Rwanda

Rwanda (/ruːˈɑːndə/ or /ruːˈændə/ ( listen); Kinyarwanda: U Rwanda [u.ɾɡwanda]), officially the Republic of Rwanda (Kinyarwanda: Repubulika y'u Rwanda; French: République du Rwanda), is a sovereign state in central and east Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is highly elevated; its geography dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year.

Chester

Coordinates: 53°11′25″N 2°53′30″W / 53.1903°N 2.8916°W / 53.1903; -2.8916

Chester (/ˈtʃɛstər/ CHESS-tər) is a walled city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is the largest and most populous settlement of the unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a combined population of 328,100 according to the 2001 Census, increasing to 329,608 at the 2011 Census. Chester was granted city status in 1541.

Chester was founded as a "castrum" or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix, during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian in AD79. One of the three main army camps in the Roman province of Britannia, Deva later became a major civilian settlement. In 689, King Æthelred of Mercia founded the Minster Church of West Mercia, which later became Chester's first cathedral, and the Saxons extended and strengthened the walls, much of which remain, to protect the city against the Danes. Chester was one of the last cities in England to fall to the Normans. William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle, to dominate the town and the nearby Welsh border.

Álvaro de Soto

Álvaro de Soto (born 16 March 1943) is a Peruvian diplomat. He ended a 25-year career with the United Nations in May 2007.

Early years

After attending the International School of Geneva, de Soto studied law and international relations in Lima and Geneva prior to enlisting in his country's diplomatic corps. Prior to his secondment to the United Nations, he worked for Peru's foreign ministry in Lima and at its UN missions in New York City and Geneva.

United Nations career

In 1982 he joined the United Nations staff as a special adviser to Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. Following his appointment as the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for the Central American Peace Process, Ambassador de Soto headed the 1990–1991 negotiations that brought an end to the decade-long civil war in El Salvador.

He was a Senior Political Adviser to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali from February 1992 to December 1994. He then served as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, in charge of the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, from 1995 to 1999. In 1997 Secretary-General Kofi Annan chose him as his Special Envoy for Myanmar, a position he held until 1999.