Tropfest gets new date and location

AFTER 21 years, Tropfest founder John Polson says it's time for a change, so the world's largest short film festival will move to a new time of year and a new home.

The 22nd Tropfest will be held on December 8 this year and will move from The Domain to Centennial Park in Sydney.

Festival director Polson revealed the change following the announcement of the Tropfest winner on Sunday night.

"February is always a tricky month," he told AAP, particularly for people in the film industry wanting to visit.

Aside from the Berlin Film Festival, "it's the BAFTAs, the Oscars, it's this, it's that.

"We think we're pretty big but I don't want to take on the Oscars."

When Tropfest started in 1993, Polson says nobody knew what it was but as the festival has grown bigger there's been a significant increase in visiting international guests.

"We've really been thinking, where's the best place to fit in with the global calendar of these film events?"

Moving Tropfest to December should also attract more international visitors, he said.

However, the weather has also played a small part in the decision.

Only one Tropfest had to be shut down but an enormous downpour last year certainly dampened the night.

"If you look it up, statistically Sydney has almost double the rainfall in February than it has in December, so I'm not going to pretend that didn't have something to do with it either," he said.

The popularity of the film festival, which began in Sydney's Tropicana Cafe, has contributed to the date change as well as the new location.

Polson says with audiences and filmmaker numbers expanding, Centennial Park offers more opportunity to add value to the festival.

"People are coming in earlier and earlier to get their space... but now they're there for 8 or 10 hours and we're trying to give them great stuff to do," he says.

There are many ideas in the pipeline, including A-list live music acts.

However, The Domain will always be an incredible part of Tropfest's history.

Polson said when they moved there in 1999 most people thought they were crazy.

"You know: 'You're never going to fill it, this thing's going to completely tank, because it'll be half full and everyone will think you're a failure'," Polson says.

"And frankly I was one of them."

Of course that didn't happen and Tropfest now attracts a live national audience of about 150,000 people as well as featuring on free-to-air channel SBS One.

Polson says one of the things they've learnt at Tropfest is "even if you're on a great wicket, you cannot just breeze it".

He says it's no coincidence the new Tropfest signature item (TSI), which has to be included in every short film entry, is 'change'.

"The reason is we want to embrace change," he says.

"It's easy to be afraid of change... (but) you've got to be courageous if you want a pay-off.

"No guts, no glory.

"This is going to take some guts and we're hopefully going to get some glory."

* The 22nd Tropfest will run on December 8, 2013

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Spy work must be secret: Israeli PM

EXPOSURE of intelligence activities can "badly damage" state security, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu said, in his first remarks on the arrest and death of a jailed Australian-Israeli with Mossad links.

In remarks to his outgoing cabinet on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister insisted that security forces be allowed to "quietly" get on with their jobs, in his first comments on the mysterious spy saga which has dominated headlines in Israel and Australia.

"Overexposure of security and intelligence activities can damage, and damage badly, state security and that is why in every debate we must not underestimate the security interest," he said in remarks quoted by his office.

"In the reality in which Israel lives, it must be a central interest," he said in a thinly veiled criticism of the media frenzy sparked by the exposure last week of the identity of Prisoner X - an Australian immigrant called Ben Zygier who worked for Israel's Mossad spy agency.

According to a story broken last Tuesday by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Zygier was found hanged in his cell in Ayalon prison near Tel Aviv in December 2010, in a case Israel went to extreme lengths to cover up.

Israel imposed a total media blackout on the case but was forced to ease the restrictions after the story made headlines across the world, rendering the local gag order ineffective.

Until now, Israel's government had said nothing on matter, although Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon on Saturday insisted that Israel abided fully by the law, even in the case of security prisoners.

"I ask everyone: let the security forces continue to work quietly in order that we can carry on living in peace and security in Israel," Netanyahu said.

"We are an exemplary democratic state and safeguard the rights of those under investigation and the rights of the individual no less than any other state.

"But we are also facing greater threats and challenges and therefore we need to ensure that we protect the normal working of our security branches," he said, expressing "complete trust" in Israel's security forces and legal system.

Zygier, who immigrated to Israel around 2001 and at some point joined Mossad, is understood to have been arrested in February 2010 on charges which remain subject to a tight gag order.

Three months later, Israel's Ynet news website briefly ran a report about a prisoner held in top secret conditions whose identity and alleged crime were not known even to his jailers, but it was quickly taken offline under a gag order.

In December 2010, Zygier was found hanged in his cell despite the fact it was under 24-hour electronic surveillance, sparking a barrage of criticism and conspiracy theories in both Israel and Australia.

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Labor and Gillard losing support: poll

THE federal government's standing with voters has dropped again, while Julia Gillard has lost her lead as preferred prime minister, a new poll shows.

Labor's primary vote stands at just 30 per cent, according to a Herald/Nielsen poll published in Fairfax newspapers.

It's a dip of 5 points since the last survey in December.

