Birmingham City Owner Denies Money Laundering

Birmingham City Football Club's owner Carson Yeung has pleaded not guilty to money-laundering charges at the start of his long-delayed trial.

The former hairdresser from Hong Kong was arrested and charged in June 2011 with five counts of knowingly dealing in ill-gotten gains worth millions of dollars.

Yeung's lawyer, Graham Harris, told the district court in Hong Kong: "Carson Yeung will not receive a fair trial. He is prejudiced as such that no fair trial is possible."

The alleged offences occurred between 2001 and 2007.

Mr Harris said a "significant portion" of the 52-year-old's wealth came from "lawful and legitimate stock trading" before this period.

He added that Yeung would be unable to prove his innocence because official papers that could trace stockbroking activities are only kept for seven years in Hong Kong.

Prosecutors have claimed investigations revealed HK$720m (£60m) passed through five accounts connected to Yeung, who has been on bail since he was charged.

Media reports have described how Yeung made his first fortune on cheap stocks, then increased his earnings by co-founding Greek Mythology - a casino in gambling haven Macau - in 2004.

His other business interests include investments in "apparel sourcing trading, entertainment and media services" through Birmingham International Holdings (BIH).

BIH, controlled by Yeung, is the parent company of Championship football club Birmingham City, which he took control of in October 2009.

He has made several unsuccessful attempts to postpone or strike out the charges.

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Greece Votes In New Law To Axe 15,000 Jobs

A law that will allow the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants has been passed by the Greek parliament as part of austerity measures imposed by the country's international creditors.

After heated debate during an emergency session, 168 deputies voted for the bill late on Sunday, with 123 voting against and one abstaining.

The opposition proved powerless to stop cuts the government insisted were needed to keep the country afloat.

On Monday the Greek finance minister also said the Eurogroup Working Group will meet to approve a 2.8bn-euro (£2.3bn) aid tranche.

The newly agreed Greek law overturns what had been a guarantee of a job for life for workers in a notoriously bloated civil service.

Around 800 people turned up outside the parliament to protest against the measure in a demonstration called by trade unions.

The bill provides for the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants by the end of 2014, including 4,000 this year, to meet terms set by Athens' creditors for billions in bailout loans.

Civil service trade confederation Adedy condemned what it called the "politicians who are dismantling the public service and destroying the welfare state".

Private union GSEE said the bill would only worsen Greece's dire unemployment rate, which currently stands at 27%.

Slashing an unwieldy public service is a condition set by Greece's so-called "troika" of creditors - the International Monetary Fund, European Union and European Central Bank - to unlock loans of 8.8bn euros (£7.4bn).

The EU and IMF have committed a total of 240bn euros (£200bn) in rescue loans since 2010, with the heavily indebted country obliged to pursue austerity measures in exchange for the international aid it needs to avoid bankruptcy.

The new law will speed dismissal procedures, which previously made it impossible to sack civil servants and saw the public sector swell over the years as every new administration brought in its own people.

Employees who have been disciplined for corruption or incompetence and those working for one of dozens of shuttered government agencies will be the main targets.

The law, which was written in a single article to force politicians to adopt all its provisions together, also extends weekly working hours for teachers, opens a number of professions to competition and reduces a controversial property tax by 15%.

Another section creates new payment terms for unpaid taxes, intended to help the government recover billions of euros owed by indebted companies and households.

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Greggs Shares Go Cold Over Profit Warning

High street baker Greggs has seen its share price slide more than 7% after it issued a profit warning over poor winter trading.

Britain's biggest seller of food-on-the-go said it expected full-year profit to be down this year, partly blaming the adverse weather in January and March for keeping shoppers out of its stores.

A company statement said: "Although we are only four months into the year, based on current own shop like-for-like performance we believe that profits for the year are likely to be slightly below the lower end of the range of market expectations."

It said the range for the year to December 28 was £47.5m-55.2m.

Greggs said sales at stores open over a year were down 4.4% in the 17 weeks to April 27.

"We are continuing to experience lower footfall across much of the estate although average transaction values have increased marginally," it said.

Greggs said a higher proportion of promotional deals meant a slight impact on margin, a trend it expected to continue throughout the year.

The firm said total sales in the period rose 3%, helped by a net 10 new shop openings and a 2.9% increase in wholesale and franchise sales.

Shares in Greggs closed on Friday at 462.5p, valuing the business at £467.9m.

But by 9.15am on Monday shares had shed 33p to 429.5p.

:: Construction giant Balfour Beatty also saw its share price plunge 11% on Monday after it issued a profit warning.

