Ban Ki-Moon News Blog @newzblogz.com

Remember the old U.N. Human Rights Commission? It became so politicized and discredited that it was reconstituted and given a new name. Now it's the U.N. Human Rights Council. Unfortunately, the name change didn't change the ingrained bad habits.

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Council dropped Cuba and Belarus from scrutiny, but singled out Israel for human rights violations.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed disappointment with the decision, and a member of the U.S. House from Florida, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said she will introduce a bill to halt any U.S. funding of the Human Rights Council.

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DAMRAT SURMI, Sudan - Decades of drought helped trigger Darfur's violence as rival groups fought over scarce water and arable land.

Now, experts fear the war and its refugee crisis are making the environment even worse, leaving the land increasingly uninhabitable and intensifying tensions with no end to the drought in sight.

Darfur's tragedy could be repeated in much of North Africa and the Middle East, experts fear, because growing populations are straining a very limited water supply. Data show rainfall steadily declining in the region, possibly because of weather changes linked to global warming.

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DAMRAT SURMI, Sudan (AP) -- Decades of drought helped trigger Darfur's violence as rival groups fought over scarce water and arable land. Now, experts fear the war and its refugee crisis are making the environment even worse, leaving the land increasingly uninhabitable and intensifying tensions with no end to the drought in sight. Darfur's tragedy could be repeated in much of North Africa and the Middle East, experts fear, because growing populations are straining a very limited water supply...

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) A proposed U.N. resolution would immediately end the work of U.N. inspection bodies which, under Saddam Hussein's regime, played a pivotal role in monitoring Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs.

Since 2005, the United States has been trying to get the Security Council to wrap up the work of the inspectors, who left Iraq just before the 2003 invasion and were barred by the U.S. from returning.

Iraq's new leaders have also been lobbying for the council to stop using the country's oil revenue to pay the salaries of the inspectors - and to have all money remaining in the U.N.'s oil-for-food account transferred to the government.

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) Israel said it sent letters to the U.N. secretary-general and the president of the General Assembly urging the international community to speak out against human rights abuses in Iran.

"The international community cannot be silent in situations where the violation of human rights is systemic, grave, and widespread, and where states dismiss issues of human rights and refuse to engage in meaningful dialogue," Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador Daniel Carmon said Friday.

Israel's U.N. Mission released excerpts from the letters to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa.

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