ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (BBC) — An African Union (AU) summit in Ethiopia has been extended to a fourth day amid disagreements on the issue of creating a United States of Africa.

Many leaders said the proposal by Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi would add a layer of bureaucracy that the continent does not need.

But they did agree on changing the name of the AU Commission to AU Authority.

Col Gaddafi had used his inaugural address as rotating head of the AU to push his long-cherished unity project.

The Libyan leader said closer integration between African states should start immediately.

In the long grass?

He envisages a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for Africans to move freely around the continent.

But other African heads of state said the Libyan leader’s plan was not practical.

African leaders said they would study the legal implications of the unity proposal, make a report and meet again in three months time.

In other words, says BBC’s Mark Doyle in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, they are kicking the ball into the long grass to slow it down.

He says the outcome is a political fudge, as no member wishes to alienate the leader of oil-rich Libya.

One participant in the closed-door meeting of the 53-country union said the Libyan leader appeared to admit defeat and laid his head on the table in despair.

Our correspondent says waiting reporters next saw the Libyan leader sweep out of the room accompanied by his protocol man, who had a uniform like that of an airline pilot – but with more gold braid.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said: “He didn’t walk out, he just got tired.”

She denied to the BBC that the outcome was a fudge and said it was a step on the path to a United States of Africa.

Legal implications

Leaving the talks in the early hours of Wednesday, Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade said leaders had had a “very rich” discussion that they would resume later in the day.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe appeared upbeat, telling AFP news agency: “A day will be arrived at where there will be a single authority in charge of Africa.”

The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says changing the name of the AU Commission – which is the administrative branch of the organisation – to the AU Authority sounds like a mere formality and a change of notepaper.

But, she says, it has legal implications as the commission is written into the constitution of the AU.

Our correspondent understands that any amendment to that charter would have to be agreed by two thirds of AU leaders and ratified by their national parliaments.

Before arriving at the summit, Col Gaddafi circulated a letter saying he was coming as the king of the traditional kings of Africa.

Last August, he had a group of 200 traditional leaders name him the “king of kings” of Africa.

The summit’s main agenda – to boost Africa’s energy and transport networks – has been pushed largely to the fringes, weighed down by the grim realities of the global economic downturn.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (PANA0 – On Thursday, Ethiopia’s High Court will rule in a case in which opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa has been charged with treason, following the government’s decision to revive a 2005 treason case in which she was convicted and later jailed for life.

The opposition leader, who defied the authorities in early December 2008 after she was asked to disown a statement she made while on a tour of Europe – that her pardon about a year ago was a result of political negotiations and not a favour from government – will know her fate on Thursday.

Sources close to her political party, Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ), said that the former judge, who led a vibrant opposition alliance in the run up to the 2005 elections, would stand before a bench on Thursday for the ruling in her case on the revived treason charges.

She was accused of fomenting violence after Ethiopia’s 2005 general elections and sent to jail after the judges found her guilty of inciting the violence.

She and senior members of her party were however released in September 2007, after they reportedly signed a plea regretting the crime.

But Mideksa was re-arrested and sent to prison on 28 December 2008, after she failed to report to the Addis Ababa Police Commission to deny her reported slur on the conditions of her release.

The European Union Parliament and senior American Congressmen and Senators have recently written to the Ethiopian government to ask for her release.

Ethiopian Communications Affairs Minister Birket Simon said foreign governments must stop meddling in Ethiopia’s internal affairs, and rebuffed the claims that the government was using the case to mistreat opposition rivals.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The African Union urged the International Criminal Court Friday to suspend its indictment of Sudan’s president on genocide charges, saying it could jeopardize any peace process in Darfur.

The court’s chief prosecutor has accused Omar al-Bashir of masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in western Sudan’s Darfur region with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.

The ICC still must decide whether to issue a warrant for al-Bashir. There have been no rulings on the warrant yet and a court decision is expected early this year. The UN has the power to grant a one-year suspension.

Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in five years of fighting in Darfur. Al-Bashir is also accused of unleashing militia allied with the government to target civilians, rather than rebels, in villages and camps.

