Ban Ki-moon United Nations Security Council approved sending 26,000 UN peacekeepers into the region to join 7,000 troops from the African Union. The resolution was heralded as a major breakthrough in confronting the Darfur conflict (although the United States labeled the conflict a "genocide", the United Nations has declined to do so). The first phase of the peacekeeping mission began in October 2007. Ban Ki-moon flew to Myanmar on 25 May 2008 to guide a conference with international agencies aimed at boosting donations for the nation, which was struck by Cyclone Nargis on 2 May 2008. The conference was initiated after Ban
Cyclone Helen (2008) Cyclone Helen (2008) Tropical Cyclone Helen was the first tropical cyclone to bring gale-force winds to Darwin, Australia since 1985. The fourth named storm of the 2007–08 Australian region cyclone season, Helen developed out of a weak area of low pressure in late December over the Top End region of Australia. Generally tracking westward, the system eventually intensified into a tropical cyclone and was given the name Helen on 2 January. By this time, it was situated over the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and was beginning to retrograde eastward. Late on 4 January, the storm made landfall near Channel Point with