It is mornings like this one that help explain the difficulty newspapers have in remaining the principal source of news for people. To put it simply, events overnight passed the printing deadlines by. In Australia, the racial tensions involving the Indian community reached a new high. In Pakistan the spreading conflict with Moslem militants saw another deadly bomb blast.
THE PICK OF THE MORNING’S STORIES
Indians rally as suburb seethes – Sydney Morning Herald website
Suicide attack on Pakistani hotel – BBC News
Seven dead, 34 injured in Peshawar PC hotel blast – Dawn, Pakistan
PM snaps at tacky intrusion – Melbourne Age
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
AUSTRALIA
Economic matters
Unemployment rate to soar as spending runs out – Melbourne Herald Sun
Still tough out there for job hunters – Melbourne Herald Sun
Business confidence boosted by budget – Melbourne Age
Racial violence
Harris Park – tensions in a racial melting pot – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Indians rally as suburb seethes – Sydney Morning Herald
Students call on Indian PM to intervene – Melbourne Age
Some attacks on Indians are racial, Australian cop admits – Times of India
Health and hospitals
Queensland’s $6b hospitals plan full of holes – Brisbane Courier Mail
Public service cutbacks to hurt SA health – Adelaide Advertiser
Longer waits for surgery put pressure on PM – The Australian
Industrial relations
Union member facing jail for failing to attend hearing – Adelaide Advertiser
Unions recruit high school students for $10 a month – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Unions split over building watchdog – The Australian
Third state signs on for national IR laws – Tasmania has joined South Australia and Victoria in handing over its industrial relations powers to the commonwealth but NSW and Queensland remain non-committal about embracing uniform national workplace laws – The Australian
Review call after pay rush – unions are demanding that Julia Gillard step in and ensure Fair Work Australia reviews wage deals that impose a non-union collective agreement and that have been deliberately rushed in before Labor’s workplace laws take effect next month. – The Australian
A hint of strange things
Xenophon ups pressure for SA corruption probe – Adelaide Advertiser
Lib calls ministers ‘convicted criminals’ – Melbourne Age reports that a senior Victorian shadow minister has been accused of misleading voters after his column in a Chinese-language newspaper said Planning Minister Justin Madden and former police minister Andre Haermeyer were convicted criminals. The shadow minister says it is the result of a mistranslation
Political life
Labor prepares for election with new ministry line-up – Sydney Morning Herald
Brown support pours in – pledges of assistance have poured into the offices of Greens leader Bob Brown to help pay legal costs demanded by Forestry Tasmania – Hobart Mercury
There’s no ‘we’, Terry – Country Liberal Party’s dreams of an alliance with renegade Independent Marion Scrymgour have been dashed after she accused the Opposition of being childish – Northern Territory News
Frank Sartor’s grand vision for a decaying state – The Australian
Sartor shy on run at Premier – Sydney Morning Herald
Education
Labor’s largesse to private primary schools – The Australian
Future depends on Asian languages – The Australian reports a claim that the country risks being marooned in the dated jobs and industries of the 20th century unless a $11.3 billion mass Asian language literacy plan is acted on within a generation
Opinion
Brutal truth about attacks – Paul Sheehan in the Sydney Morning Herald writes that the distorted story of white racism has been helped along by the prevailing sensibilities of reporting of crime in Australia, with skittishness about detailing the gritty reality that most violent street crime in Sydney and Melbourne is not committed by whites. The attacks on Indians have followed this pattern, with the crimes committed by a polyglot mix reflecting the streets – white, Asian, Middle Eastern, Aboriginal, Pacific Islander.
Give the first lady a break – Kathleen Cuthbertson in the Melbourne Herald Sun looks at the Therese Rein style
I’d rather be Tasered than shot – Rhett Watson in the Sydney Daily Telegraph on the debate bout police use of taser stun guns
Defence needs defending from the blame game cycle – writes Peter Costello in the Sydney Morning Herald
Let’s not fight racism with more racism – Joseph Wakim in the Sydney Morning Herald
Unions’ battle for relevancy – Paul Kelly in The Australian
A nation of paupers – Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian writes that when pundits start framing tax reform in moral terms, you know something’s awry. Their belief in taxing the wealthy has become an article of faith, not a matter for rational analysis.
ELSEWHERE
A hint of strange things
Democrats Try to Reverse G.O.P. Coup in New York State Senate – two dissident Democrats bucked their party’s leaders and joined with 30 Republican senators to upend the agenda in Albany, where Democrats had assumed power in the Senate in January, with 32 seats, after more than 40 years in the minority. Democrats were pushing bills to give tenants more rights, strengthen abortion rights and legalize same-sex marriage this session. – New York Times
Governor Paterson won’t leave New York amid Senate revolt – New York Post
GOP coup in Albany: Senators Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr. vote against fellow Democrats – New York Daily News
Economic matters
Obama confronts doubts on stimulus, vows faster spending – Los Angeles Times
PM projects 7 per cent growth in FY’10; says not good enough – The Hindu
BUSINESS
Rio and BHP’s savings to double from merger – could reach $20 billion – The Australian
Telstra pledge to be friendly – Adelaide Advertiser
Millions wiped out by church gambles – the world’s richest and largest Anglican diocese has lost more than $100 million on the stockmarket and is investigating ways to cut programs and ministries across Sydney reports the Sydney Morning Herald
US warns on Chrysler liquidation risk – Financial Times of London
ENVIRONMENT
Garrett pulls plug on solar – generous rebate scheme ends abruptly – Melbourne Age
Rudd Government MPs’ in hybrid ‘green wash’ – MPs’ spurning of green cars in favour of petrol guzzlers is climate change hypocrisy, the Opposition says – Melbourne Herald Sun
Industry urges ETS hold ‘until cost is known’ – The Australian
Plan to combat global warming? Pie in the sky – A cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon is too expensive, won’t work and potentially rife with corruption. – Jonah Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times
MEDIA
Newspapers digital in 10 years: Murdoch – Melbourne Age
Gordon Ramsay ‘new form of low life’ says PM Kevin Rudd – Adelaide Advertiser
Gordon Ramsay a form of low life, says Kevin Rudd – Brisbane Courier Mail
Hallelujah for justice: Real IRA bombers killed their loved ones. But 11 years on, Omagh families prove people CAN beat the terrorists – London Daily Mail
LIFE
Language
Brave new world of PM slang – Adelaide Advertiser
Diets
PM’s wife Therese Rein – how she lost 25kg – Woman’s Day
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s wife Therese Rein upping ante – Melbourne Herald Sun tells of plan to climb Mt Kilimanjaro
Swine flu
Is This a Pandemic? Define ‘Pandemic’ – as the new H1N1 swine influenza virus spreads from continent to continent, it is clear that a useful definition is far more complicated and elusive than officials had thought writes Lawrence K. Altman MD in The New York Times
Swine flu threatens Brisbane Broncos game against Bulldogs – Brisbane Courier Mail
Sexual matters
Kids told ‘lie to get pill’ – Northern Territory News
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