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Annan stepping down

United Nations: Kofi Annan steps down as Secretary-General at midnight on Sunday, leaving behind a global organisation far more aggressively engaged in peacekeeping and fighting poverty — but struggling to restore its tarnished reputation.

Taking office six years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Annan helped preside over a decade that saw the world unite against terrorism after the September 11, 2001, attacks, then divide deeply over the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

At a Millennium Summit in September 2000, he spurred world leaders to adopt a blueprint to wage a global war on poverty and bring the United Nations into the 21st century.

Five years later, he called a follow-up summit to mark the U.N.'s 60th anniversary. Hoping to complete the bold changes, he sought to promote development, ensure international security and end human rights abuses. History's largest gathering of world leaders took a first step, but it fell far short.

Daily attacks

Unlike the upbeat atmosphere at the dawn of the new millennium, the World Summit in 2005 took place after a year of almost daily attacks on the United Nations over allegations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food programme in Iraq, bribery by U.N. purchasing officials, and sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers. — AP

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