African Union asks United Nation to block International Criminal Court warrant for Bashir

The African Union on Monday asked the UN Security Council to delay a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on whether to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on war crimes charges.

"The African Union requests the UN Security Council to defer the process initiated by the ICC, taking into account the need to ensure that the ongoing peace process is not jeopardized," Nigerian Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe said.

"We are asking for a delay within the rules of the Rome Statute," he said at the end of AU's Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa.

The UN Security Council can pass a resolution to defer for a period of 12 months any investigation or prosecution by the ICC and the delay may be renewed by the council under the same conditions.

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United States presses International Atomic Energy Agency to search for nuclear sites in Syria

The United States is pressing UN inspectors to broaden a search for secret nuclear sites in Syria to check if it has other hidden facilities beyond an alleged reactor destroyed by Israel, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

US officials have given information on three suspect sites to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which is negotiating with Syria for permission to conduct inspections in the country, the Post said, citing US government officials and Western diplomats.

US officials want to know if the suspect sites were support facilities for the alleged Al-Kibar reactor, which Washington says was built with North Korean help, the daily said.

Officials declined to describe the suspect sites or discuss how they were identified, the newspaper said.

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