UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The General Assembly has approved a budget of $5.15 billion to cover the United Nations' regular operations in 2012-2013, a 5 percent cut from the $5.41 billion spent in 2010-2011.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who proposed a 3.2 percent budget cut in October, thanked the 193-member world body for agreeing to "cut fat" at a time when governments and people are struggling because of global financial difficulties.
He said he would instruct all managers to find new ways "to do more and better with less."
U.S. deputy ambassador Joseph Torsella said the new budget, adopted Saturday, "saves the American taxpayers millions of dollars and sets the United Nations on the path of real fiscal discipline and continued reform."
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