Today's Business Headlines

WA facing power price surge
Companies and households in Western Australia's booming southwest corner face higher energy bills from the middle of next year if the regulator agrees to Western Power's request for network tariffs to be raised by 40 per cent. The Australian

Pilbara strike will worry Japan: Barnett
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has warned that Japanese customers are worried about a return to the "bad old days" of industrial action in the Pilbara - ahead of the first strike in 16 years at Rio Tinto's iron ore operations on Saturday. The Fin Review

Incremental gets super-confident report
Cooper Energy has lambasted an ultra-bullish independent expert's report by KPMG that valued Cooper's takeover target, Incremental Petroleum, at almost five times its current price. The Fin Review

Alcoa profit shortfall spurs run on Alumina
Alumina has been savaged by the market after its partner in the AWAC global alumina alliance, Alcoa, reported a third-quarter profit well below expectations. The West

Santos scores top dollar in Moly gas deal
The credit crisis does not seem to have eased the demand for Pilbara gas, with Santos yesterday signing the highest-priced domestic gas contract yet, charging Moly Mines four times the average for other contracts. The Australian

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Investors wiped another 5 per cent off the Australian sharemarket, the dollar crashed to its lowest level for more than five years, the British government unveiled a $A1.32 trillion rescue package for the country's ailing banks and a string of central banks cut their rates as the financial crisis strengthened its grip on world markets last night.

Page 3: Qantas refused to reveal whether it will pay medical bills and compensation to passengers injured on the Airbus which nosedived during a flight from Singapore to Perth on Tuesday.

Page 4: The threat of further industrial strife in the Pilbara is growing, with a second workforce warning yesterday that it was considering strike action in a bid to force a union deal, this time with mining contractor Henry Walker Eltin.

WA households, which have already warned that power bills will soar 70 per cent in the coming years, now face the prospect of them doubling after Western Power revealed yesterday that it wanted state government approval to spend up to $6 billion upgrading its ageing network.

Page 7: The number of West Australians forced into bankruptcy has soared 20 per cent in the past three months.

Peter Costello has accused Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens of showing his inexperience by lifting official rates three times since last November, only to have to backtrack on Tuesday with a super-sized cut.

Page 9: House prices across Australia could fall 25 per cent over the next four year, the International Monetary Fund has warned in a report that identifies the nation's property market as one of the most over-valued in the developed world.

Business: Commonwealth Bank last night defied another disastrous day on the Australian bourse to raise its $2 billion BankWest takeover costs in what is thought to be the biggest accelerated book-build in corporate history.

Shareholders who took part in Wesfarmers' heavily discounted $2.5 billion rights issue just six months ago were yesterday staring at a 13 per cent paper loss as shares in the WA conglomerate crashed to a four-and-a-half year low.

Takeover target Incremental Petroleum has wheeled out an independent valuation of its shares that is more that is more than four times its current share price.

Alumina has been savaged by the market after its partner in the AWAC global alumina alliance, Alcoa, reported a third-quarter profit well below expectations.

Aquila Resources chief executive Tony Poli says the company's asset sales talks have been frustrated by global market turbulence but insists strong interest remains and talks are continuing.

Embattled oil and gas stock Nexus Energy insisted last night it remained on track to produce first light crude form from its Crux project in the Browse Basin off the Kimberley by 2011, despite failing to secure Japanese trading house Mitsui as a venture partner.

Telstra is not ruling out accepting regulated pricing in return for the Rudd Government's $4.7 billion broadband kitty.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: Regional sharemarkets fell dramatically yesterday as anxious investors dumped risky assets such as stocks and commodities on fears the deepening credit crunch would drag the global economy into recession.

The British government will spend 50 billion pounds ($121.4 billion) to partially nationalise eight of its major banks in the most dramatic move outside the US to try to stem a global loss of confidence in the global banking system.

Page 3: West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has warned that Japanese customers are worried about a return to the "bad old days" of industrial action in the Pilbara - ahead of the first strike in 16 years at Rio Tinto's iron ore operations on Saturday.

Page 24: Cooper Energy has lambasted an ultra-bullish independent expert's report by KPMG that valued Cooper's takeover target, Incremental Petroleum, at almost five times its current price.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Britain's rush last night to partly nationalise its eight biggest banks as part of a $1.23 trillion rescue package failed to stop another sharp fall on world stock markets.

The world's major central banks last night followed the Reserve Bank of Australia and cut interest rates in a co-ordinated effort to ease pressure on a still gridlocked global financial system.

Australia's two biggest export earners, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, remain convinced that the secular shift in the global resources business will survive what the International Monetary Fund is now describing as ''an epochal restructuring of the financial system''.

A queuing crisis at Newcastle's port looks unlikely to be resolved in the short-term, with coal exporters and the state government unable to reach an agreement.

Page 2: Some of the longest-serving reporters at Fairfax Media's Sydney flagship newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald, will be told from today whether their applications to be made redundant have been approved.

Page 3: A computer malfunction is suspected to have caused a Qantas jet to drop thousands of feet in seconds, injuring more than 50 people on a flight bound for Perth.

Page 4: Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan are playing down expectations of relief for pensioners and the expansion of paid maternity leave in the next budget, amid fears that government revenues are crashing because of the global financial crisis.

Page 5: The world financial crisis now ranks with the 1987 stock market crash and the 2001 dotcom collapse in its impact on consumers, pushing their confidence levels sharply down this month.

Home lending rates will fall faster than any future cuts in official interest rates once stability returns to global financial markets, the head of the nation's biggest home lender has said.

Business: Global equities markets are in meltdown as emergency efforts to rescue the world economy show no signs of working and the British government was forced to launch a $1.23 trillion bailout of its major banks.

Japanese share prices plunged 9.38 per cent yesterday in the worst crash in more than two decades as panic selling erupted across Asia.

The relentless slide in home prices has left nearly one in six US homeowners owing more on a mortgage than the home is worth, raising the possibility of a rise in defaults -- the very misfortune that touched off the credit crisis last year.

The global financial crisis would not diminish Telstra's ability to fund the roll-out of a $10-$15 billion national broadband network, chief executive Sol Trujillo said yesterday.

The credit crisis does not seem to have eased the demand for Pilbara gas, with Santos yesterday signing the highest-priced domestic gas contract yet, charging Moly Mines four times the average for other contracts.

Companies and households in Western Australia's booming southwest corner face higher energy bills from the middle of next year if the regulator agrees to Western Power's request for network tariffs to be raised by 40 per cent.

About 800,000 Australian households and up to 2 million small and medium-sized enterprises are living on a knife-edge and could go under in the face of high costs of debt, the latest mortgage report compiled by JPMorgan and Fujitsu warned yesterday.

In an ominous start to the third-quarter earnings season, Alcoa has reported a 52 per cent profit decline, due in part to falling aluminium prices and higher costs.