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Bank Lending 'To Improve' As Bad Debt Falls

Looser money markets and falling bad debts are set to drive the first pick-up in bank lending to businesses for four years, an influential forecasting body has predicted.

The Ernst & Young (E&Y) Item Club sees lending to companies in the UK rising 3% -or £13bn - this year to £440bn, after shrinking 5% in 2012 to £427bn.

It expects business lending to surge by 8.5% to £477bn in 2014.

It also expects the Government's recently-revamped Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) to encourage lending to small companies and restore confidence - helping drive the better-than-expected business lending.

The Bank of England and the Treasury last week overhauled the FLS amid signs the flagship policy is losing its bite and failing to boost credit for small firms.

The scheme - which gives incentives for banks and building societies to lend more to households and businesses - will be opened up to non-bank lenders such as invoice finance houses and leasing firms.

Lenders will also be given access to more cheap funding in return for extending loans to smaller firms.

Andy Baldwin, head of financial services in Europe at E&Y, said: "Behind the scenes, banking fundamentals have quietly been improving and banks are now in a better position to be able to provide funds to the wider economy.

"Our analysis suggests the main drivers of banks' return to lending will be better access to wholesale funding and a decrease in non-performing loans, rather than the Funding for Lending Scheme making a material difference.

"That said, the scheme is making a contribution in shifting emphasis and encouraging lending expansion across the sector while also helping to restore confidence and stimulate demand from consumers and SMEs (small and medium businesses) alike."

The Item Club expects improving credit conditions and economic growth to cut bad debt write-downs to £9.3bn or 0.56% of total loans this year, from £11.6bn in 2012.

It also predicts the Government's multi-billion pound Help to Buy package of loans and guarantees will boost the housing market, with transactions rising by 7.4% in 2013 and 7.8% in 2014.

Item added record low rates are a "mixed blessing" because cash-strapped firms are being kept afloat by servicing debts but are unable to expand.

Bank lending is also hamstrung by low margins earned on loans, it added.

The City does not expect the Bank of England to raise interest rates from their record 0.5% low until at least 2016.

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UK Gas Hit As Norway Pipeline Supply Cut

Gas supplies to Britain dropped by 13% on Monday because of a gas field problems in Norway.

Britain, Europe's most traded gas market, saw inflows drop to 71 million cubic metres (mcm), as flows through the Vesterled pipelined dropped to zero.

The cut has been blamed on an outage preventing gas transportation from the North Sea's Oseberg field.

Norway's gas output could be reduced by 21mcm per day until May 6 due to problems at Heimdal riser platform, gas system operator Gassco said.

Norway operates a significant portion of the North Sea gas sector

On March 22, gas prices for within-day delivery jumped more than 50% above the previous day's close following closure of the pipeline linking Belgium to Britain after a pump failed at Bacton, Norfolk.

It is unclear of the exact cause behind the latest outage.

The cut comes at the same time that British business and unions made a joint call to safeguard UK gas supplies for industry.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the TUC and the British Ceramic Confederation joined forces to make the plea.

Dr Adam Marshall, director of policy and external affairs at the BCC, said: "Large-scale investment in plant is often dependent on stability and having confidence in the future.

"How can these industries be expected to create jobs and wealth if there are serious concerns about the fuel on which they depend?

The Chancellor urged gas fracking support in the Budget to help diversity

He added: "The Government has to work with suppliers to come up with a way of protecting provision and ironing out damaging price volatility. Significant investment in storage has to be investigated as a matter of urgency."

Statoil-operated Oseberg field, as well as Huldra, Skirne and Vale fields, deliver gas to Heimdal field, which is now mainly a processing centre for other fields.

As a result of the outage at Heimdal, gas deliveries through the Vesterled pipeline to St. Fergus gas terminal in Britain could be reduced by 10 mcm per day until May 6, Gassco said.

The St Fergus terminal, operated by Total, is located 35 miles north of Aberdeen on the northeast coast of Scotland.

UK gas storage levels came under significant strain during winter

It receives and processes gas from over 20 North Sea fields providing around a fifth of the UK's daily gas requirements.

The 32-inch Vesterled pipeline, originally built to transport gas from the Frigg field, was extended in 2001 to the Heimdal riser platform in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

This enabled the continued export of existing resources in the Norwegian sector to St Fergus. The pipeline is owned by the Gassled partnership.

It is a consortium of 12 entities which is led by Petoro AS, which manages the Norwegian state's direct financial interest.

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Big-Budget TV Shows Given Large Tax Breaks

The makers of big budget TV shows and animations are being urged to film in the UK and take advantage of 25% tax breaks.

Chancellor George Osborne is pushing for more business from the creative industries in the hope they will help boost the sluggish economy.

