Portugal’s Guterres still leads in UN chief race

Portugal's former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres maintained his lead in the race to become the next UN Secretary-General, following a fifth straw poll conducted by the Security Council on Tuesday, diplomats said.

Guterres, who served as UN refugee chief for 10 years and was the PM from 1995 to 2002, picked up 12 votes of encouragement, two "discourage" votes and one "no opinion", the same result as the previous informal vote.

It was the fifth time that the 67-year-old has taken the number one spot in the contest to succeed Ban Ki-moon, the former South Korean foreign minister who steps down on December 31 after 10 years as the world's top diplomat.