Maputo - Heavy rains have forced Mozambican authorities to issue flood warnings and urge people in flood-prone areas to abandon their residences immediately.

The warning is aimed at preventing a repeat of disastrous flooding last year that forced more than 100,000 people to seek safety.

Maputo- The head of police in Mozambique's capital Maputo, Feliciano Juvane, was gunned down Tuesday night in what police said Wednesday they suspected may be the work of organized crime.

Juvane, director of order and security at the Maputo City Police Command, was ambushed by two armed men outside in his home in a suburb of the city, police spokesperson Pedro Cossa told a press conference.

Maputo - Mozambican police on Tuesday denied reports that Anibal dos Santos Junior, the convicted killer of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, had been arrested following his escape from prison on Sunday.

Teofilo Nhampossa, an interior ministry official, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the reports in private media of dos Santos' recapture were false.

Dos Santos, nicknamed "Anibalzinho" and two fellow prisoners were still at large, he said.

"Up to now there is no information whatsoever on his whereabouts," he added.

Maputo - Mozambican police embarked Monday on a manhunt for the convicted killer of investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso after the killer escaped from a maximum security prison in Maputo on Sunday, a few years into his 30-year sentence.

The police have issued a countrywide alert after Anibal dos Santos junior, known as Anibalzinho, escaped with two other prisoners in broad daylight from their cells, and appealed for anyone with information about their whereabouts to come forward.

Maputo - A consortium of South African and Mozambican energy companies have discovered two significant natural gas deposits off the coast of central Mozambique's Inhambane province, a local newspaper reported this week.

Minister of Natural Resources Esperanca Bias was quoted by the daily Noticias newspaper on Monday as saying that the reservoirs were found at a depth of 1.3 kilometres. The layers found were between seven and 15 meters in thickness and are believed to contain a considerable amount of gas.

Maputo - South Africa has partnered up with energy-rich Mozambique to build a new power station aimed at relieving energy shortages in Africa's largest economy before the 2010 football World Cup, Mozambique's Noticias newspaper reported Friday.