Rome elects its first female mayor

5-Star Movement Party defeats ruling party candidates, sets sights on national elections

An anti-establishment party founded by a comic has triumphed in Italian mayoral runoff elections, trouncing Premier Matteo Renzi's candidates in Rome and another key city and turning its sights on Monday toward its next goal-national power.

The 5-Star Movement candidate in Rome, Virginia Raggi, a lawyer with a three-year stint as a city councilwoman, took 67.2 percent of the vote in a two-person runoff on Sunday, becoming the corruption-stained city's first female mayor and, at 37, its youngest.