FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD INTERPOL. Mireille Ballestrazzi (L) of France, who is candidate to be the next president of Interpol, looks at French interior minister Manuel Valls during a reception at the French embassy in Rome on November 5, 2012. AFP PHOTO / GABRIEL BOUYS

Interpol has elected a French police commissioner known for her drive against organized crime in Bordeaux and Corsica as its first female president at its general assembly in Rome. The 58-year-old Mireille Balestrazzi becomes the "first woman to be elected president of Interpol," the world's top association of crime-fighters said on Twitter. Balestrazzi became a police commissioner in France in 1975 and was already vice-president for Europe on Interpol's executive committee. She is particularly well known for her time as director of judicial police in Corsica in the 1990s at a time of fierce turf wars on the island.

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