Those Americans backing the hard-charging Mr Bolton say that he is the ideal man right now, as the UN needs a good shake-up.

ECONOMIST: Corruption at the heart of the United Nations | The

"The insecurity we have in Haiti - the real cause, the profound cause, is poverty, inequality and underemployment, and if UN wants to do a good job in Haiti they have to put as much emphasis in Haiti on development as to the military aspect, " Mr Latortue said.

BBC: NEWS | Americas | Tackling Haiti's chronic problems

But I think that's where the AU, the African Union, and the UN and the international community can play a good complementary role with the Africans leading the mediation, and the international community making sure that everybody knows that the pressure is there.

NPR: Weighing International Aid for Kenya

There is a good chance that the draft treaty will be brought before the UN General Assembly in October.

ECONOMIST: Regulating the arms trade: One more heave | The

Latin America was specifically acknowledged as a region where good work could be done under auspices of the UN Plan, and where lessons could be shared internationally.

UNESCO: World Press Freedom Day 2013

"Nothing would fill me with more worry than an industrial strategy in the old school, but what this does in a splendidly un-Labourite way is share out a series of good ideas which could be adopted by both parties, " he said.

BBC: UK business too focused on short term, says Labour report

It was one of the big ideas to emerge from a reflection on the UN's future by the global great and good in 2005.

ECONOMIST: Failed states

Jenin is a rare place in the Arab world where ordinary people have a good word for Tony Blair, whose visits as envoy for the Quartet (the EU, Russia, the UN and the United States) put the city on the map.

ECONOMIST: Palestinians and the talks

The Turks, for their part, insisted that they had made good-faith efforts to achieve a peace settlement (they and their ethnic kin in Cyprus had accepted a UN-sponsored plan to reunify the island but it was spurned by the Greek-Cypriots earlier this year).

ECONOMIST: A date with Turkey | The