News stories by Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury*

Last Friday's recommendation to give the incumbent U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon another five-year term drew the international community's attention to another opaque, non- democratic process that is the hallmark of the 15-member Security Council's decision-making.

Last Friday’s recommendation to give the incumbent Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon another five-year term drew the international community’s attention to another opaque, non-democratic process that is the hallmark of the 15-member Security Council’s decision making.

Next Monday the United Nations is convening the decennial global conference focusing on the challenges faced by 'the poorest and weakest segment of the international community humanity'. This week-long high level hosted by Turkey in Istanbul is the fourth in the series of ten-yearly UN gatherings since 1981 when the first one was convened in Paris.