AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTS - NOV 12, 2009

SYDNEY, Nov 12, 2009 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) --

Highlights of today's newspapers:

THE AUSTRALIAN:

- Booksellers have vowed to fight a Rudd government decision to maintain regulatory protection for the Australian publishing and printing industry.

- The federal government vetoed plans to build Australia's greenest dam.

- Israel wants answers from the Solomon Islands over its vote at the UN in favour of censure of a Gaza offensive.

- Hundreds of woman every year are having unnecessary surgery and chemotherapy for non-dangerous breast cancers.

- West Australian Premier Colin Barnett threatens the BHP-Rio Tinto planned merger of their Pilbara iron ore operations.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

- The Rudd government is considering ways to allow more Sri Lankans to immigrate legally in a move to stem people smuggling.

- Publishing school exam results tests legal resolve.

- Mourners place flowers outside the home of Sydney woman Cloe Waterlow, stabbed to death along with her father Nick Waterlow.

- The proposed $1.8 billion Traveston Dam in Queensland has been quashed by Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

- The NSW parliament will conduct a public inquiry into the anti-competitive practices which plague the state's taxi industry.

- Mitre 10 hits out at the competition regulator's decision to approve Woolworth's acquisition of the rival hardware player Danks.

THE AGE:

- The Rudd government is considering allowing more displaced Sri Lankans to emigrate to Australia legally in a bid to reduce the incentive for them to turn up on boats.

- Joe Korp and his wife Maria - who was bashed, choked and left to die in the boot of a car near the Shrine of Remembrance - have been linked in death to a cold case murder prosecution.

- Australia has just had its biggest baby boom with a record 293,600 babies born last year, up 4 per cent or 11,400 babies on the year before.

- Outgoing Insurance Australia Group chairman James Strong has come under savage criticism from the insurer's former chairman, who has labelled Mr Strong's time at the company as wasted years.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

- The housing industry and green groups have savaged the federal and state governments' proposed national rules.

- A key federal government adviser is set to recommend a shake-up of tax rules to attract foreign capital.

- Economists and consumer advocates have accused the Rudd government of failing a key test of its reform credentials.

- Stern Hu, Rio Tinto's chief iron ore trader in China, faces a further two months in jail awaiting trial on charges including commercial bribery after Chinese authorities yesterday extended the period for investigation of allegations against him and three other Rio employees.