Top UN officials in Sudan to go to Bashir ceremony

The United Nations is sending its two top officials in Sudan to the inauguration next week of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the target of an international arrest warrant, a UN spokeswoman said on Friday.

Bashir, the subject of an arrest warrant issued in March 2009 by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) on suspicion of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region, was elected president last month in a vote marred by charges of fraud. Haile Menkerios, head of the UN Mission in Sudan, and Ibrahim Gambari, joint head of the African Union/UN Mission in Darfur, will attend the May 27 ceremony, spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters.  (Reuters)