UNITED NATIONS – A straw poll by the U.N. Security Council Monday could be decisive in selecting a successor to Secretary General Kofi Annan, who steps down Dec 31. The outcome hangs on whether the front runner, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, is blocked by a negative vote from one or more of the five veto-wielding permanent Security Council members — the United States, Britain, Russian, China, and France. The soft-spoken, mild-mannered minister has led the field almost from the start of the council’s secret straw polls, in which the 15 members were asked which of the seven candidates […]