evidence: Gabon and Equatorial Guinea faced off Monday at the International Court of Justice, hoping to resolve a decades-old scrap over the sovereignty of three disputed islands in potentially oil-rich waters. The two West African nations have been squabbling over the 30-hectare (74-acre) island of Mbanie and two smaller low-lying islets, Cocotier and Conga, since the early 1970s. [...] Gabon argues that a later treaty signed in 1974 -- the Bata Convention -- gives it sovereignty over the islands.