Tax incentives for TV shows and animations were launched at the start of this month and a break for video games is also in the pipeline.

Mr Osborne has been personally meeting bosses from companies including Disney and HBO, which films part of Game Of Thrones in Northern Ireland.

On Monday, he spoke at a conference at Bafta's offices in London - organised by the British Film Commission to mark the start of the changes.

He said: "The UK now has one of the most competitive tax regimes for the creative industries.

George Osborne with Warner Bros officials earlier this month

"This is the place to do your new hit TV show, this is the place to do your excellent animation."

TV projects have to have a budget of at least £1m an hour to qualify for the tax break, be deemed British and to spend a minimum of their budget in the UK.

The tax relief is worth 25% of qualifying UK spending and is capped at 80% of the project's total budget.

For animations, productions must include at least 51% animated content and the break does not apply to animations for news, advertising, current affairs or competitions.

The same rules about Britishness and the need for the company involved to fall into the UK's corporation tax net also apply.

The changes come days after the opening of Warner Bros' new £100m studios in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, which is the first in the UK owned by a major Hollywood studio brand.

A report from the London School of Economics found that Warner Bros alone contributes more than £1bn a year to the British economy.

The Treasury says the creative industries are worth £37bn a year and generate £70,000 per minute for the UK economy, employing 1.5m people.

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IMF Warns Asian Economies Of Overheat Risk

The International Monetary Fund has warned about massive capital flows into Asia and urged the region's leaders to guard against overheating economies.

The IMF said it was "carefully" monitoring the situation across a range of countries.

The level of the inflows - which have sent Asian stocks and property prices skyrocketing - are close to or above historical trends in most economies including those in Southeast Asia, the IMF said.

"We are seeing financial pressures - you may call them imbalances, or the risk of imbalances - rising," IMF Asia and Pacific department director Anoop Singh said.

"And because these can worsen quickly, they certainly are being monitored very carefully.

"Therefore the challenge policy-makers face is how to guard against the potential build-up of national imbalances while continuing to deliver appropriate support for growth."

Indonesia's capital Jakarta has boomed with its greatest growth in 15 years

The IMF's warning comes as it launched a regional economic outlook, which maintained projections that they will grow by 5.7% this year.

"Our basic point is that national stability concerns in Asia are generally rising and ... are close to, or above trend in most economies, including in the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region," he said.

"And therefore monetary policy-makers need to be ready to spot early and decisively to emerging risks of overheating."

The IMF did not name any economy at risk of overheating, but stock markets in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand have recently seen steep increases.

Property prices in economies like Hong Kong and Singapore have also been climbing steeply, prompting the governments to introduce cooling measures.

Thailand suffered heavily in the last mass capital outflow, in the 1990s

In its report the IMF said the inflows have generally "not been excessive so far" but could could reach levels difficult to manage.

Large flows of funds from industrialised economies into the region where they can get higher returns, and easy domestic credit due to low interest rates, have pushed asset prices sharply higher.

The warning comes as memories of the great capital outflow from Asia dim.

Thailand, Indonesia and other Asian countries suffered dramatic capital withdrawals in the late 1990s as foreign investors hurriedly sought new havens for funds.

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Banks Face 'Tough' Royal Mail Sale Fee Talks

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Michael Fallon, the business minister, will tonight take another step towards the controversial privatisation of Royal Mail by launching a process to hire banks to handle the share sale.

In a speech at Policy Exchange, the think-tank, Mr Fallon will announce that the Government will issue tender documents for banks to work on an initial public offering (IPO), which would see Royal Mail floated on the London Stock Exchange.

His remarks, which will include a warning to trade unions to engage with the coalition over the privatisation or risk their members missing out on a prospective share windfall, will provide the clearest signal so far about the intention to pursue a share sale this year.

"There has already been press coverage about Government and Royal Mail appointing advisers to take forward a sale," Mr Fallon is expected to say.

"We will soon be issuing a tender for the procurement of a syndicate of banks that, if this is the sale route chosen, will execute a sale of shares."

Mr Fallon is not expected to refer to the fees that investment banks will receive for handling a stock market flotation but insiders said that the Government would be "tough" with external advisers.

"This is the most prestigious mandate handed out by the Government for years," a source close to Royal Mail said. "The bankers who work on it will not be getting rich on the back of this deal."

Lazard and UBS have been advising ministers on preparations for the flotation, but UBS would have to re-tender for a role on the IPO itself under public sector procurement rules.

Last week, Sky News revealed that the banks were courting a number of private equity firms about a deal to buy a stake in Royal Mail if the flotation was not viable.

Mr Fallon will not set out concrete details tonight about the structure of the employee share ownership scheme. These are expected to be made public in the coming weeks.

