2 more years for UN rights chief

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has asked the General Assembly to approve a two-year extension for High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

Ban's office announced Monday that Pillay, whose four-year term was due to expire at year's end, agreed to stay on for two more years.

Later this month, Pillay is slated to begin the first mission to Zimbabwe by a U.N. human rights chief. Pillay is due to meet President Robert Mugabe during the five-day mission.

Pillay, a South African jurist, took over the post of U.N. rights chief in 2008 after serving as an appeals chamber judge with the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.