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AFP (Paris)

Former French culture minister Audrey Azoulay was selected to head the embattled UN cultural agency UNESCO after defeating her Qatari rival by two votes in a cliffhanger election on Friday.

Azoulay, 49, came from behind after six rounds of voting to defeat Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, also a former culture minister, by 30 votes to 28.