ALGIERS, Apr 17, 2012 (AFP) - The airport of Algeria's main northwestern city, Oran, will be renamed Oran Ahmed Ben Bella International in honour of the nation's founding president, who died last week, officials said Tuesday.

"This decision is born of the recognition the Algerian nation shows its brave heroes, in whose ranks president Ahmed Ben Bella holds a prominent place," current President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's office said in a statement read on national radio.

Ben Bella, who died last Wednesday aged 95, was a leader in Tunisia's fight for independence from France and became its first post-independence president in 1963.

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