U.N. staff march for slain colleagues

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- U.N. workers in New York held a silent march Wednesday to commemorate 17 colleagues killed a week ago by bombers in Algeria.

The march came a day after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the site in Algiers of the attack a week after the Dec. 11 multiple bombing that also killed 20 other people.

A group affiliated with al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack.

The first car bomb destroyed the offices of the U.N. Development Program and damaged those of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. A second car bomb exploded near an Algerian government court building.

"We will complete the work that you and your fallen colleagues have begun," Ban told staff members. "Only by carrying on with that mission can we begin to do justice to the memory of the friends we have lost."

Ban was given the tattered flag that had flown outside the U.N. offices, which he took to U.N. headquarters Tuesday, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.