Major News Items in Leading Australian Newspapers

Following are major news items in leading Australian newspaperstoday:

The Australian

The Murdoch and Packer media empires (Australia's two mostpowerful media tycoons) have ended their year-long rift, signingseparate agreements yesterday that deliver the Nine Network a SuperLeague telecast and ending a court battle over televisionprogramming.The Sydney Morning HeraldAustralians will be able to slash their international telephonebills by 75 percent from next week by using the Internet instead ofthe telephone network. The new service is the first in the world tooffer Net phone calls using standard touch-tone phones without extracomputer equipment.The AgeThe Victoria government may channel its Olympic funding away fromthe Australian Olympic Committee and direct it to athletes andsporting bodies after controversy surrounding the AOC's investmentstrategy.The Australian Financial ReviewThe first transgenic crop to be commercially released in AustraliaMonsanto Inc.'s pest-resistant cotton has seen a major reduction inchemical use half way through its first growing season, but concernshave been raised over several incidents of poor performance.