Bush Picks Career Diplomat to Be Envoy to Ghana

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush has chosen a career member of the senior foreign service to serve as U.S. ambassador in Ghana.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mary Carlin Yates would take over the U.S. Embassy in Accra, the capital of the West African nation. She would succeed Nancy Jo Powell, who left Ghana in May for the top post in Pakistan.

Yates has been U.S. ambassador to Burundi since November 1999.

Before that, she was the press attache and senior cultural affairs officer in Paris.

An Oregon native, Yates has also filled diplomatic positions — most of them as liasons to the media — in Congo, the Philippines and South Korea