S. Africa judge seen as UN rights chief

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary General Ban Ki-moon plans to name South African judge Navanethem Pillay as the UN's next human rights chief, succeeding the outspoken Louise Arbour, diplomats said yesterday. Pillay is now a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. As a lawyer in South Africa, she defended anti-apartheid activists and championed the right of Nelson Mandela and other dissidents to legal assistance. Arbour, a Canadian, said in March she would not seek a second four-year term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. (Reuters)

KHARTOUM - Sudan yesterday rejected a deal with the International Criminal Court to hand over two indicted officials in exchange for dropping the court's arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo however ruled out dropping his call for a warrant for Bashir on suspicion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, a move that some powers fear could derail peace efforts there. "There will be no direct cooperation with the International Criminal Court and no sending any Sudanese citizens to The Hague," Mustafa Osman Ismail, an adviser to Bashir, said yesterday. (Reuters)

GENEVA - The youngest son of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy was arrested and charged with beating two of his servants at the luxury President Wilson Hotel in Geneva, his lawyer said yesterday. Hannibal Khadafy and his wife, who face charges of bodily harm, making threats and coercion, deny the allegations and were freed on bail yesterday, lawyer Alain Berger told Swiss radio. (AP)