U.S. Protests Sudan's Place on Rights Panel

The United States walked out of a U.N. meeting to protest a decision minutes later to give Sudan a third term on the Human Rights Commission, the world body's human rights watchdog.

The U.S. ambassador to the commission, Sichan Siv, called the vote an "absurdity" and accused Sudan of massive human rights violations and "ethnic cleansing" in the western Darfur region before walking out of the Economic and Social Council chamber.

Sudan's deputy U.N. ambassador, Omar Bashir Manis, heatedly responded by accusing American forces of misdeeds in Iraq. But no American diplomat was there to hear it.