AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTS - AUG 28, 2008

Highlights of today's newspapers:

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

- Kevin Rudd will close down schools that perform badly, saying a tough approach is needed in the battle for quality education. After announcing record high half-yearly earnings, Woodside Petroleum has vowed to recoup its share of a hefty new government-imposed industry tax. New auditors of the beleaguered ABC Learning Centres have forced a clean-up of the companies accounts and restating of results for at least the past two years.

- Attempts by big business to claim an estimated $500 million by exploiting a tax loophole have been thwarted by the Australian Taxation Office.

- A list of "problem" US banks, kept by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, grew from 90 to 117 during the second quarter.

- At the end of trading yesterday stocks were mildly higher after a fluctuating market throughout the day.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

- The government's planned power sale will be delivered a blow today with Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell expected to block the scheme in parliament. The performance of schools against a national benchmark will determine future funding, the federal government says. The Australian economy looks set to record its first quarter of negative growth in eight years. Information from a key witness in the conviction of a former St Stanislaus' College science teacher has led to the investigation of two other teachers and charging of a former priest with 33 child sex offences.

- As a family escaped a fire at their NSW Central Coast home a two-year-old girl was lost in the confusion and later found dead inside the burnt property.

- Some two-thirds of GPs meet with pharmaceutical representatives an average of seven times a month, with the meetings having a "major influence" on what medication doctors prescribe.

- Failed presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has asked her supporters to give Barack Obama their vote and not protest his candidacy in response to her loss.

- Macquarie Group share prices yesterday sunk to levels not seen since late 2004.

- The Rabbitohs' Craig Wing is expected to be a target for the Roosters when the teams clash this Friday, but team-mates of the ex Sydney player say they are ready for such a tactic.

THE AGE

- Akash Ananth, one of a growing stream of overseas students coming to Melbourne to learn to fly, died when his plane clipped another and plunged to the ground yesterday; States will have to provide detailed reports on the performances of individual state schools to qualify for federal funding, under the next phase of Kevin Rudd's "education revolution".

- The Age's editor-in-chief, Andrew Jaspan, has been removed from his position less than 24 hours after the newspaper's owner, Fairfax Media, announced 550 job losses.

- A Melbourne abortion specialist was one of several health professionals who did not report the rape of a severely intellectually disabled woman when the perpetrator was insisting on the termination of her pregnancy, a tribunal has heard.

- Hillary Clinton nailed it. In the most anticipated moment of the Democratic National Convention short of Barack Obama's acceptance speech, the failed candidate warned supporters that too much was at stake to indulge in a protest vote on her behalf.

- Westfield has played down the impact of the global credit crunch on the valuation of its $63 billion property portfolio and consumer confidence, arguing its quality tenants and a swollen development pipeline should generate robust earnings in the years ahead.

- The future of injured AFL Western Bulldogs star Scott West will be decided at the end of the season, coach Rodney Eade said yesterday.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

- Australian plans to import Pacific fruit pickers have been harmed by news similar workers in New Zealand have been mistreated, underpaid and offered little work. Principles and teachers face the sack and substandard schools may be closed under a federal government plan to take action against failing facilities. A speech from Hillary Clinton at the US Democrat convention is expected to heal ill feeling between her supporters and those of successful presidential candidate Barack Obama. Outgoing The Age editor Andrew Jaspan has farewelled newspaper staff, leaving them to deal with Fairfax's planned job cuts.

- Despite a 2.6 per cent dip in building and construction work in the June quarter, firms are still winning new projects faster than they can complete those on their books.

- More than 500 complaints about the NSW Department of Community Services have been withheld from a public review of the state government agency.

- Defeated US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has urged fans to back Barack Obama.

- Shares in Macquarie Group slumped to their lowest value in four years yesterday.

- Contracted to the club until the end of next year, West Coast have put AFL star midfielder Daniel Kerr on the market.

(AAP)

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