Untitled

Why can't i write my MySQL database using a 'required' function?
function dbconn()
{
$servername="127.0.0.1";
$username="root";
$conn=mysql_connect($servername,$username)or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("profit",$conn) or die(mysql_error());
}

<?php
require ("lib.php");
set_time_limit(60);
session_start();
dbconn();
$sql="update `city` set end_dt=now() where city_id='$_POST[killcity]'";
$result=mysql_query($sql,$conn) or die(mysql_error());
header("Location: manipulate.php");
?>

function dbconn() {
    $servername="127.0.0.1";
    $username="root";
    $conn=mysql_connect($servername,$username)or die(mysql_error());
    mysql_select_db("profit",$conn) or die(mysql_error());
    return $conn;
}

$conn = dbconn();