51.   While the situation was tense, life continued largely as normal in many parts of Kinshasa, with most shops open and markets crowded with people buying extra provisions.

52.   Worries were met with a conviction that regular life must continue, from the daily errands of school and shopping to the foundations of democracy.

53.   However, life continued much as normal at the Indou market, just outside Kinshasa, which receives its produce from Kikwit.

54.   However AFP correspondents Friday noted that life continued as normal and police were letting through anyone who gave them money.

55.   But some are happy in the knowledge that for them, life will continue much as it always did.

56.   Yet life continues at a placid pace in the dusty capital, home to some four million people.

57.   Life otherwise continued almost as normal Saturday morning in the capital, where only a few shops failed to open.

58.   Life continued to return to normal in Aden after weeks of bitter fighting between northern troops loyal to President Ali Abdallah Saleh and the forces of breakaway southern leaders.

59.   No military deployment was visible in Basra itself, where life continued as normal.

60.   Parts of the city have been blitzed but life is continuing in a sort of normal way, things are functioning.