10 Things About the UN that I bet You Didn't Know

1) In 1999, Louise Frechette became the first woman ever, to be elected to the post of Deputy Secretary General.

2) There's an organization under the UN, called the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which coordinates postal policies between member nations.

3) The UN Troops are popularly referred to as the "Blue Helmets", for relatively obvious reasons.

4) 115 Indian Citizens have died in UN Peacekeeping operations. That's the largest number of fatalities for a single country.

5) The Vatican is a "permanent observer nation" in the UN, even though it satisfies all requirements of a member state, because it wants to be "Politically Neutral".

6) The UN spends in excess of 2 Billion US$ every year, on development.

7) Even though the UN HQ is on Manhattan Island, it isn't under US Jurisdiction. It is in "International Territory"

8) Dr. Ban Ki-moon, apart from drawing an enormous salary, also gets a helicopter, a private-jet, and an apartment in downtown Manhattan.

9) The US has used its veto power 14 times, The Russian Federation comes a not-so-close second place, with four uses, since 1989

10) The Mural in the Security Council depicts a phoenix rising from the ashes, and sybolizes the world being rebuilt after WWII. The entire chamber was a gift to the UN from the Norwegian Government.