Ethiopia's former FM elected new head of WHO

Ethiopia's former Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected as the new Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.

The election began behind closed doors at the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva, with all of the WHO's 194 member states casting secret ballots.

Tedros, 52, defeated Britain's David Nabarro and Sania Nishtar of Pakistan in the three-round voting. Nishtar, 54, was the first out of the competition. In the third and final round, Tedros was the top vote with 133 members casting a ballot in his favor, while 50 others voted for 67-year-old Nabarro. Of the 185 voting members, there were two abstentions in the final round.

The new chief, the first non-physician WHO chief and the first director-general of the organization from an African country, will succeed Margaret Chan, who has served two terms in the top job and cannot run again. Her second term ends on June 30, 2017.

(CGTN)