It is heartening , and a little surprising , that the race to succeed Kofi Annan as United Nations secretary general was so hard fought .
Kofi Annan /business/person/company United Nations
PRP VBZ JJ , CC DT JJ JJ , IN DT NN TO VB NNP NNP IN NNP NNP NN NN VBD RB JJ VBN .
Kofi Annan
PERSON
United Nations
ORGANIZATION
/business/person/company