UK admits first woman to UN ambassador role

Britain has appointed its first female ambassador to the United Nations.

Karen Pierce will take up the role as permanent representative in New York in January when the current ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, returns to London to become the most senior civil servant in the Department for International Development.

Ms Pierce, 58, is presently the director-general political at the Foreign Office. She was deputy permanent representative at the New York mission from 2006 to 2009.