- 40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'
- Eight dead as heavy rain thrashes Brazil after long drought
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- Morocco crush Central African Republic, Guirassy scores hat-trick
- Dupont scores quickfire hat-trick on Toulouse Top 14 return
- Ronaldo scores in Portugal's Nations League win as Spain sink Denmark
- Interim boss Carsley has not applied for England job
- Mets hurler Senga ready to take on Dodgers in game one of NL Championship Series
- Ronaldo on target again as Portugal defeat Poland in Nations League
- Guardians rip Tigers 7-3 to advance in MLB playoffs
- AFP, BBC win top French war reporting awards
- Carsley goes back to basics as humbled England face Finland
- Alex Salmond: the man who took Scotland to the brink of independence
- Scotland's former leader Alex Salmond dies aged 69: party
- UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war
- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
Son of ousted Gabon leader held in corruption case
Three weeks after Ali Bongo Ondimba was overthrown in a coup, one of his sons and several allies of the ousted Gabon president have been charged with corruption and placed in custody, the state prosecutor said Wednesday.
Bongo's eldest son Noureddin Bongo Valentin and former presidential spokesman Jessye Ella Ekogha were indicted on Tuesday and placed in provisional detention for alleged corruption, Libreville prosecutor Andre-Patrick Roponat told AFP.
In all, 10 people were indicted on charges ranging from electoral college operational issues, counterfeiting and use of the seals of the republic, to corruption, embezzlement of public funds and money laundering, Roponat told a press conference.
Seven have been detained, he added.
Bongo, 64, who had ruled the oil-rich central African country since 2009, was overthrown by military leaders on August 30, moments after being proclaimed the winner in a presidential election.
The result was branded a fraud by the opposition and the military coup leaders, who have also accused his regime of widespread corruption and bad governance.
On the day of the coup, soldiers arrested Bongo Valentin and a number of senior cabinet officials.
National TV showed rolling images of the deposed president's son and other arrested officials in front of suitcases filled with cash allegedly seized from their homes.
Bongo's wife Sylvia Bongo Valentin is under house arrest in the capital Libreville "for her protection", according to authorities.
One of her laywers said on Wednesday that she was being kept "incommunicado outside any legal framework".
"This situation is unjustifiable and incompatible with the rule of law," Paris-based Francois Zimeray told AFP.
"We have filed a complaint against those responsible for what appears to be a hostage-taking."
Bongo, who was himself under house arrest for several days after the coup, is "free to move around" and go abroad, Gabon's new military ruler General Brice Oligui Nguema said on September 6.
- Corruption -
Oligui has been sworn in as interim president after spearheading the coup that ended a half-century of rule by the Bongo family.
He has promised to hold "free, transparent and credible elections" to restore civilian rule but has not given a timeframe.
The new strongman also lost no time in warning that corruption would no longer be tolerated.
Immediately after the coup, he summoned around 200 Gabonese business leaders to a meeting, whom he lectured on corruption.
Broadcast on state television, he sternly warned business leaders against "over-billing" and told them to commit to the "development of the country".
He also vowed to make sure the overcharged money "comes back to the state".
Ali Bongo took over when his father Omar died in 2009 after nearly 42 years in power.
In 2016, French investigators zeroed in on properties owned by Omar Bongo's family in France.
They suspected several of his relatives had knowingly benefitted from a fraudulently acquired real-estate empire worth at least 85 million euros ($87 million).
Ten of Omar Bongo's 54 children have been charged with allegedly concealing the misappropriation of public funds, a Paris-based legal source has told AFP.
As a sitting head of state, Ali Bongo had immunity.
P.Silva--AMWN