Algeria ready to host 2nd Pan-African

ALGIERS- Culture Minister Khalida Toumi stressed Saturday that Algeria was "all set" to host the second Pan-African Festival (Panaf), due to be held from 5 to 20 July 2009.

• National television forum's guest, Toumi said the commission in charge of the festival's preparations was about to complete its work concerning the event's organization.
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• The preparations, she said, started in 2006, when the African Union (AU) entrusted Algeria with hosting the second Pan-African Festival.
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• The minister said about 8,000 participants representing more than 48 AU member countries would take part in the festival.
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• Toumi stressed the importance of the continental event, which will shed light on "African culture's richness and diversity."
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• She noted that the organization of the second Pan-African festival in Algeria, after that of 1969, had more than one meaning, as "Algeria of 1969 is not that of 2009," citing "the many achievements made by the sector, and mainly the artists' village that will be inaugurated on the occasion of the second Pan-African festival
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• ennaharonline/aps