A MOTORCYCLIST has had his machine impounded after he was clocked travelling at 174km/h in an 80km/h zone on the Princes Highway in Melbourne's southeast.
Casey Highway Patrol clocked the speeding Honda motorcycle at midday on Sunday at Pakenham.
The 45-year-old rider from Officer is expected to be charged on summons.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
CREWS with heavy equipment have begun the demolition of a Florida home over a huge sinkhole where a man is presumed dead after being swallowed by the earth.
The search for Jeff Bush, 37, was called off on the weekend, and a heavy machine with a large bucket scoop was moved into position on Sunday.
The six-metre-wide opening of the sinkhole was almost covered by the house, and rescuers said there were no signs of life since the hole opened on Thursday.
Jeremy Bush, the man who tried to save his brother, was escorted with a woman by a deputy sheriff to the front of the house early Sunday before equipment moved into position.
He repositioned some flowers from a makeshift memorial to a safer location, where Bush and the unidentified woman knelt in prayer.
A US soldier has been shot and injured by South Korean police after a dramatic early morning car chase through the capital Seoul.
The 23-year-old private first class, who was not named, was shot in the shoulder shortly after midnight, Yonhap news agency said.
The agency and several other news outlets cited police in Yongsan district near the huge US military base in central Seoul.
Media reports said police approached two soldiers in the Itaewon entertainment district early Sunday after receiving complaints that the pair were apparently threatening passers-by with an air gun.
They reportedly fled, crashing into several other cars in a high-speed escape that continued for about 10km before the pair turned into a dead-end street.
The soldiers reportedly tried to ram their car into a police officer, prompting him to fire three shots at the car. They eventually fled to the US base.
The wounded soldier, who was driving the vehicle, was treated at the base and was said to be in stable condition. The Seoul police officer reportedly suffered a minor injury.
Video from another car - shown on local TV on Sunday night - showed the soldiers' vehicle driving at high speed past police officers.
The US 8th Army in the area reportedly offered an apology and vowed to co-operate in the investigation.
About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended with a ceasefire instead of a peace treaty.
Crimes or disputes involving the US troops are a sensitive subject in South Korea, even though many see their presence as necessary to deter an attack by North Korea.
A PRIVATELY owned Dragon capsule has arrived at the International Space Station, delivering a tonne of supplies with high-flying finesse after a shaky start to the mission.
The Dragon's arrival was one day late but especially sweet - and not because of the fresh fruit on board for the station astronauts who snared the capsule.
SpaceX, the California-based company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, had to struggle with the Dragon following its launch on Friday from Cape Canaveral. A clogged pressure line or stuck valve prevented thrusters from working, and it took flight controllers several hours to gain control and salvage the mission.
In the end, the Dragon approached the orbiting lab with its load about as smoothly as could be expected, with all of its thrusters, or little manoeuvring rockets, operating perfectly. The capture occurred as the two spacecraft zoomed 400km above Ukraine.
"As they say, it's not where you start, but where you finish that counts," space station commander Kevin Ford said, "and you guys really finished this one on the mark."
Among the items on board: 640 seeds of a flowering weed used for research, mouse stem cells, food and clothes for the six men on board the space station, garbage bags, computer equipment, air purifiers, spacewalking tools and batteries. The company also tucked away apples and other fresh treats from an employee's family orchard.
The Dragon will remain at the space station for most of March before returning to Earth with science samples, empty food containers and old equipment.
SpaceX - Space Exploration Technologies Corp - has a $US1.6 billion ($A1.58 billion) contract with NASA to keep the station well stocked.
Musk, who helped create PayPal, acknowledged the problem was "frightening", but believed it was a one-time glitch.
The 41-year-old entrepreneur, who also runs the electric car maker Tesla, oversaw the entire operation from Hawthorne, California, home to SpaceX and the company's Mission Control.
The Dragon's splashdown in the Pacific remains on schedule for March 25.
