After five rounds of voting, former Bulgarian foreign minister Irina Bokova has been chosen as the new secretary-general of UNESCO.

Initially, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni was the favourite to win the top job at the UN's agency for education, science and culture, but he turned out to be too controversial. Mr Hosni was rejected by Western countries because of comments he made last year saying he would burn Israeli books.

Ms Bokova is 57 and a former communist and is the first woman to head UNESCO.

Photo: UNESCO monument in Bulgaria (Flickr/esonic)