This news from the United Nations: U.S. ambassador John Bolton has blocked a U.N. envoy from addressing the Security Council on human rights violations in the Darfur region of Sudan. Bolton said that “We should talk about next steps, not about how to arrange the furniture in the Security Council.” The envoy, Juan Mendez, told reporters that the human rights situation is “much more dangerous and worrisome” than he had expected, with “massive attacks of an indiscriminate nature against civilians” in camps in Darfur. Mendez added that the Sudanese government is refusing to cooperate with an International Criminal Court investigation into war crimes in the country. Bolton is one of the Bush administration’s fiercest opponents of the Hague-based court. Meanwhile, two African Union troops and two civilian contractors were killed in the region Saturday, the first members of the AU mission to lose their lives.