The minister will attempt to rebut union concerns about the privatisation of Royal Mail by arguing that injecting private capital is not an ideological pursuit but a commercial move that is in the best interests of the company and its staff.

"People should be in no doubt, whether the shares are discounted, or free, it is a hugely significant commitment from the Government to Royal Mail's workers," the Daily Mail claims he will say.

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'Triad Boss' Hacked To Death: Four Held

Four people have been arrested in Hong Kong after a man, thought to be a triad boss, was hacked to death outside a hospital.

The 30-year-old man, with the surname Tse, was struck multiple times with an axe and meat cleaver by two masked men, according to The Standard newspaper.

Reports said he had been nearly disembowelled.

The paper cited a police source as saying he was a senior member of the city's Wo Shing Wo triad society.

Television news footage showed blood splattered on the ground at the scene, along with a yellow-handled axe, walking stick, smartphone and glasses.

"Police officers sped to the scene and found the man lying unconscious on the ground," said a police statement, adding that Tse sustained multiple wounds. He was rushed to hospital but declared dead an hour-and-a-half later.

The arrested men are aged between 18 and 30, police said.

Tse had just seen a doctor in rural Sheung Shui district and was limping with the help of a walking stick when he was attacked, The Standard reported.

Around 100 people thought to be members of the Wo Shing Wo group were seen burning incense and offering prayers at the scene of the killing late on Sunday.

Hong Kong's notorious triads have a hand in extortion rackets, prostitution, drugs and copyright piracy - although violence is rarely seen in tourist areas.

In 2011, three Hong Kong triad members were jailed for life for the grisly murder of a crime boss who was rammed by a vehicle and then hacked to death outside a luxury hotel.

Hong Kong police last August said they had arrested nearly 1,200 people in raids on illegal gambling dens and brothels during a month-long crackdown on triad activities.

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Bees: European Union Forces Pesticides Ban

A Europe-wide ban on pesticides linked to the decline in bee populations is due to be pushed through by the European Union within weeks.

The European Commission is forcing through the temporary move despite a vote in Brussels failing to reach the level required to form a qualified majority.

Some 15 countries backed the change, with Britain among eight opposing it and another four members abstaining.

This is not enough for a qualified majority but the European Commission is using its right to make the final decision, now two votes have failed to clear the hurdle.

It means the use of three of the world's most widely-used pesticides will be restricted.

The decision is a major victory for environmental campaigners who had raised concerns about the dramatic decline in bee populations.

But it is a blow to chemical companies who make billions from selling the pesticides, called neonicotinoids, and to British ministers who have fought a ban.

EU health and consumer commissioner Tonio Borg said: "Since our proposal is based on a number of risks to bee health identified by the European Food Safety Authority, the commission will go ahead with its text in the coming weeks.

"I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem and contribute over 22bn euros (£18.5bn) annually to European agriculture, are protected."

Campaigners backing the ban protesting in London last week

In Britain, the coalition has fiercely resisted any ban on "neonicotinoids" because it argues that the science about the damage to bee levels is inconclusive.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson had called for any decision to be delayed until more studies were completed.

Environmental campaigners were infuriated by the Government's repeated opposition to a ban.

Greenpeace chief scientist Dr Doug Parr accused the British government of "being in the pocket of big chemical companies and the industrial farming lobby".

The organisation has now called for the European Commission to impose the ban for at least two years.

Its EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said: "Those countries opposing a ban have failed.

"Now, the Commission must draw the only conclusion possible and immediately halt the use of these pesticides as a first step to protect European food production and ecosystem."

Friends of the Earth said the vote was a "significant victory for bees and common sense".

Head of campaigns Andrew Pendleton said: "Restricting the use of these pesticides could be an historic milestone on the road to recovery for these crucial pollinators."

Mr Pendleton added that the UK government's lack of support for a ban was "another blow to its environmental credibility".

"Ministers must now help farmers to grow and protect crops, but without relying so heavily on chemicals - especially those linked to bee decline," he said.

Bee numbers have been devastated across Europe in recent years, with a subsequent steep rise in honey prices for consumers.

Major fears have also been raised about pollination problems for trees if bee populations continue to slide.

Last Friday beekeepers and their supporters staged a demonstration in London, urging Britain to support the pesticide ban but it still voted against it.

Hungary joined Britain, but France and Germany were among the 15 supporting nations.

The pesticides suspected of harming bees are chiefly produced by two firms, Bayer of Germany and Sygenta in Switzerland, which is the top player in the global agrichemical market.

The companies have rejected claims that their products are at fault and say studies behind the suggested ban are based on flawed science.

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