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A summary of all party votes, electorate votes and advance votes are available on www.electionresults.govt.nz.

New Zealand's voting booths closed one and three quarter hours ago and with 25% of the votes counted it looks like Helen Clark won't have a third term as Prime Minister.New Zealand looks like it will be lead by Don Brash's National Party, in coalition with United Future and possibly ACT.

Thought I would start a thread on the New Zealand general election - returns starting to come in now. Non-NZ FReepers can try the live streams of Channel One News, http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_minisite_index_skin/news_election_2005_group or 3 News, http://www.tv3.co.nz/listings/index.cfm

<p>Reports of a plane flying lower over Auckland. Pilot has reportedly threatened to crash the plane into the Sky Tower.</p> <p>New Zealand election results are currently being counted.</p> <p>A light plane has crashed into the Waitemata harbour off St Heliers beach.</p>

WELLINGTON: New Zealand is taking part in a joint naval exercise involving the US for the first time since its alliance with Washington broke down over Wellington's ban on nuclear ship visits two decades ago. Kiwi naval personnel have this week joined a multinational exercise off Singapore, which involves Australia, Japan and Britain, as well as the US. The exercise involves a simulated interception of ships carrying weapons of mass destruction. The exercise comes just days after the death of former prime minister David Lange, the architect of New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy. Washington removed Wellington's ally status in 1985, after...

Giant 'Bra Fence' Sparks Controversy Official Says Fence Offends Asian Cultures, South Africans POSTED: 1:15 pm EDT July 29, 2005 UPDATED: 1:24 pm EDT July 29, 2005 A New Zealand man is resisting demands to take down hundreds of women's bras strung on his farm's fence after their night of drinking, according to a Local 6 News report. "It was probably a novelty for the first six months but I think it's passed and we need to move on," said chairman Bill Gordon. "This town has got lot of Japanese students who get educated here. They are very offended by...

A former New Zealand resident involved in a violent clash with sealers in Canada is calling on Kiwis to help stamp out the "barbaric" hunting of marine mammals. Lisa Shalom, 23, and 10 other crew members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat were arrested yesterday while trying to take pictures of seals being killed. Speaking from the Farley Mowat, off the coast of Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence, Ms Shalom said the crew had been assaulted on the ice by eight sealers carrying clubs and pickaxes. "The moment they saw us they threatened...

PACIFIC Islanders make great New Zealand rugby players, and now they can be Kiwi soldiers as well. The New Zealand Defense Force is recruiting in the Cook Islands, Tokelau, and Niue to replace troops who leave the NZDF for foreign military positions or the private sector. But the Opposition New Zealand First Party claims the recruiting system is "exploitation of a cheap labour source", saying the defense pay rates are too low for the forces to keep trained staff.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the roof of a New Zealand house, hitting a couch and bouncing off the ceiling before coming to rest under a computer. The 1.3 kg (2.9 lb) chunk of space debris dropped out of the sky and plummeted through the tiled roof of the Auckland home Saturday. "I was in the kitchen doing breakfast and there was this almighty explosion," owner Brenda Archer told the Sunday Star-Times newspaper. "It was like a bomb had gone off. I couldn't see anything, there was just dust." Archer's one-year-old grandson had been playing nearby minutes...

Youth Affairs Minister John Tamihere has marked Father's Day by lashing out at how Kiwi blokes are treated in today's society, saying men are becoming too scared to act like men. And the father of five says there is nothing wrong with men leaving the toilet seat up. Tamihere said he was seriously concerned at a cultural creep that had left men too scared or embarrassed to exercise their manliness, such as going for a beer with their mates. A more sinister result was there was too much suspicion cast over men in matters such as marriage breakups, child custody...

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A New Zealand school teacher has been fined more than $NZ500 for trying to smuggle 48 cans of undeclared Victoria Bitter beer into the Islamic sultanate of Brunei.A Brunei magistrate fined William Strickland for trying to sneak the beer past customs officials, the Borneo Bulletin reported.Mr Strickland, from Nelson, said last night that he had been planning a party so brought some extras in.He was returning from Malaysia in February and declared to customs at the border just 12 cans of beer and two bottles of alcoholic beverages, which non-Muslims are permitted to take into Brunei for personal consumption.Surprised to...

New Zealand troops spied on al Qaeda forces in last week's fierce United States offensive in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, say Israeli journalists. The website debka.com said the elite Special Air Service troops were dropped on to mountains of eastern Afghanistan to spy on the build-up of al Qaeda and Taleban forces and guide 1500 US and Canadian troops in their assault, codenamed Operation Anaconda. They and special forces from Australia and Norway worked in teams of three to five soldiers, hiding in caves above the snowline for up to four weeks. Debka would not reveal its sources, but...