THE United Nations Security Council has held its first secret straw poll on four Asian candidates vying to succeed Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian, as UN secretary general. All four candidates to succeed Mr Annan, whose second five-year term expires at the end of the year, are Asian as the consensus at the UN is that it is now Asia's turn to assume the world body's top job in line with an unwritten rule of regional rotation. The candidates are South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, Sri Lankan diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala, Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, and India's Shashi Tharoor,...