The head of the AU Peace and Security Council said Friday that African foreign ministers unanimously supported delaying the indictment process for a year so officials can negotiate peace in Darfur.

“There is a solidarity shown toward the president of Sudan, unanimously,” Ramtane Lamamra said after the closed-door session.

Sudanese officials were not available for comment Friday.

Reed Brody, a Brussels-based lawyer with Human Rights Watch said the AU’s argument that Bashir’s arrest would imperil the peace process had one fatal flaw. “What peace process?” he said. “We don’t see an effective peace process happening at the moment.”

The Sudanese government does not recognize the court, and has refused to turn over any suspects to face international justice. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state named as a war crimes suspect by the court’s prosecutors.

By ELIAS MAKORI | Daily Nation

The world marathon record can sink as low as one hour and 58 minutes, the fastest human being over 42-kilometres, Haile Gebrselassie, has predicted.

But the Ethiopian legend, who has been in Nairobi since Monday on a training mission with his sponsors, G4S, said this record time will only be registered after 20 to 25 years.

Gebrselassie and his long-time nemesis, Paul Tergat, were the star attractions at a sumptuous dinner hosted by G4S at the Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi on Friday night.

Roses of smoked salmon and shrimps set on a bed of fresh bouquet garden leaves enriched with balsamic and rice vinaigrette dressing was the appetiser at Friday’s dinner, with the main dish a choice between a mixed grill of chicken and medallion of beef fillet accompanied with bordelaise sauce and pan seared fillet of tilapia surrounded with tomato basil sauce.

And as the guests were served with a desert of baked cheese cake with black pie cherry filling and fresh fruit salad, Gebrselassie and Tergat took to the stage to re-live their glorious competition days that climaxed in that memorable 10,000 metres Olympic final in Sydney where the Ethiopian pipped Tergat to the gold medal.

Gebrselassie, who holds 26 world records, including the world’s best marathon time of two hours, three minutes and 59 seconds, said it is possible for man to dip under two hours over the 42 kilometres.

“In the next 20 to 25 years it will be possible to run 1:58 or 1:59 in the marathon but to run lower than that will mean the runners using special shoes or skates,” the 35-year-old Gebrselassie, who left for his Addis Ababa base on Friday, said.

Gebrselassie also described his win over Tergat at the 2000 Olympics as “a victory from God.”

“That was not me. That was God,” he said.

“I don’t know how I did it… I remember looking at the big screen and when I saw my pictures there, then I knew I had won the race.”

Tergat, sharing the stage with his rival but great friend, said the Ethiopians had planned seriously for the race and had schemed how to stop him from winning.

“When Asefa (Mezgebu) boxed me with 300 metres to go, I said shit! I knew just what they had planned because Asefa came in front of me but did not want to move,” said Tergat who held the world marathon record at 2:04.55 before Gebrselassie lowered it to 2:04.26 in Berlin two years ago and further to 2:03.59 last year at the same Berlin course.

“I lost the gold medal by less than a second. I had done everything and put in all the effort I needed to win and that will remain my most memorable race as an athlete. I lost to a great man.

Tergat, a five-time world cross country champion, who finished 17th at the Armed Forces Cross Country Championships a fortnight ago, said he is not keen on making a comeback to his previous speciality and sounded a warning to Kenyan cross country runners: “If I’m still able to breathe down your neck, then it means you have some homework to do.”

Gebrselassie was in Kenya on a mentorship programme for the G4S Teen programme that featured upsoming athletes from Africa.

The G4S athletes included Kenyan cross country star Pauline Korikwiang, sprinters Obinna Metu (Nigeria), Fanuel Kenosi (Botswana) and table tennis star Zodwa Maphanga (South Africa).

Tergat and Gebrselassie agreed that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has a lot more to do to root out doping from the sport.

“Things are not as bad in athletics as they are in other sports but there is a lot that the IAAF needs to do to remove drugs from our sport,” Gebrselassie said.

They urged the upcoming stars to be close to the media and be involved in community service.