In The Australian
today, the big story is ASIC’s raid on the emails of Telstra
executives, a dramatic start to the regulator’s investigations into
claims the telco has breached corporations law. ASIC has also ordered
Telstra to release to all shareholders sensitive
financial data on the cost of replacing its deteriorating network –
the
subject of an explosive political debate in Canberra
yesterday.

The Oz also leads
with the revelation that an ex-Australian army reservist,
Dragan Vasilykovic, who headed ruthless Serbian paramilitary units implicated
in the wartime rape, torture and slaughter of Muslims in Bosnia
is now living in Perth. And there’s
more on tax, with reports cuts
could be on the way, with a surge in
business profits leaving the federal government awash with cash. And
according to John Howard, tax cuts already handed
out this year make up for high petrol prices.

The SMH
laments the state of the NSW economy, which is lagging behind the rest
of the states as the broader economy roars back to life. The paper also leads
with some depressing statistics:
26% of children from broken families will wait more than 12 months
for contact with their non-resident parent, usually the father. Some
happy news in the hunt for the thousands still missing after Hurricane
Katrina, rescuers found seven children in central New Orleans. The search for Melbourne tourist Ashley McDonald also came to a happy – but not very classy – ending, with the 30-year-old found in an Alabama jail.

The Daily Telegraph
leads with the latest instalment of the soap opera unfolding at one of Sydney’s top law firms, reporting that the two
Allens Arthur Robinson secretaries behind a catty e-mail exchange
– over a missing ham sandwich – circulated around the city (and to Crikey last Friday) have been sacked.
The Tele also
has a dig at Telstra boss Sol Trujillo, reporting that while
shareholders watch their investments tumble, the Mexican-American boss
has been
casting an eye around this $4000-a-week waterfront mansion in Burran
Ave, once owned by failed HIH chief Ray Williams.

The Agereports
that the Victorian Bracks Government is considering pumping public
money, including government workers’ super savings,
into the state’s struggling biotechnology industry, in a bid to avoid
breaking an election promise to make Melbourne a global biotech leader.
And John Howard says he didn’t leave Telstra’s 1.6 million shareholders in the dark by failing to
disclose adverse information about the company given to him a month
ago.

Beyond the huge front page taunt to the English cricket team ahead of tonight’s Ashes decider, the Herald Sun
leads with news that the mother of two boys found dead in their
North Balwyn home was on suicide watch in a psychiatric ward
last night after homicide detectives were allowed to extract
DNA evidence from under her fingernails yesterday. The paper also runs
the survival story of
75-year-old Australian Keith Faulkner, discovered alive in New Orleans five days after Katrina left him stranded.

The Courier-Mail leads with the scathing attack on the Queensland health system by sacked health inquiry chief Tony Morris, QC. While The Advertiser
reports that Mitsubishi boss Tom Phillips has quit on the eve of
launching the car aimed at saving the Adelaide-based carmaker. The West Australian
reports on the looming crackdown on anarchy on WA building sites, with
the federal government set to introduce a new watchdog under laws
passed yesterday.

The NT News front page has a picture of the black dress worn by
Azaria Chamberlain before her disappearance from an Uluru campsite 25
years ago, with the news it’s going on public display for the first time. And The Mercury
in Tassie leads with the report that a letter from a Royal Hobart
Hospital doctor offering a posthumous apology for the treatment of
65-year-old Phyllis Seymour – who died of leukaemia in April – was
burned on her grave by her grieving family.