The Human Rights council of the United Nations often accused of coddling some of the world’s most repressive governments, threw itself a lavish party in Geneva Tuesday that featured the unveiling of a $23 million mural purchased in part with foreign aid funds.

Fox News reports that, “in a ceremony attended by U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Spanish artist Miguel Barcelo told the press that his 16,000-square-foot ceiling reminded him of ‘an image of the world dripping toward the sky’ - but it reminded critics of money slipping out of relief coffers.”

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Marisabel Rodriguez used to be lovers, but now they have become bitter political rivals.

The Times of London reports that, “as Hugo Chavez prepares for regional elections next Sunday which will prove the biggest test yet for the Venezuelan President, he faces opposition from an unexpected corner - his former wife.”

On Monday, federal regulators charged Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.

According to fox News, “Cuban disputed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s allegations and said he would contest them. In a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas, the SEC alleged that in june 2004, Cuban was invited to get in on the coming stock offering by Mamma.com after he agreed to keep the information private.”

Last week, a surreal scientific blunder raised a huge question mark about the temperature records, which underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) that is run by Dr. James Hansen, Al Gore’s chief scientific ally, revealed that last month was the warmest October on record.