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 by the Security Council on Monday, diplomats said.

Guterres, who served as UN refugee chief for 10 years and was prime minister 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.