Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat and the current
Secretary-General of the United Nations. Before becoming
Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic
service the year he graduated college, accepting his first post in New
Delhi. In the foreign ministry he established a reputation for modesty
and competence. Ban was the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea
from January 2004 to November 2006. In February 2006 he began to
campaign for the office of Secretary-General. Ban was initially
considered to be a long shot for the office. As foreign minister of
Korea, however, he was able to travel to all of the countries that
were members of the United Nations Security Council, a manoeuvre that
turned him into the campaign's front runner. On October 13 2006, he
was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations
General Assembly. On January 1, 2007, he succeeded Kofi Annan, and
passed several major reforms regarding peacekeeping and UN employment
practices. Diplomatically, Ban has taken particularly strong views on
global warming, pressing the issue repeatedly with U.S. President
George W. Bush, and Darfur, where he helped persuade Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir to allow peacekeeping troops to enter Sudan.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_Ki-moon
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Today's selected anniversaries:
303:
Roman Emperor Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was
published, beginning the Diocletianic Persecution, the last and most
severe episode of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution)
1582:
Pope Gregory XIII issued the papal bull Inter gravissimas to
promulgate the Gregorian calendar, a modification of the Julian
calendar in use since 45 BC.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_XIII)
1803:
In their ruling in Marbury v. Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court
established judicial review in the United States.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marbury_v._Madison)
1848:
Amid a revolt, French King Louis-Philippe abdicated and escaped to
England, leading to the creation of the French Second Republic.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Philippe_of_France)
1946:
Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became
known as Peronism, was elected to his first term as President of
Argentina.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Per%C3%B3n)
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Wiktionary's Word of the day:
burgeon: To grow or expand.
(
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/burgeon)
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Wikiquote of the day:
When you're young, you look at television and think,
There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But
when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks
are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far
more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the
bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in
business to give people what they want. It's the truth. -- Steve Jobs
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs)