Acclaim in Toronto for WikiLeaks thriller

THE new Hollywood thriller about Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks project has received a long ovation at its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Assange originally described The Fifth Estate as "a mass propaganda attack" against WikiLeaks after reading a leaked script, but softened his stance against the film before Thursday's debut in Toronto.

The 42-year-old Townsville-born former computer hacker is masterfully played by English actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who speaks with an authentic Australian accent and is likely to be a firm favourite for an Oscar nomination.

The film, which looks at how Assange built WikiLeaks into an online powerhouse that has exposed governments and corporations around the globe, received a 15-second ovation at the premiere.

"I've wanted to make a political movie for a very long time and I thought this was a very rich area to explore," the film's US director, Bill Condon, said before the premiere.

"We are trying very hard to present all sides of a very complicated subject."

Condon's past credits include Chicago, Kinsey and two Twilight films.

The Fifth Estate offers insight into Assange's childhood and teenage years in Australia and follows him as he builds WikiLeaks into a website designed to protect whistleblowers.

Assange took issue with an earlier draft of the script dealing with Iran, but on August 27, during an interview with AAP at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has been holed up since June 2012, he said the publicity surrounding the DreamWorks film will benefit WikiLeaks.

"Cumberbatch has been personally supportive of me and the struggles that WikiLeaks is going through," he added.

"Our view is that a $US40 million ($A44.05 million) advertising budget promoting WikiLeaks around the world, and actors like Cumberbatch speaking about it, is a good thing for the popularisation of WikiLeaks," Assange told AAP.

"But people need to understand that this is a Hollywood movie and it has sections which are fictitious in order to increase the drama."

Aside from the Assange film, there are plenty of A-list Aussie actors in Toronto for the festival, including Hugh Jackman, who is promoting his thriller Prisoners, Nicole Kidman for her drama The Railway Man and Chris Hemsworth in Rush.

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Kiwi firms ahead of US employment figures

THE New Zealand dollar has increased in local trading ahead of US employment figures, seen as the linchpin to whether the US Federal Reserve will start unwinding economic stimulus.

The kiwi rose to 79.08 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 78.88 cents at 8am, and 78.95 cents on Thursday.

The trade-weighted index gained to 74.95 from 74.68 on Thursday.

US non-farm payroll statistics are expected to show the world's biggest economy added 180,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate remained at 7.4 per cent.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has linked the reduction in money printing to an improving labour market, and the jobs data are seen as being the final arbiter on whether the tapering plan will begin this month.

"It's going to be the final hurdle for 'Septapering' - it's either a real baddie and takes it off the table, or it's OK to a goodie in which case it's firmly on the table," said Imre Speizer, market strategist at Westpac Banking Corp in Auckland.

"The payrolls then the September FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) should give the kiwi direction."

The NZ currency is heading for a 2.4 per cent gain against the greenback this week and the trade-weighted index is heading for a 1.5 per cent weekly gain.

The kiwi gained to 86.60 Australian cents at 5pm in Wellington from 86.13 cents on Thursday, was little changed at 78.91 yen from 78.85 yen and climbed to 60.25 euro cents from 59.86 cents.

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Lawyers defrauding PNG: attorney-general

DODGY lawyers have siphoned off as much as 1 billion kina (about $A425 million) from PNG's public coffers, the country's attorney-general says.

Kerenga Kua has told a law seminar in Port Moresby lawyers are using their skills and education to rip off the country.

"I don't want to pick figures out of the blue," the National reported him as saying on Friday.

"I think in the last six years or so, lawyers would have been involved and assisted in committing fraud against the state that could be easily estimated to be close to kina 1 billion."

Mr Kua was speaking on the subject of ethics and court etiquette at the PNG Law society.

He said some of PNG's 1100 registered lawyers were failing the rules of ethical or professional conduct.

Mr Kua was until 2012 a principal lawyer in law firm Posman, Kua, Aisi Lawyers.

He played a key roll in the 2011/12 political turmoil in PNG, representing the ousted government of Sir Michael Somare in court.

