U.S. candidate beats Russian to head U.N. tech agency

FILE PHOTO: The United Nations headquarters building is pictured though a window with the UN logo in the foreground in the Manhattan borough of New York August 15, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

GENEVA (Reuters) -A U.S. candidate decisively beat her Russian rival to become the next head of the main U.N. technology agency on Thursday in an election seen as a test of how many countries are still siding with Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin won the election to become Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - the U.N. body that sets standards for new technologies - with 139 votes out of 172, defeating Russia's Rashid Ismailov.