Mbeki Expresses Condolences over Columbia Tragedy

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 04, 2003

Mbeki Expresses Condolences over Columbia Tragedy

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African Union (AU) Chairperson and South African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday expressed condolences to US President George W. Bush over the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, a disaster which cost the lives of seven astronauts.

"We express our condolences to President George Bush of the United States for the tragic loss of human lives as a result of break-up of the space shuttle," said Mbeki at the opening of the extraordinary session of the AU Assembly in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.

Columbia, NASA's oldest and heaviest spaceship, broke up over Texas Saturday afternoon, 16 minutes before its scheduled landing in Florida.

The shuttle, which made its first space flight in 1981, carriedout some 80 experiments during the last mission, which began on Jan. 16.

The two-day AU extraordinary summit, which will end on Tuesday,is the first of its kind since the AU was established last July inDurban, South Africa, replacing the 39-year-old Organization of African Unity.

Heads of state and government as well as their representatives from the AU member countries are present at the summit.

The AU is a political entity combining politics, economy, military affairs and culture as one, ultimately aimed at unifying currency and achieving free transit of personnel and goods.

Currently, there are 53 members in the AU, which has four key organs -- the Assembly, the Executive Council, the Permanent Representatives Committee and the Commission.

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