The Australian

leads with Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali’s call for the deportation of
clerics who preach violence, as part of a push to rid Australia of the
“disease” of fundamentalism. Meanwhile a phone call intercepted
by ASIO has revealed that convicted Australian terrorist Zekky Mallah
sought the blessing of senior Islamic cleric Sheik Abdul Salam Zoud to
become Australia’s first suicide bomber. And advertisers have found that the “metrosexual” is out and the “block” is back in, with men reclaiming lost ground over the women they previously allowed to take control of the purchasing decisions.

The Sydney Morning Herald
goes big with the cycling tragedy in Germany in which Aussie cyclist
Amy Gillett was killed and five others injured when a car hit their
road cycling team. Peter Hartcher
says some of America’s most prominent market-watchers think John Howard
was speaking to the wrong person when he met economic guru and US
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, as our own Reserve Bank
governor, Ian Macfarlane has presided over 15 years of unbroken
economic growth. Meanwhile the Bureau of Meteorology
is introducing a new way to measure the weather called “apparent
temperature,” which takes into account temperature, humidity and wind
speed to give people an idea how hot or cold they might feel outdoors.

The Age
devotes much of the front page to the road cycling accident in Germany
with a large photo of the scene and those involved. From Washington Michael Gawenda
reports on Rupert Murdoch’s comments as he introduced Howard at a
dinner in Washington, in which he said Australia’s relationship with the
US was at its lowest level for more than 50 years when John Howard was
elected prime minister in 1996. And 670,000 Victorians who have
“direct, regular and unsupervised” contact with children will be made
to have a police check to obtain an ID card under tough new legislation to be introduced in state Parliament today to stop pedophiles having contact with
children.


The Daily Telegraph splashes with a large photo of cyclist Amy Gillett beside the headline, “THEIR TRAGIC LAST RIDE.” Allegations of cheating by HSC students and tutors uncovered by The
Tele have been referred to the Independent Commission Against
Corruption by the Board of Studies. And when The Tele doesn’t have a photo of Schapelle Corby, it seems a pic of
her eccentric Jakarta lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea is a good substitute as Corby’s trial is reopened today in Denpasar.

The Herald Sun splash simply reads, “GOLDEN DREAM ENDS.” The Hun also reports that it appears unlikely Steve Vizard
will directly address the court as his legal team is planning to tender
a witness statement on his behalf as well as a separate submission by
counsel.

The Courier-Mail
reports that the Department of Primary Industries is considering giving
Queensland farmers leaseholds over their land of up to 50 years in
return for better environmental outcomes. The Mercury
says the Commonwealth is considering whether to become involved in a
Federal Court bid by the Australian Greens senator Bob Brown to stop
logging in the east coast forest of Wielangta near Maria Island. The West Australian
leads with the news that one in four pregnancies were aborted in WA last
year, following the release of the first official abortion statistics
compiled in the state. The NT News
reports that CLP members are expected to warn the party’s federal
representatives, Dave Tollner and Nigel Scullion, to vote against
Commonwealth plans to build a national nuclear waste dump on defence
land in the Territory.

Meanwhile in The Fin Review
(pay-per-view), Peter Wood looks at the issues raised by the Vizard
case in connection to the relationship between ASIC and the commonwealth
DPP. In the early 1990s ASC (now ASIC) and DPP developed a
lengthy memorandum of understanding to governing their working
relationship. But Woods notes, for the DPP, the memorandum can invite a
breach of the basic principle that prosecutors should be, and should be
seen to be, independent of the investigation. Wood recommends the
relationship be reviewed urgently in the light of the current
regulatory framework and a new memorandum drawn up to preserve
respective statutory functions, powers and independence.