After the 2012 election, he was appointed attorney-general by his one-time legal opponent, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill.

Mr Kua said the fight against corruption in PNG is going slowly because of a lack of resources.

"We cannot move on everybody because of the limited resources and skills that are available to the government," he said.

He added the government will act in the coming weeks and months to clean up the legal landscape.

"All the talking has got to come to a stop one day," he said.

Mr Kua's comments come just weeks after secretary to the government Theo Zurenouc told an anti-corruption forum in PNG's second largest city, Lae, the government was preparing to table legislation for an independent commission against corruption.

Mr Kua has also stated he wants the commission to have teeth and be able to follow cases through to prosecution "for better or for worse". The head of the government's anti-corruption watchdog Taskforce Sweep, Sam Koim, recently revealed as much as 40 per cent of public funds is squandered or lost to corruption annually.

In 2010, then-prime minister Sir Michael Somare tabled a commission of inquiry report into PNG's department of finance, which he said would make readers "shudder in awe" at the level of corruption revealed.

The report made 75 recommendations after revealing half a billion kina had been spent on questionable deals.

The day after Sir Michael tabled the report, the court placed a ban on its publication and implementation, following a challenge by former solicitor-general Zachery Gelu and lawyer Paul Paraka.

That injunction is now being challenged in the courts.

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Congolese minister pulls out of conference

A CONGOLESE minister who has been probed by French authorities for alleged human rights abuses has pulled out of a conference appearance in Perth at the last minute.

Pierre Oba, Republic of Congo Minister of Mines and Geology, was scheduled to speak at the Paydirt Africa Down Under mining conference on Thursday but pulled out on Wednesday.

Paydirt chairman Bill Repard said his delegation also did not attend.

"He's unfortunately had a change of plans," Mr Repard told AAP.

He said Mr Oba was not on any Australian blacklists and would not have had any visa problems.

Mr Oba addressed the conference last year and was to be the guest of honour at a breakfast of mining executives at a Perth hotel in November 2010 but pulled out.

He had played a vital role in helping Sundance Resources deal with the aftermath of a plane crash in the Republic of Congo in June 2010 that killed the company's entire board.

Mr Oba was the subject of a legal case in a local court in France in relation to an alleged massacre in the Republic of Congo in the late 1990s, but has denied any involvement.

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Man to be retried for Perth pub death

A MAN jailed for murdering a New Zealand musician by shoving him from a Perth pub window to his death has had his conviction overturned and will face a retrial.

Stefan Pahia Schmidt was last year handed a life sentence for killing Andy Marshall by pushing him through the second storey window of Cottesloe's Ocean Beach Hotel in May 2011.

Three judges at Western Australia's Court Of Appeal unanimously determined on Friday that Schmidt would face a retrial.

A former bouncer, trained fighter and associate of the outlaw bikie gang Rock Machine, he didn't deny pushing Mr Marshall but said he didn't intend to kill him.

Schmidt claimed the death was an accident because he only meant to push Mr Marshall out of the way, annoyed that he had made a remark as he was speaking with two girls who Schmidt knew.

The trial heard Mr Marshall had his back to the window when Schmidt swore at him and pushed him through it.

The prosecution didn't allege Schmidt wanted to kill Mr Marshall, rather that he intended to cause him bodily injury of such a nature as to endanger, or be likely to endanger his life.

The appeal judges ruled there had been a miscarriage of justice because the trial judge did not adequately direct the jury on an essential element of the case against Schmidt.

"The jury may have reasoned towards a conclusion of guilt without being satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Schmidt intended to cause Mr Marshall to impact and break the window, which was an essential step on the path to a conclusion of guilt of murder," Chief Justice Martin said.

"This caused a miscarriage of justice."

Justice Robert Mazza said the trial judge's directions to the jury in his summing up "unfortunately reflected the way the state put its case and was pitched at a high level of generality".

Justice Michael Buss said Schmidt could have been found guilty of manslaughter instead of murder.

