The World : U.N. Leader Reelected

Peruvian diplomat Javier Perez de Cuellar was elected to a second five-year term as secretary general of the United Nations. Approval by the 15-nation Security Council and the 159-member General Assembly was unanimous. Perez de Cuellar, 66, did not actively seek reelection, but last week, representatives of all five permanent members of the Security Council jointly visited him at his residence and asked him to stay on. In accepting the new term, he told delegates that in view of the United Nations’ financial crisis, it would have been “tantamount to abandoning a moral duty” not to continue. His new term will begin Jan. 1.