South Korean cements spot as front-runner for U.N. chief

UNITED NATIONS -- South Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki-Moon, cemented his position as the front-runner to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday, the only one of six candidates to escape a veto in an informal U.N. Security Council ballot. The Security Council scheduled a formal vote to choose the eighth secretary-general in the United Nations' 60-year history on Oct. 9, making Ki-Moon's appointment a near certainty.