U.N. Extends Peacekeeping Mandate for Darfur

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council has approved another year of peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region despite sharp divisions over genocide charges against the Sudanese president.

America supports the mission but abstained from the council's 14-0 vote tonight.

It objects to language in the resolution that notes that the African Union wants the council to freeze the International Criminal Court's prosecution of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir Sudan.

The American spokesman, Richard Grenell, says that language sends the wrong signal to a man who presided over genocide.

The joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force took over duties in Darfur in January.