THE TELEGRAPH: The United States has joined the United Nations Human Rights Council for the first time, after Barack Obama's administration reversed another Bush-era policy.
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said although Washington still believed the body to be flawed, it was "looking forward to working from within with a broad cross-section of member states to strengthen and reform" the council.
The US was one of 18 countries elected to three-year terms on the 47-seat Geneva-based council in a vote by the UN General Assembly, joining 29 others already on the body. A number of nations represented on the council - including China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia - have faced criticism for their own human rights records. >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Tuesday, May 12, 2009