The victim's father Alan Marshall said Friday's judgment was disappointing but not a complete shock because there was "a strong indication of where it might go" at Schmidt's appeal hearing in June.

The court process had been gruelling for the family, which travelled to Perth for the trial, and the prospect of it continuing was daunting.

"It just tends to reopen all the emotions and heartache that we've already been through," he told AAP.

The family would consider returning to Perth for the retrial.

"We had the strength to go through it last time and we're a bit better prepared for what to expect.

"We just live one day at a time.

"We've just got to trust the system."

Schmidt's mother Hera Schmidt, who attended the Court of Appeal judgment, said the family was happy with its decision.

"A long time coming," she said.

Schmidt was coping well with his imprisonment but didn't deserve to be in jail, she said.

"He has the support of all his family."

Schmidt was sentenced in September 2012 to a minimum of 14 years in jail.

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Teen refused bail over school stabbing

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy charged with stabbing another boy at school had the victim's name ticked off on a note titled "soul list" in his bedroom, a court has heard.

But the teen's lawyer has told the Brisbane Children's Court it was a playfully named note relating to a group of children selling lollies.

The boy was denied bail in court on Friday.

He has been charged with attempted murder after a 15-year-old boy was stabbed in the neck with a knife at Mt Maria College at Mitchelton, in Brisbane's north.

The stabbing happened in the school's auditorium on Thursday afternoon and sent the college into lockdown.

The 14-year-old's lawyer Adam Magill downplayed the significance of the list in court on Friday when he applied for his client's bail.

He said there were a number of people named on it including the complainant.

According to the boy's mother it was over a year old and related to a group of children involved in the selling of lollies, he added.

Outside court Mr Magill told reporters his client had been bullied by others at the Catholic school but would not elaborate.

"It appears to just be a set of facts which have spiralled out of control, unfortunately with some devastating consequences for everybody involved," he said.

The court also heard the teen allegedly talked with a friend about stabbing the victim in the hours before the attack.

The injured boy was taken to Royal Brisbane Hospital with non-life threatening injuries and his family have requested his condition be kept private.

Police charged the 14-year-old late on Thursday night.

In denying bail, Magistrate Leanne O'Shea said the stabbing appeared to have been premeditated and the teen needed supervision.

"With a child in this state I'm of the opinion it is an unacceptable risk to all people in society at the moment, including his parents," she told the court.

The boy is being held at a youth detention centre in Brisbane.

He was not in court on Friday although his parents were.

They are devastated, according to Mr Magill.

"They feel as though they've let their son down," he told the court.

He later told reporters the boy still had not grasped the gravity of his situation.

"I just don't think the penny's dropped at this point in time," he said.

"He's fully unaware of the ramifications of what's happening."

Mr Magill said there would likely be another application for bail.

The case is expected to return to court on October 17.

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Man charged after SA police dog stabbed

A POLICE dog stabbed during a violent arrest in Adelaide has undergone emergency surgery and is in a stable condition.

A man has been charged with numerous offences after the arrest at Elizabeth Vale on Sunday.

Police say they were chasing the man on foot around 7.30am (CST) after the attempted theft of a car and break-ins at several nearby homes.

Police dog Koda was released to stop the man, who was armed with a knife.

Koda detained the suspect, who allegedly stabbed the dog twice.

The German shepherd was rushed to a nearby vet by his handler and has since undergone emergency surgery and is now in a stable condition.

The 30-year-old man, of no fixed place, has been charged with attempted aggravated robbery, four counts of theft, aggravated serious criminal trespass in relation to two homes, aggravated assault of police, property damage and injuring an animal.

He has been refused bail and will appear in Elizabeth Magistrates Court on Monday.

Elizabeth Police are also appealing to the Elizabeth Vale community to help locate a woman that may be experiencing a medical emergency and is known to the arrested man.

She was last seen at 8am near Semley Street, Elizabeth Vale, where she was asking for medical assistance.

The woman is described as Caucasian, about 28, with long brown hair wearing a blue hoodie, black jeans, medium build, and about 36 weeks pregnant.

Police have concerns for her welfare and ask anyone who sees her to call police on 131 444.

