIBREVILLE, March 6, 2008 (AFP) - Given its key role in France's myriad and sometimes murky African interests, the sudden sharpening of Gabon's rhetoric against its former colonial master is something of a puzzle.

LIBREVILLE, March 5, 2008 (AFP) - Gabon reacted with fury and threatened diplomatic retribution on Wednesday after French state television broadcast a report on President Omar Bongo Ondimba's real estate interests.

LIBREVILLE, March 5, 2008 (AFP) - Gabon signalled Wednesday it could expel French nationals illegally within its borders in response to the expulsion of two of its own citizens from France last month.

LIBREVILLE, Feb 14, 2008 (AFP) - Gabon's President Omar Bongo Ondimba plans to build a huge Roman Catholic basilica worth at least 50 million euros (73 million dollars) overlooking the capital, church and other sources said Thursday.

LIBREVILLE, Feb 3, 2008 (AFP) - Exhausted and shaken, but mostly just relieved, more than 500 foreigners flew into Libreville on Sunday on French military transporters that evacuated them from the fighting in Ndjamena.

LIBREVILLE, Feb 3, 2008 (AFP) - The first 74 foreigners evacuated from Chad's capital Ndjamena arrived early Sunday in the Gabon capital, saying they were exhausted but happy to flee the encroaching fighting.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) - The African Union Friday elected Gabonese Foreign Minister Jean Ping as the new head of the commission of the 53-state body, taking over from Malian Alpha Oumar Konare, diplomats said here.

'Ping was elected in the first round,' a diplomat told AFP.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 1, 2008 (AFP) - The African Union Friday elected Gabonese Foreign Minister Jean Ping as the new head of the commission of the 53-state body, taking over from Malian Alpha Oumar Konare, diplomats said here.

'Ping was elected in the first round, and the heads of state are now electing a vice president,' a diplomat told AFP.

LIBREVILLE, Jan 25, 2008 (AFP) - The former head of Gabon Telecommunication, Herve Fulgence