Kuala Lumpur: Well known journalist and former Information chief at the United Nations Information Service in Bangkok, David Lazarus, has died. He was 59.

Lazarus, had worked as a foreign correspondent with the now defunct Asiaweek and was also a journalist with the Malaysian daily New Straits Times. He joined the UN in the late 1980s and was posted as information coordinator at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. He was Information chief in Bangkok from 1993.

Lazarus was instrumental in securing UN support for the then fledgling organisation, the Asia-Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists, the New Straits Times said, adding that his last posting was as the director of United Nations Information Unit in Jakarta.

He retired two months ago and had returned to Malaysia.

Source : PTI