The murder of a Nenagh-born Vatican diplomat in Africa will be raised by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern when he meets the Pope and Vatican officials in Rome on Wednesday.

United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan said today he was concerned that agreement on a draft document for UN reform may not be reached in time for next week’s gathering of world leaders.

Mexico has forged a new alliance with Moscow to challenge a common enemy: the recently imposed total ban on smoking on the grounds of UN headquarters in New York.

SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO, the top UN envoy on Iraq who was killed in a bomb blast yesterday, was a tough but debonair Brazilian who had been dispatched on some of the world body's most difficult missions.