The U.N. General Assembly on Friday elected Serbia's foreign minister as president of its next session, a sign of his country's rehabilitation on the world stage after the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Vuk Jeremic, the first Serb to hold a top U.N. post, defeated Lithuania's U.N. Ambassador Dalius Cekuolis by a vote of 99-85 on the first ballot after an intense behind-the-scenes campaign. There was one abstention and several absentees in the 193-member world body, AP reported. "A painful era has now come to an end," Jeremic said. "Today our nation can proudly stand before the world again." The one-year presidency of the General Assembly rotates among regions, and this was the first contested election since 1991. Usually, a region puts forward a single candidate, but this year Eastern Europe had two contenders. It was not immediately clear whether the 36-year-old Jeremic would be the youngest president of the General Assembly when he takes over from Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar on Sept. 18 at the start of the 67th session. -- SPA
