US candidate to lead UN telecoms agency after US-Russia race

By STEPHEN McGRATH and JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States has been elected to head the U.N.’s telecommunications agency. She won a U.S.-Russia face-off for the leadership of a global agency that sets guideposts for radio, internet, satellite and television communications. The result on Thursday ended a race that has been overshadowed by geopolitics in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Envoys from the 193 member states of the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union voted 139-25 to select Bogdan-Martin over lone rival Rashid Ismailov of Russia.  When she takes over on Jan. 1, she will be the first woman to serve as ITU secretary-general and the first American to hold the post since the 1960s.