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NRL star switches codes to politics

IF anything Glenn Lazarus looks even more formidable now than when he was threatening to pulverise other very large blokes on the rugby league field.

But Lazarus has a new job - or at least he hopes to have one - and it relies on him looking charming and appealing.

The former Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne, New South Wales and Australia prop-forward is standing for election to the Senate in next month's federal poll.

In the 14 years since he last played, Lazarus has added to the 118kgs he carried around the footy field.

But since he became a candidate for the Palmer United Party, Lazarus has discovered a more affable, and hopefully electable, appearance to match a commitment to his new cause.

"I'm getting a little more comfortable in a suit and tie, but I've still got a lot to learn," he admitted at Sunday's launch of the party founded by billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer.

"Clive and the party has been really helpful to me.

"But on the day I was officially endorsed I was more nervous that day than in any Origin game."

Lazarus played in 22 State of Origin games and is the only player in the history of his game to win grand finals with three different NRL clubs.

But he knows that winning a Senate seat will be tougher than any of those matches.

"I learnt my craft of playing rugby league at a very early age and I've been sort of thrown to the wolves a little bit," he said.

"Fear of the unknown was the big monster.

"One of the things I'm amazed about is the passion people have for politics.

"When you get to talk to people one-on-one it is amazing."

Lazarus is one of a number of sports people and other celebrities, including former AFL footballers Doug Hawkins and Des Headland and world champion boxer Barry Michael, recruited by Mr Palmer for his fledgling party.

While his two careers bear no similarity, Lazarus is hoping they have one thing in common.

"In my football career I was very successful around September, so let's hope I get a little more," he said.

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US panda birthed live cub and stillborn

A PANDA at Washington's National Zoo which has been tending to her squealing newborn cub has also given birth to a stillborn cub that wasn't fully formed, a zoo official says.

Mei Xiang gave birth to the motionless cub on Saturday night after giving birth to its live twin the night before, zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said.

The mother groomed her stillborn cub for 17 minutes before letting it fall to the floor, she said.

The panda still hasn't let zoo staffers get close enough to get a good look at her live cub but it was squealing throughout and appears to be doing well, Baker-Masson said.

The zoo began performing a necropsy on the stillborn cub late on Saturday in the hope this will explain why the cub stopped developing and died in-utero, she said.

When caretakers do get to check out the live cub, which is the size of a stick of butter, they will try to listen to its heart and lungs, record its weight and collect a DNA sample.

Brandie Smith, the zoo's curator of mammals, said she and others are "cautiously optimistic" about that cub's health.

She compared the planned exam to a race car pit stop - a fast and highly choreographed checkup before reuniting mum and cub.

The live cub was the 15-year-old panda's third. Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub last year which died after just six days. Its lungs hadn't fully developed and likely weren't sending enough oxygen to its liver. Mei Xiang's first cub, a male named Tai Shan, was born in 2005.

Zoo staff have made several changes in preparation for the new cub. Mei Xiang's den was altered to allow keepers to get closer and the zoo invited a panda expert from China who specialises in newborns to help.

Two of the zoo's panda keepers also recently spent time in China learning more about examining newborns.

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Australia condemns bomb attacks on Lebanon

Australia has condemned bomb attacks on mosques in Lebanon that killed more than 40 people. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA has condemned overnight bomb attacks on mosques in northern Lebanon that killed more than 40 people and injured 400.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the attacks in Lebanon followed Beirut car bombings on July 9 and August 15 and a rocket attack on May 26.

"The Australian government again offers condolences to the people of Lebanon for the horrific death and injury toll from these attacks on civilian communities," Senator Carr said in a statement on Saturday.

"We join with other Security Council members in strongly condemning these attacks."

Senator Carr has warned Australians to reconsider their need to travel to Lebanon and to avoid any travel to southern Beirut where most of the recent attacks have occurred.

Australians have also been advised not to travel to Tripoli in northern Lebanon, where the mosque bombings occurred.

"They should also register their presence with the Australian Embassy," he said.

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