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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Barnett celebrates resounding WA poll win

TRIUMPHANT West Australian premier Colin Barnett says the Liberals' landlside state election victory was an endorsement of an ethical and principled government - and proved the Labor party was "on the nose" in Australia.

Mr Barnett's Liberal party annihilated their WA Labor opposition in a result that even surprised blue-blooded onlookers, with predictions of a Liberal/National alliance which could hold as many as 40 seats in the WA's Lower House on Monday.

Speaking to hundreds of delirious onlookers in his electorate of Cottesloe, who chanted "four more years" on his arrival, Mr Barnett said the result was "resounding".

"I think Labor is on the nose to a lot of people, and that was a factor," Mr Barnett said.

"I think the message, if there is one, is that you need to make decisions, for the good of the economy and the good of the people.

"Get the policy right, make the decisions - don't play politics."

After polling suggested a massive victory for the incumbent Liberals, the voters duly delivered, with huge swings away from Labor in dozens of seats.

The sight of Labor veteran and former minister Michelle Roberts battling to hold on to her seat in Midland was beyond the wildest dreams of even the most die-hard Liberal supporter.

The Liberals were also poised to claim the previous safe Labor seat of Perth, along with winning Joondalup, Forrestfield, Balcatta and Belmont from Labor.

Mr Barnett, who arrived at his celebration party minutes after WA Labor leader Mark McGowan conceded, said he had been called and congratulated by his Rockingham rival.

"Fundamentally there was not a mood for change," Mr Barnett said.

"Mr McGowan did run an energetic campaign, he gave people a choice on major issues and I genuinely congratulate him.

"It is not easy for an opposition ... but I think the last two weeks getting down to some personal issues, I think the perhaps took away some of his support."

The night was made even sweeter with the convincing win of Nationals leader Brendon Grylls in the Pilbara, who secured his own double figure swing.

Mr Barnett said he would govern alongside the Nationals, despite the Liberals winning an overall majority in their own right.

"We will govern in partnership with the National Party," Mr Barnett said.

"That was a remarkable result in the Pilbara, a gutsy move and congratulate Brendon for that.

"I would be hopeful the Liberals and Nationals would have the numbers (in the upper house) as well."

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Soccer verdict sparks unrest in Cairo

VIOLENCE has erupted in Egypt after a court confirmed 21 death sentences for a deadly soccer riot but exonerated 28 people.

A protester was killed on Saturday in fresh clashes with police in central Cairo. Huge flames rose above the main building of the Egyptian Football Association and a police officers' club in an affluent neighbourhood on an island in the Nile.

Fans of Al-Ahly football club, whose members were killed in the 2012 riot that claimed 74 lives, had warned police they would retaliate if defendants were exonerated.

The trial has been a ticking time bomb for Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who is facing a revolt in Port Said, growing nationwide unrest and an unprecedented police strike.

The court handed 15-year sentences to the former head of police security, General Essam Samak, and to Brigadier General Mohammed Saad, who was responsible for the stadium gates, which were locked, when the riot broke out.

Seven other police defendants were acquitted.

During sentencing, the judge read out a string of names without explaining who they were, leading to much confusion.

"First we were happy when we heard the 21 death sentences. We were cheering and didn't hear the rest of the verdict," one football supporter in Cairo told AFP. "Then we were very angry."

In Port Said, hundreds of people prevented ferries from shuttling residents between the banks of the Suez Canal, in protest at the confirmation of the 21 death sentences against supporters of the local team.

Tension has been running particularly high in an already divided Egypt since January 26, when the court first issued the death sentences for the country's deadliest football disaster.

Dissent has even reached police ranks, with police officers refusing orders to deploy, saying they are ill-equipped to deal with violent protesters and were made to suffer the consequences of government mistakes.

In Port Said, the government has almost completely lost its grip on security.

Port Said police on Friday withdrew from their headquarters and handed responsibility for securing it to the military.

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