Madagascar was suspended from the African Union and threatened with sanctions on Friday, days after the army-backed toppling of the president.

Côte d'Ivoire presidential claimant Allasane Ouattara rejected on Friday an African Union call to share power with defeated president Laurent Gbagbo.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi vowed on Monday to push for the creation of a "United States of Africa", as he was elected head of the African Union.

Four people, including two foreign tourists, have been kidnapped by gunmen, after an attack on a group in Ethopia's Afar region.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has won a tightly contested vote to become the new head of the African Union Commission - the first woman to hold the post.

Libya wants the African Union to invoke a mutual defence pact to deal with Western air strikes that seek to "punish Africa ... and colonise it again".

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has died from a sudden infection while recovering from an undisclosed illness at a hospital in Belgium.

SA has bemoaned the suicide bomb attack that killed 70 people in Mogadishu, while Somalia's Prime Minister urged aid workers not to stay away.