Annan to return to New York following Rio funeral

Annan to return to New York following funeral in Rio for slain Iraq envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in Rio de Janeiro where on Saturday he attended the funeral of his chief Iraq envoy who was killed in a massive terrorist attack last week, is slated to meet today with a senior official in the Brazilian city.

The Secretary-General will attend a luncheon hosted by Luis Paolo Conde, the Vice Governor of Rio de Janeiro, before leaving for New York later in the day, according to a UN spokesman in New York.

Meanwhile, the world body released a new list of those confirmed dead in Tuesday's blast, which destroyed the Canal Hotel in Baghdad where the UN was headquartered. The total number of dead as of yesterday at noon was 23, including Mr. Annan's Special Representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was also the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He died in the rubble of the devastated building after a massive truck bomb exploded near his office. Also killed was his Chief of Staff, Nadia Younes, a national of Egypt who had been working previously at the UN World Health Organization (WHO) as Executive Director in charge of External Relations and Governing Bodies.

Ms. Younes was a former UN Chief of Protocol, a job she assumed in 1998 but left briefly, from July 1999 to January 2001, to serve with the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) where she was in charge of the information and communication office in the Cabinet of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bernard Kouchner.

Prior to that, she headed the Media Division in the UN Department of Public Information (DPI). She began her UN career in 1970 in the Office of General Services, and served with DPI in various capacities since 1974, initially as a Press Officer in both the English and French Sections. In 1987 she became the Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, and from the following year until 1993 she was Deputy Spokeswoman for the Secretary-General. She left that post to become the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Rome.

Two others working directly for Mr. Vieira de Mello were confirmed dead: Jean-Selim Kanaan of Egypt and Fiona Watson of the United Kingdom.

The others who lost their lives were five people working in the UN Office for the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq: Reham Al-Farra, of Jordan, Alyawi Bassem of Iraq, Ranillo Buenaventura of the Philippines, Reza Hosseini of Iran and Martha Teas of the United States.

Rick Hooper, another national of the United States who was serving with the Department of Political Affairs, also lost his life. In addition, Chris Klein-Beckman of Canada, working for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Alya Souza of Iraq, working for the World Bank and Ihsan Taha Husein of Iraq, working for the UN Office for Project Services, were confirmed dead.

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