Word: gabon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gabon begins a month of mourning and condolences pour in for President Omar Bongo, the world's longest serving President, who died on Monday at 73 in his 42nd year in power, it's worth remembering that Bongo was precisely the kind of leader Gabon, and Africa, could have done without. Gabon has a tiny population (1.4 million) and vast oil reserves, and after four decades of exporting hundreds of billions of dollars of crude, the biggest testament to the corruption and ineptitude of Bongo's rule is that he somehow contrived not to turn his country into an African...
...This week, France's senior investigating magistrate, Françoise Desset, ruled that a case brought by the anticorruption organization Transparency International against three African leaders had sufficient merit to warrant a full judicial investigation. The complaint accuses the trio - Gabon's President Omar Bongo, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema - of pillaging their impoverished nations and treating state money as their personal wealth to finance acquisitions in France. The ruling means Desset can use her judicial authority to examine banking and other records to determine the origins of funds...
...position to enrich himself. That, French foreign-policy specialists say, has been done with the complicity and connivance of successive French governments maintaining the traditional Françafrique policy of retaining influence among former colonies. French lawyers for each of the leaders have flatly refuted the allegations. In Gabon - where Bongo is in temporary seclusion to mourn the death of his wife - government spokesman Alain Akouala Atipault assured that "there's nothing concrete in this affair, and there will be nothing legally concrete." Though French officials initially refused to comment on Desset's ruling, Paris prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, announced...
...When France moved to save Chad's government from surging rebels, its forces came in from Gabon - just one example of how Sarkozy found himself chained to the realities of old Françafrique," says Glaser. "But France no longer has the money, forces, or desire to pay the price to be able to act unilaterally in Africa. Meanwhile, I think Sarkozy sees Françafrique is dying whether people like it or not. This legal case suggests he's not the only one recognizing that, and turned to a new order of affairs...
Still, the WHO has urged all governments to prepare for an imminent pandemic. "The biggest question is, 'How severe will a pandemic be?'" Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, said in Switzerland. So politicians have to make like they're doing something. Gabon and Ghana have banned the import of pork, even though the flu virus cannot be contracted through eating dead pig. Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe say they are checking arriving passengers at borders and airports and have response plans of varying sophistication should an outbreak occur. In some places, they've gone much further: Authorities...