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Africa Union launch next week

DURBAN July 4. The African Union (AU) will be launched next week in Durban as South Africa continues to exercise a new-found clout in Africa following a hesitant start after the end of apartheid.

The union, loosely modelled on the European Union, will be born at a July 8-10 summit of African heads of state in the Indian Ocean city as the 39-year-old Organisation of African Unity (OAU) disappears from the scene.

The A.U. will to a large extent oversee NEPAD, the New Programme for Africa's Ddevelopment, a rescue plan for the continent devised by the South African President, Thabo Mbeki — who espouses a vision of an ``African renaissance'' and the Presidents of Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal.

The summit will fulfill a dream of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first President, who declared as independent African countries fought apartheid: ``Africa will not be free until the OAU holds a summit in Durban.''

— AFP

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