He may represent the greatest challenge to the US-led coalition's plans for restoring sovereignty to Iraq, but powerful cleric Ali al-Sistani hides behind an arcane and near-impenetrable curtain of Shi'ite Muslim ritual and austerity.

A BRAZILIAN Air Force plane carrying the body of slain UN envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello headed to Geneva on Sunday, one day after a vigil and funeral ceremony in his hometown.

MARY ROBINSON, Mr de Mello’s predecessor at the UN, said she was “very shocked and devastated” by the attack.

A senior UN official from Brazil was today named to succeed former Irish president Mary Robinson as head of the Human Rights Commission.