UNHCR reading eight CVs for new chief

Who will head the United Nations refugee agency, with its 6,000 staff in 115 countries, to help 17 million homeless people around the world?

Here is the “short list” of candidates — six of them Europeans. Italian radical Emma Bonino, former EU human rights commissioner — Rome wants Washington’s support in return for backing Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank. Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres; Bernard Kouchner of France, former health minister and founder of Doctors without Borders; He also used to be the head U.N. administrator in Kosovo, that job now held by Soren Jessen-Peterson of Denmark, also a refugee agency candidate. Sweden’s foreign secretary Hans Dahlgren and Belgian economy minister Mark Verwilghen figure too. An Australian and a Tunisian are also in the running, Gareth Evans and Kamel Morjane. Dutchman Ruud Lubbers resigned last month as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees after vigorously denying sexual harassment allegations.

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