No he couldn't: Obama brother loses poll

HIS half-brother may be the most powerful man in the world but that stardust seemed not to rub off on Malik Obama as he failed miserably to win a county governor's seat in Kenya's recently concluded elections.

Obama, 54, who shares a father with United States President Barack Obama, won just 2792 votes - some 140,000 behind the final winner - in his bid to claim the seat for his home area in western Kenya.

"He was not the winner but at least he competed," said Benson Mughatsia, returning officer for Siaya county, where Obama's ancestral home is located. "He was not last but he was still a long way off."

Standing well over six feet, Obama, who describes himself as an economist and a financial analyst, told AFP on the campaign trail he would use his contacts with Washington to bring development to the rural backwater he hoped to govern.

"Why would my people settle for a local connection when they have a direct line to the White House," he said.

Campaigning under the slogan "Obama here, Obama there", he said he dreamed of bringing chains like McDonald's to the area and launching a bid for the presidency.

Obama, who was refusing to take calls from journalists on Sunday, might have been undone by his much-vaunted refusal to give handouts, a common feature of Kenyan election campaigns where voters collect small sums of money to attend rallies.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama is facing a possible diplomatic headache in how to deal with Kenya's new president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

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Malta's opposition Labour wins election

MALTA'S opposition Labour party has won a general election for the first time in more than 15 years, with party leader Joseph Muscat claiming a "landslide victory" in the eurozone's smallest member.

Early results based on a sample of ballots from Saturday's vote showed Labour ahead with 55 per cent to 43 per cent for the incumbent Nationalist Party led by outgoing Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who immediately conceded defeat.

The provisional results suggest Labour could clinch one of the most comfortable majorities in the 65-seat parliament since the tiny Mediterranean island became independent in 1964.

"I wasn't expecting such a landslide victory for Labour. We must all remain calm, tomorrow is another day," Muscat, a 39-year-old former journalist, said in reaction to the results.

The tiny island state is a rare example of a eurozone state with low unemployment, respectable economic growth and solid public finances.

The unemployment rate is 6.0 per cent and, according to the latest estimates, the country clocked 1.5 per cent economic growth last year.

Muscat has run a slick US-style campaign calling for change, accusing his rival of failing to ensure stability by ruling with a one-seat majority.

Originally an opponent to Malta joining the European Union, Muscat has since changed his views and is a former member of the European Parliament.

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Mandela leaves hospital after tests

PEACE icon Nelson Mandela is back home after spending a night in hospital for a "scheduled medical check-up", the South African president's office says.

"Former President Nelson Mandela has this afternoon ... returned to his Johannesburg home following a successful medical examination at a Pretoria hospital," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in an emailed statement.

"The doctors have completed the tests. He is well and as before, his health remains under the management of the medical team," said Maharaj.

Mandela had been admitted on Saturday for "a scheduled medical check-up to manage the existing conditions in line with his age", less than three months after being treated for a lung infection and gallstones.

News of his latest hospitalisation sparked concern the 94-year-old had fallen ill again.

Mandela underwent treatment for a recurrent lung infection and surgery to extract gallstones over Christmas, during his longest stint in hospital since his release from prison in 1990.

He was discharged the day after Christmas and was last known to be convalescing at his Johannesburg home.

The revered statesman has not appeared in public since South Africa's Football World Cup final in 2010, six years after retiring.

Since then he has stayed out of the public eye at his rural home village Qunu in the Eastern Cape.

The last confirmed image of the statesman was a picture taken with then-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, when she visited him last August.

At the beginning of February two of his granddaughters released a picture of a smiling Mandela sitting with his youngest great-grandson in an arm-chair.

It was taken to show his recovery after his December hospitalisation, they said while promoting their new reality show, Being Mandela.

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Karzai-Hagel event off due to security

AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai has cancelled a high-profile news conference in Kabul with new US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with US officials saying the event was dropped over "security concerns".

A palace official, who declined to be named, said however the news conference had been cancelled because of "scheduling pressure", without giving further details.

Karzai and Hagel's appearance together in front of the cameras was to be a key part of the Pentagon chief's first visit to Afghanistan since he was sworn in 11 days ago and as US-Afghan ties focus on the withdrawal of foreign troops.

The start of Hagel's trip on Friday was overshadowed by a suicide bombing outside the defence ministry in Kabul.

Nine people were killed in the explosion that occurred while the defence secretary was in a briefing at a nearby US military base in the city.

Karzai also made a contentious speech on Sunday in which he said the US was in daily talks with the Taliban and that insurgent suicide attacks enabled the US-led international military force to justify its presence in Afghanistan.

"The Secretary is looking forward to meeting President Karzai," Hagel's spokesman said about their meeting, which was still on schedule. "The press conference was not cancelled because of the president's recent comments."

The decision was "reached in consultation with our Afghan partners", George Little added.

US officials travelling with Hagel said on condition of anonymity the news conference had been "cancelled due to security concerns".

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Bishop fails to sell Rolex to pay bill

A TOP Bulgarian cleric has failed to sell his gold Rolex to pay the electricity bill of his cash-strapped church, with no takers for the watch in the EU's poorest country.

Metropolitan Nikolay of the southern city of Plovdiv decided to sell the watch late last month to pay the almost 3000 leva ($A2000) power bill of the Saint Marina church.

"I'd rather go to heaven without a watch than to hell with one," the state BTA agency quoted him as then saying.

A public tender for the Rolex however failed to attract any bidders on Sunday due to its high asking price of 11,600 leva.

Bulgaria's Orthodox Church is the largest property owner in the country after the state but is short of funds to cover utility bills and its clergy receive a pittance in salary.

Nikolay's Rolex and a Lincoln car owned by his counterpart in the city of Varna have sparked angry comments in the press.

The cost of electricity in Bulgaria more than doubled in January from December, sending tens of thousands into the streets in protests that led to Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's resignation last month.

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Activists shoot down Aussie Pope idea

CARDINAL George Pell reportedly has no chance of becoming pope after his Australian opponents filled in the media and cardinals about the Sydney archbishop's history of dealing with sex abuse allegations.

Australian commentator Paul Collins says progressive Catholics have lobbied overseas journalists and voting cardinals to make sure they are aware of a 2002 inquiry into allegations against the Sydney archbishop.

The inquiry, headed by independent commissioner Alex Southwell QC, cleared Dr Pell of allegations he molested a boy during a camp at Phillip Island, in Victoria, in 1961.

But Dr Collins, a former priest, has told Fairfax: "He has no chance."

Dr Collins said another problem for the cardinal is that his patrons, the former pope and other influential cardinals, have lost power.

"In Italy, without patrons, you're gone."

Cardinal Pell was last week named at Number Five on a so-called dirty dozen list, compiled by the US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

The group cited a dozen cardinals from the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Italy, Australia, Czech Republic, Canada, Argentina and Ghana accused of protecting pedophile priests or making offensive public statements.

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Qld police say woman's death suspicious

BRISBANE police are treating the death of a woman at Rochedale South as suspicious.

They say they were called to a residence, where the woman was found with life-threatening injuries.

She was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital in a critical condition, but died.

The Homicide Investigation Group and local detectives are investigating.

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