Today's business headlines - updated

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN (BUSINESS NEWS HEADLINES)

Alcoa springs $US33bn takeover for Alcan

Alcoa has launched a $40 billion takeover bid for Canadian rival Alcan in an attempt to create a giant in the global aluminium industry.

Kimberley snaps up ex-Rio chief

Kimberley Diamond Company executive chairman Miles Kennedy yesterday dropped the first hints he might be preparing to take a back seat after luring Rio Tinto Diamonds boss Gordon Gilchrist back to the state as an executive director of the WA diamond miner.

Now it's decision time, Alinta board tells the rival bidders

The board of Alinta has given the two bidders fighting over the company until noon today to finalise their best offers with the hope of letting its shareholders know by tomorrow which offer it will recommend they accept.

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN (GENERAL NEWS HEADLINES)

Water leads rise in charges

Household water charges will rise another 8 per cent in Thursday's State Budget after increasing 6 per cent last year, a jump the State Opposition says will see Labor break its seven-year-old pledge to keep rises in household fees and charges below the inflation rate.

Reynolds' vow to stay a blow for builders

Building industry hopes that Kevin Reynolds would step down at the end of his next term have been dashed, with the had-line unionist confirming yesterday taht he woudl seek re-election as secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

Port clean-up costs keep rising

The cost of the Esperance contamination scandal is mounting as it emerges the beseiged Esperance Port Authority will be forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning backyard water tanks of lead and nickel blown from export shipments.