US to join effort to boot Libya from UN body

— U.S. officials say the Obama administration will throw its weight behind a European effort to expel Libya from the U.N.’s top human rights body and name a special investigator to look into alleged atrocities committed by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime.

The officials said Thursday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would coordinate the U.S. role when she attends a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva next week. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss administration planning.

The Obama administration also is warning of a Libyan crackdown on foreign journalists to stifle news of the regime’s violent assaults on protesters.

Hundreds are believed to have been killed in Libya in recent days. Gadhafi’s regime appears to have lost control of large parts of the country.

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