Today's headlines

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN (Business news)

Ex-Elders chief takes aim at Futuris head
Bitter splits at teh top of Futuris Corporation erupted into the open yesterday with one of the cast of senior executives who has left the group claiming that concerns about Futuris bos Les Wozniczka's strategy and style was rife in its upper levels.

Pitts quit Total Eden in $250m Alesco takeover
Alesco Corp has ended the Pitts family's 30-year grip on irrigation and water management group Total Eden after striking a $250 million deal to take over the Perth-based company.

Blight in line to lead alliance as AWB meets
Former National Farmers Federation president Graham Blight is expected to be announced today as the independent chairman of an alliance of farmer organisation battling to meet a tight deadline to come up with a new company to keep Australia's wheat export monopoly.

E&T ponders revised bid as saga drags on

Record production spares BHP blushes over $200m blowout

Investors sweamp Sundance raising

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN (General news)

Travel-phobia means 43,000 jobless and 27,000 vacancies
Spoilt WA jobseekers who refues to travel outside their communities for workd are creating unemployment pockets with jobless rates as high as those in some depressed Eastern States regionsdespite the biggest economic boom in the State's history.

Perth's housing crown slips
Perth's lacklustre housing market has been outshone by a mini-boom in the Eastern States capitals, where teh avregae house price has soared by as a much as $30,000 in just three months.

Watchdog 'worth $3.1b to economy'
The Howard's Governement's building industry watchdoghas bootsed the Australian economy by $3.1 billion a year while cutting inflation by making construction cheaper, a report to be released today will say.