NEWS IN BRIEF

Date: 20 September 2014 - 21:05

News ID: ۵۲۹۵

WELLINGTON (Press TV) - New Zealanders have begun casting their ballots in the general election.
Polling booths opened on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. local time and will close at 7:00 p.m., with over three million eligible voters expected to take part in the election for the South Pacific nation’s 51st parliament.
A total of 554 candidates in fifteen political parties are contesting in Saturday’s election.
The ruling centre-right National Party of Prime Minister John Key and the main opposition centre-left Labour Party, led by David Cunliffe, have both predicted that the outcome would be close.
Key’s National Party has an estimated 46-percent support and most opinion polls show that the party will win a third term in parliament.
The Labour Party is on a distant second place backed by 25-percent support.
Under New Zealand’s proportional voting system, the ruling party requires to renew its coalition deal with several minor parties to gain a majority in the 120-seat parliament.
Key, a former banker, has campaigned on his administration’s record of economic management and has pledged tax cuts. He, however, faces accusations of allowing mass spying on the population.

MANILA (Reuters) - Storm Fung-Wong churned towards Taiwan on Saturday after killing at least five people in the Philippines, and forcing some 200,000 people into temporary shelter, including in the capital Manila, to escape massive flooding.
Most schools on the main island of Luzon remained closed for a second day as a huge mopping-up operation began. Some public offices have reopened.
"Some of our things are buried in mud, it will take awhile to clean up," a resident in Marikina City told Reuters while clearing up layers of mud and debris inside their residence.
Fung-Wong, with winds of 95 kph (59 mph) and gusts of 120 kph, slammed in the northern tip of the Philippines on Friday, cutting power in many areas and soaking rice and corn farms and bringing the capital to a near standstill.
The storm, travelling north at 15 kph, is expected to hit the Taiwan on Monday, according to the state weather bureau.
Fung-Wong, locally known as "Mario" centre is currently around 137 km northeast of Laoag City in the Ilocos province in the north. It was expected to be at 647 kms north of Batanes on Monday, outside the Philippine area of responsibility.
Alexander Pama, executive-director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said five people died, including a two-year-old girl who drowned in the capital. Two were electrocuted while wading in flood waters.
Pama said seven people were injured and one more was still missing in floods.

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - An American recently sentenced to six years hard labor by a North Korean court pretended to have secret U.S. information and was deliberately arrested in a bid to become famous and meet U.S. missionary Kenneth Bae in a North Korean prison, state media said on Saturday.
Matthew Miller, 25, of Bakersfield, California, had prepared his story in advance and written in a notebook that he was seeking refuge after failing in an attempt to collect information about the U.S. government, state media said.
"He perpetrated the above-said acts in the hope of becoming a 'world famous guy' and the 'second Snowden' through intentional hooliganism," KCNA said, referring to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, wanted by the United States for leaking secrets of its surveillance programs.
"This is an intolerable insult and mockery of the DPRK and he therefore, deserved punishment," KCNA said, using the North's official DPRK acronym.
Miller was arrested when he tore up the tourist visa he used to enter the isolated country in April, state media said at the time. He was sentenced to six years hard labor by a North Korean court last Sunday.