[Wikipedia] February 24: Ban Ki-moon

[Faraaz Damji]

  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


_______________________________
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)


_____________________
Wiktionary's Word of the day:

  burgeon: To grow or expand.
  (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/burgeon)


_____________________
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)