Gabon News

Elephants stroll along the beach in the Loango National Park, regarded as one of Africa's last great coastal wildernesses As an untouched West African paradise where hippos play in the Atlantic surf and buffaloes and elephants parade on the beach, little-visited Gabon had been marked out as a rising eco-tourism star.

Bharti Airtel became one of Gabon's largest mobile phone service providers in June after if bought the African assets of Kuwait's Zain in a deal worth nearly $9 billion.

"At our general assembly on July 14, the Union of Artists decided to file a complaint against the government of Gabon and demand in damages and interest after the prejudice caused to Gabonese artists and creators through the illicit use of their work on Gabonese territory" for more than two decades, a union statement said.

Villagers around Gabon's Lake Anengue are being cut off from the world by papyrus reeds that harm their jobs, hinder navigation and have already caused many people to leave.

Libreville - Gabon's government shut down a rock quarry in the country's remote eastern region to protect ancient fossils scientists say could prove complex life on earth is more than two billion years old.

Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba left Libreville on Monday for Paris where he is expected to attend a large military parade on Wednesday at the Champs Elysees.

On a recent trip to Gabon, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with children living in a child-protection centre supported by UNICEF in Angondg, a neighbourhood of Libreville, the capital.

Gabon will seek tenders to provide third-generation mobile phone services in the country, Communications Minister Laure Olga Gondjout said today.

Fourteen heads of state have confirmed that they will be attending the 2010 World Cup final, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation said on Wednesday.

Hutus live in fear of attacks International rights groups have condemned Rwanda in recent weeks for clamping down on dissent, curbing freedoms and silencing opponents.

Gabon's actions to fight corruption and protect the environment were the focus of discussions today between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the leader of the African nation as he began the final leg of the United Nations chief's third official trip to the continent over the past month.