UNITED NATIONS (AP) When Muhammad Ali was trying to win a fourth heavyweight championship in the late 1970s, he came to the United Nations to campaign against apartheid and injustice and presented then secretary-general Kurt Waldheim with one of his drawings entitled ”Peace!” Nearly 20 years later, Ali returned to U.N. headquarters to be named one of the first U.N. Messengers of Peace, an honor reserved for distinguished people from the arts, music, literature and sports who agree to focus world attention on the work of the United Nations. Then secretary-general Kofi Annan, who started the program in 1997, said ”I chose him because I knew his interest in peace and in the world.” He said that Ali confirmed that interest with another gift to the United Nations – a drawing of the globe with the inscription: ”Service to others is rent we pay here on this earth.” ”It was so powerful,” Annan said in a phone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press from Geneva. ”Obviously, he had lost his speed, his vitality and energy, but the concern for others and the love for peace was very much visible.” At the ceremony in Annan’s office on Sept. 15, 1998 where… Read full this story
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