UN honours Iraq bomb victim

Reham Al-Farra was Jordan's first female daily political columnist

A Bournemouth University graduate killed in the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad is to be honoured by the peacekeeping organisation.

Reham Al-Farra, 29, was among more than 20 people who died in the blast at the Canal Hotel, which brought down three floors of the concrete building, as a UN press conference on mine clearance was being held.

A UN spokesman has now written to Ms Al-Farra's mother, saying the organisation is to rename its training programme for young journalists in her honour.

Ms Al-Farra, who joined the UN earlier in the year after completing a journalism masters degree in Bournemouth, arrived in Iraq the day before the attack on 19 August.

It was all about her ability to connect with people, which was amazing Phil Macgregor

Until then she had been working for the Arabic-language version of the UN News Centre website in New York.

She had previously been the first female daily political columnist in her native Jordan.

At a memorial ceremony last Friday for those who died in the blast, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan paid tribute to Ms Al-Farra.

He said: "You chose to work for the United Nations because you wanted to do something for others.

"You went to Iraq to make a contribution to the lives of your Arab brothers and sisters.

'Supreme journalistic gifts'

"It is their loss as much as ours that you were denied the chance to do that."

Phil MacGregor, Ms Al-Farra's lecturer at Bournemouth University, said the tribute would honour his former student's supreme journalistic gifts.

"She was one of those people who was very, very straightforward," he said.

"It was all about her ability to connect with people, which was amazing.

"Nothing was too trivial for her."

He said there were now plans for a bursary in her memory.