French candidate picked as next UNESCO chief
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UNESCO's executive board has chosen France's Audrey Azoulay as the Paris-based UN agency's new chief, rejecting a candidate from Qatar who was seen as the front-runner a day earlier.
Azoulay narrowly beat Qatar's Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote after she won a run off against a third finalist from Egypt earlier Friday.
Arab states had been lobbying hard to get an Arab candidate elected as UNESCO's director-general.
UNESCO's general assembly will have to sign off on the board's pick next month, but it's seen as a formality.
Azoulay would become the second French leader of the organization since Rene Maheu served as director-general in 1961-74.
