Thursday, 15 March, 2001: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrived in Libya on Wednesday for talks with Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi, Palestinian officials said. They said Arafat's talks with Qadhafi would focus on Arab support for the Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation ahead of an Arab summit later this month in Jordan. A Palestinian official said by telephone that Arafat, who arrived in Qadhafi's hometown Sirte, east of Tripoli, would also visit other Arab countries. A least 345 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 65 other Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising erupted in late September. [Reuters] Thursday, 15 March, 2001: Up to 34 African countries have ratified the Constitutive Act to establish an African Union (AU), Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge said on Wednesday. Mudenge told foreign diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe that a total of 36 member countries of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) are needed to ratify the act. "We are confident that within the next year the AU would be a reality," he said. Formation of the AU was mooted by Libyan President Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi and endorsed at an extraordinary summit of the OAU in Sirte, Libya earlier this month. The AU, whose headquarters will be in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, is to have several institutions under its auspices, including a Pan-African Parliament and an African Court of Justice. [Xinhua] _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
