“Socceroos take a fall, Wallabies hit a wall,” says the front
page of The Australian, with the news
that after an “acceptable defeat” in Montevideo, Australia must find a
way to beat Uruguay at Sydney’s Telstra Stadium on Wednesday night and
bury the ghosts of past World Cup qualifying failures.
While in rugby news, Wallabies coach Eddie Jones says yesterday’s demolition by England
at Twickenham was an utter embarrassment, but hopes it will spawn a more powerful Australian
side.

Federal Police Commissioner Mick
Keelty will urge Southeast Asian nations to embrace a new era of co-operation in
the fight against terror in a keynote address in Jakarta
this week, says the paper. And confidential Australian Defence Department documents reveal for the first
time the extent of the casualties during Australia’s 15-month peace-keeping
mission in East Timor, the files indicating Australian soldiers shot and
killed at least 14 militia and exchanged fire with the Indonesian army and
police. And back home, some of Australia’s
biggest companies have sent warning letters to unions and workers
about taking part in tomorrow’s national day
of protest against the Howard Government’s industrial relations changes.

“Net closing on new suspects,” says The Sydney Morning Herald,
with the news that a group of Sydney men with links to the arrested terrorism
suspects
have been placed under 24-hour surveillance amid
fears members of the alleged cell remain at large. Meanwhile,
Australian Federal
Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says the discovery in Sydney
of a vehicle containing chemicals, documents and digging equipment is a
“significant” breakthrough in the investigation. And in international terror news,
a woman in Jordanian custody has made a televised confession that she tried
to blow herself up alongside her husband in an Amman
hotel last week.

Locally, up to 3000 schools have been targeted in a DVD
blitz aimed at challenging Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in favour of an
“intelligent designer,” says the SMH,
as a fiery debate erupts in Australia pitting scientists against advocates for
the “alternative theory” to evolution.

The Daily Telegraph
leads with the horrific story
of 18-year-old Sydney woman Lauren Huxley, who was bashed, bound, doused with
petrol and left to die in her parents’ burning home last week. Huxley’s sister
begged last night for the public’s help to catch whoever left her “innocent
best friend” fighting for her life, says the paper, while police have stepped
up their investigation into the apparently motiveless crime. Doctors say it
will become clear this week whether the young marketing student, who was also
sexually assaulted,
has permanent brain damage.

Soccer dominates the front page of The Age, with a photo of the Socceroos in Uruguay
after their “respectable” defeat, 1-0 to the locals. Now Australia
turns its attention to Wednesday’s decider, says the paper,
with expectations high that the Australian team can qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time in 32 years. A capacity
crowd of 83,000 is expected to cheer them on at the Olympic Stadium in
Homebush.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has been joined by Queensland
Premier Peter Beattie in expressing concerns with the federal government’s plan
to update sedition laws, says the paper.
Beattie’s comments on the reforms followed criticism by Victorian Premier Steve
Bracks and Law Council of Australia president John North. And in the lead up to
summer, the Bureau of Meteorology is calling the first 10 months of 2005 the
warmest equivalent period since monthly records began in 1950, says The Age, and has warned that the
record-breaking temperatures are an indicator of climate change.

The front page of the Herald
Sun is also soccer-themed, with a picture of Australia’s
army of fans in the crowd at the Montevideo
stadium. Elsewhere, paper reports
that a man due to face court over importing the biggest ever ecstasy haul into Australia
was shot yesterday after being lured to a suburban park. Antonio Sergi, 32,
survived to stagger into the nearby Moonee Ponds police
station after being shot through the chest and both arms, in
a manner typical to an underworld hit.

A shoot-out in Adelaide’s
Burnside dominates the front page of The
Advertiser, in which plain-clothes police shot a man after routine inquiries culminated in
gunfire. While the Canberra
Times reports that Australian Federal Police could receive a substantial boost in funding in
the next Budget, following news that ASIO is about to have
its staff doubled.

The Courier-Mail reports that first home buyers are fleeing Queensland’s
housing market, their numbers slumping by more than half over the past 12
months with Brisbane suburbs among
those worst hit. And down south, Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley’s warning that
Tasmania will be hit hardest by the government’s proposed IR reforms tops
news in The Mercury.
Speaking in Hobart ahead of tomorrow’s mass
protest, Beazley said this was because Tassie
had the highest proportion of workers on award wages and employed in businesses with fewer than 100 staff.

Up north, the NT News
leads with the Territory’s doctor shortage which, the paper reports,
has reached crisis point. New figures show there are 2861 Territorians
per GP in the electorate of Lingiari, which covers most of the
Territory. And in The West,
the big news is again illegal fishing, the paper reporting that 51% of respondents to a new poll believe Australia
should cut the millions of dollars in aid given to Indonesia
each year if the Indonesian Government doesn’t do more to stop illegal fishing
in Australian waters.