Support for the Coalition has risen 4 points, taking its primary vote to 47 per cent - its highest level since just after the carbon tax began in July 2012.

On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor's support is at 45 per cent, well behind the 55 per cent for the Coalition.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has also overtaken Julia Gillard in the preferred prime minister stakes, with his support leaping by 9 percentage points to 49 per cent compared with Ms Gillard on 45.

The national poll of 1400 voters found the gap between Ms Gillard and former prime minister Kevin Rudd has also grown, with Mr Rudd favoured by 61 per cent of respondents to just 35 per cent for her.

It comes as Mr Rudd rubbished suggestions on Sunday that he was planning another tilt at the ALP leadership.

He said there was no leadership stoush, reiterating that he and the Labor Party had full confidence in Ms Gillard's leadership.

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Floods and landslides kill 13 in Indonesia

AT least 13 people have been killed in Indonesia after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides, officials say.

Flooding and landslides hit North Sulawesi province's capital city Manado early Sunday, killing 10 people and causing the evacuation of another 1200, national disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

On Saturday three people including two 14-year-old boys were killed after they were swept away by floodwaters in Jambi province on Sumatra island, local disaster official Dalmanto told AFP.

"Several days of heavy rains caused a river to break its banks and flood smaller waterways. The boys were taken away by strong currents as they were bathing in a waterway," he said.

"And today, we found the body of a man who went fishing in a canal."

Indonesia has been repeatedly afflicted by deadly floods and landslides in recent years during its wet season which lasts about six months.

Environmentalists blame logging and a failure to reforest denuded land in the world's fourth-most populous country for the frequent flooding.

Heavy rains caused flooding in the capital Jakarta in January, killing 32 people and forcing nearly 46,000 to flee their homes.

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Labor's Nicole Manison wins Wanguri

NICOLE Manison has won an overwhelming victory for Labor in the Northern Territory by-election for the seat of Wanguri.

Final figures for Saturday, released by the Northern Territory Electoral Commission, show Manison leads with 69.7 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis.

The figures show the CLP's Rhianna Harker at 30.3 per cent.

Voter turnout in the electorate in Darwin's northern suburbs was 76.3 per cent.

The by-election was sparked by the resignation of former chief minister Paul Henderson.

The electoral commission says a check of all counts will take place on Sunday, when a decision on the timing of the declaration of the poll will be confirmed.

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Show with Pistorius' girlfriend to go on

A TV show featuring the murdered girlfriend (pic) of Oscar Pistorius will still be broadcast. Source: AAP

BLONDE cover girl Reeva Steenkamp will appear in a pre-recorded celebrity reality TV show in South Africa, two days after she was shot dead by Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius.

The 29-year-old will make a posthumous prime-time debut in Tropika Island of Treasure.

Pistorius, 26, will be spending a third night in jail during the screening on Saturday.

The reality show, shot on location in Jamaica, features Steenkamp, a law graduate, and several other local personalities competing for one million rand ($A110,000) prize money.

Producers decided not to shelve the show, instead casting its broadcast as a tribute to Steenkamp.

Forensics teams are working at Pistorius's home to try and establish what took place before and after Steenkamp was shot in the head and hand.

"She was happy, healthy, beautiful and vibrant and that's the way she should be remembered," said executive producer Samantha Moon.

In an earlier statement Moon said the decision to broadcast the program was taken after "much deliberation".

"This week's episode will be dedicated to Reeva's memory.

"Yesterday her mother agreed that we should go ahead and we are free to go ahead and we are working on how to pay tribute to her," said Kaizer Kganyagon, a spokesman for the national broadcaster.

The audience is expected to be much larger than normal.

"The number that we expect will be obviously more than the normal because now everybody wants to see this person that was killed."

A special tribute will be broadcast ahead of Saturday's show at 6.30pm (0330 AEDT).

Trailers for the series show a beaming and vivacious Steenkamp clad in a bikini and other skimpy clothing.

The show's website carries a picture of a burning candle with a message: "We are deeply saddened and extend our condolences to Reeva's family and friends."

The series is now in its fifth season.

Born in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, Steenkamp moved to Johannesburg six years ago to pursue her modelling career. She had dated Pistorius for less than year.

After an emotional court appearance on Friday, in which Pistorius broke down repeatedly, a source at Brooklyn police station in Pretoria said the track star had "slept very well".

He was expected to receive visits on Saturday from family and from members of his defence team, who are preparing for a bail hearing that will begin on Tuesday.

The state is expected to strongly oppose any effort to allow him to return to his home.

Prosecutors will argue the murder was premeditated, meaning he could face a life sentence.

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Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew in hospital

FORMER Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is recovering in hospital after suffering from an irregular heartbeat, the government said on Saturday.

Lee, 89, will remain at Singapore General Hospital for a few days, said a statement issued by the office of his son, current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The elder Lee was confined on Friday "after experiencing a suspected transient ischaemic attack (TIA) associated with a prolonged episode of atrial fibrillation", or an irregular heartbeat, the statement said.

