Tributes laud Annan as man of peace and champion of rights

Later in his career, Kofi Annan (C - standing) joined the Elders group of statesman, pictured here in 2010: (From L) Graca Machel, former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US president Jimmy Carter, former Irish president Mary Robinson, Annan, former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, former Indian parliamentarian Ela Bhatt, former UN special representative Lakhdar Brahimi and former South African president Nelson Mandela (seated). [AFP]

Tributes have been paid from across the world to former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan, who died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday aged 80.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres