UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (IPS) – As negotiations for the upcoming election—or re-election– of a UN Secretary-General gather momentum, one undeniable fact looms heavily over the final decision: the choice of a UN chief is the intellectual birthright of the five big permanent members (P5) of the Security Council, namely, the US, UK, France, China and Russia.

Egypt: Fact-checking site’s entire newsroom jailed as assault on press freedom widens
Nearly 64,000 flee Nigeria for Niger where a humanitarian crisis is deepening
Ebola: IOM urges wider surveillance beyond formal routes in DR Congo
Before We Declare Gender Bias Dead, Read the Footnotes
World News in Brief: Ending cholera by 2030 ‘within reach’, Haiti displacement and hunger, US human rights review rescheduled
Climate crisis could push 141 million more women into extreme poverty