TIA occurs when blood flow to a part of the brain stops briefly, according to the statement, which added that a person who suffers from this "will have stroke-like symptoms which clear in less than 24 hours".

"He has recovered but will remain warded for a few days for the doctors to adjust his medications and for observation," the statement said.

Lee Kuan Yew, who retired from the cabinet in 2011 but remains a member of parliament, is widely credited with transforming Singapore from an economic backwater to one of Asia's fastest-growing economies.

He served as prime minister from 1959, when Singapore gained self-rule from colonial ruler Britain, until he stepped down in 1990 in favour of his deputy Goh Chok Tong, who in turn handed power to Lee's son in 2004.

The People's Action Party co-founded by the elder Lee has been returned to power in every election since 1959 and holds 80 of the 87 seats in parliament.

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Deadly hepatitis E outbreak hits S Sudan

THE United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July.

UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighbouring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread viral disease of the liver.

Edwards said on Friday that 6017 cases had been diagnosed.

The virus is spread through contaminated food and water.

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Sobbing Pistorius could face life sentence

Olympic amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius (C) has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend. Source: AAP

A SOBBING Oscar Pistorius has been formally charged with the Valentine's Day murder of his model girlfriend.

The 26-year-old Paralympian gold medallist wept on Friday as Pretoria magistrate Desmond Nair announced a single charge of killing blonde covergirl Reeva Steenkamp.

The double amputee sat hunched as the court was told prosecutors would argue the murder was premeditated, a charge that could carry a life sentence.

Steenkamp, 29, who was due to appear in a celebrity reality show from this weekend, was shot four times at Pistorius's upmarket Pretoria home in the early hours of Thursday.

She was shot with his 9mm pistol, suffering wounds to the head and hand and died at the scene.

The Beeld newspaper, which first broke the dramatic news of his arrest, said on Friday the shots that killed Steenkamp were fired through a bathroom door, but there has been no police confirmation of this.

Pistorius had been expected to make an application for bail on Friday, but the hearing was postponed until Tuesday to allow the defence more time to prepare. He will remain in police custody until then.

Known as Blade Runner because of his carbon fibre prostheses, Pistorius has inspired millions by becoming the first double-amputee to compete alongside able-bodied athletes at the Olympics.

Journalists from around the world crammed in the courtroom to cover the case.

Police, who were called to Pistorius's home about 4am on Thursday, denied initial reports that Pistorius had shot Steenkamp, his girlfriend since late last year, after mistaking her for a burglar.

Steenkamp, once an FHM cover girl, was described as "the kindest, sweetest human being; an angel on earth," by Sarit Tomlins of her management agency.

Born in Cape Town, she grew up in Port Elizabeth where she graduated with a degree in law.

Police said there had been previous allegations of domestic disputes at Pistorius's home.

"There were always rumours attracted to Oscar Pistorius, but most of them I just put down to him being a celebrity," said Kyle Wood, 25, a fellow resident of the gated community.

In 2009, Pistorius spent a night in jail after allegedly assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a party.

He has often spoken publicly about his fondness for guns. Last year a UK newspaper reported that he has a pistol, machine gun, cricket bat and baseball bat placed around his home for fear of burglars.

In November, Pistorius tweeted about arriving home and hearing the washing machine on "and thinking it's an intruder to go into full combat recon mode into the pantry! waa".

Pistorius is known as an adrenaline junkie, with a love of speed reflected in a passion for motorbikes. Four years ago he crashed his boat in a river south of Johannesburg, breaking two ribs, an eye socket and his jaw.

Empty alcohol bottles were found in the boat, but he was not tested for alcohol.

Any problems off the track were eclipsed by his athletics success.

The Johannesburg-born athlete won gold in the 4x100m relay and the 400m individual at the Paralympic Games in London. He was triple gold medallist in the Beijing games in 2008.

He was named by Time Magazine last year as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Pistorius had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old after being born without lower leg bones.

Sponsors are now racing to distance themselves from the sprinter.

A South African pay television channel has canned a campaign featuring the runner.

There was no immediate comment from global sports giant Nike on its sponsorship of Pistorius, whom it featured in an advert showing the runner setting off from the starting blocks with the line "I am the bullet in the chamber".

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150 killed in clashes for Syria airport

ACTIVISTS say some 150 rebels and government troops have been killed in fierce fighting for control of the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo and a major military air base nearby.

The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that death toll is from fighting on Wednesday and Thursday and is almost evenly divided between opposition fighters and regime soldiers.

The Observatory and the Local Co-ordination Committees activist group say rebels and President Bashar Assad's forces are shelling each other in renewed clashes on Friday in and around the airports.

Rebels launched a major attack on Aleppo's civilian airport and the nearby air base of Nairab on Wednesday. They have captured most of the "Brigade 80" force that is in charge of protecting the area.

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