Belgium Nuclear Reactors Shut Over Cracks

Two Belgian nuclear reactors may have to be shut down permanently after cracks were found in their core tanks.

Production at the Tihange 2 and Doel 3 sites was halted in March for tests after inspectors discovered irregularities in the strength of the tanks.

State broadcaster VRT has reported that the reactors may not be fired up again in the spring, as scheduled, because of fears over the safety of the reactors.

The sites, owned by GDF-Suex unit Electrabel, were first closed in 2012.

One reactor on the outskirts of Doel is more than 30 years old

The 1,008 MW Tihange 2 reactor in the south of the country was closed for inspection in September of that year.

Tests are continuing on the tanks but interim findings show the cracks have weakened them.

Another reactor, Doel 4, has also been temporarily shut down because of damage to its turbine.

It means than more than half of Belgium's nuclear capacity is currently offline.

Belgian industry regulator FANC forced Electrabel to shut the Doel 3 reactor two years ago over safety fears.

Antwerp announced plans last year to turn expand its port into Doel

FANC's intervention raised the prospect that the then 30-year-old reactor would be shut permanently.

Meanwhile Doel has become a near-ghost town in recent years.

In addition to the nuclear woes, the port of Antwerp announced plans last year to expand facilities into Doel - erasing it from the map.

The Flemish regional government aimed to include the village in one of Europe's largest ports.

Remaining villagers asked the country's highest administrative court to block the planned redevelopment.

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Self-Employment 'Is A Ticking Time Bomb'

The rise of self-employed workers risks a 'pension ticking time bomb' for blue collar workers, a union has warned.

Construction industry union Ucatt told Sky News of its fears as newly-released official figures show the rising number of self-employed people in the UK.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said since early 2008 1.1 million jobs had been created, with two-thirds of those classed as self-employed.

The ONS said in the three months to the end of June, 4.6 million people were self-employed, with the top three jobs blue collar roles.

It said 167,000 were involved in construction and building, 166,000 as taxi drivers and chauffeurs and 144,000 as carpenters and joiners.

It added that the number of self-employed aged 65 and over doubled from 241,000 in 2009 to 428,000 in 2014.

"This is a huge issue for workers because they are falsely labelled self-employed and won't get any pension provision and will retire into poverty," Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy told Sky News.

"Lots of workers don't even realise they are self-employed because the employer says, 'You are working for me,' so they miss out on sick pay, redundancy, holiday pay and pension entitlements.

Ucatt says many workers aren't aware they are technically self-employed

"And because of the heavy nature of the industry a lot will have to carry on working into later life, often in foul weather, without any pension provisions - it is a ticking time bomb."

But the Government insists an increasing number of workers want to be their own boss.

A Department of Works and Pension spokesman said: "Employees have driven the majority of the rise in employment since 2010 and today's figures show that the rise in self-employment is mainly due to fewer people leaving self-employment than in the past."

British Chambers of Commerce chief economist David Kern added: "It is wrong to take a dismissive attitude towards self-employment and regard it as hidden unemployment.

"Many people choose to be self-employed and make a considerable contribution to the economy."

The ONS said 35% of self-employed people normally worked 45 hours or more per week in 2014, compared with 23% of employees.

Official data shows taxi drivers are the second largest self-employed group

It added that 12% of self-employed people usually work 60 hours or more a week, compared with just 5% of employees.

The ONS also revealed that self-employed people are also more likely than employees to work shorter hours.

In addition to pension concerns, tax, accounting and cash flow are major problems, according to the freelance professionals' body PCG.

It told Sky News: "The single biggest obstacle for those in self-employment is the issue of late-payment.

"There is also a lack of information available for people who have the ambition to strike out on their own and start a business.

"With more people choosing self-employment every day, it is vital that advice is readily available on everything from understanding what tax they need to pay through to registering a business at Companies House."

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Carillion Ends Balfour Beatty Merger Chase

Carillion says it is no longer pursuing a merger with Balfour Beatty after the construction firm rejected a third offer.

Carillion, which sweetened its all-share approach on Tuesday, valuing its rival at £2.1bn, said in a statement: "The Board of Balfour Beatty has not agreed to Carillion's proposal or to request an extension to the Put Up or Shut Up deadline which expires at 5pm tomorrow.

"Carillion therefore today announces that it is no loner pursuing such a merger."

Balfour confirmed on Wednesday morning that its board had unanimously opposed the offer made by the engineering specialist, arguing that its own turnaround strategy was a better prospect for Balfour shareholders, who had been consulted.

The latest development was greeted with a deeper slide in its share price in late afternoon trading while Carillion's stock also fell further.

Carillion had said its third offer was equivalent to a 36% premium to the price at which Balfour shares traded before news of the possible merger leaked.

But Balfour cited concerns over Carillion's plans to keep Parsons Brinckerhoff, the US design and engineering firm it wants to sell, and reduce its UK construction business.

The company expects to return £200m to shareholders following the sale of the US arm.

Carillion's statement added that it reserved the right to bring a new offer under the terms of the City code on takeovers and mergers.

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Inflation Drops More Than Expected In July

The two measures of UK inflation have dropped more than expected in July, prompted by discounting on the high street.

According to official data, the Retail Prices Index (RPI) stood at 2.5% and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was 1.6%.

Economists had expected a CPI rate of around 1.8%, after official figures showed a June rate of 1.9%.

CPI now appears to be headed back towards May's figure of 1.5%, which at the time was the lowest level for four-and-a-half years.

Inflation has been below the Bank of England (BoE) 2% target for seven straight months - the first time this has occurred since 2005.

The RPI, which unlike the other measure includes housing costs, was recorded in June at 2.6%.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the biggest contributor to the slowing annual inflation rate was discounting on the high street for clothing and footwear.

This was because retailers held off on price cuts throughout June.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks also fell year-on-year, and the CPI was also eased by falling spirits and wine prices.

The ONS said the average house price in London is now £499,000

Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told Sky News: "The fact that inflation has been below the Bank of England target for seven consecutive months shows that subdued inflation is now becoming the norm as the economy recovers.

"Eliminating the deficit fairly, and repairing the UK economy remains central to the role of Liberal Democrats in Government.

"These encouraging inflation numbers should give businesses the confidence they need to deliver the investment required to boost productivity. Rising productivity is the only route to sustainable increases in living standards."

The data comes as commuters learned they would face a 3.5% increase in rail fares next year, which uses the RPI figure plus 1% to calculate increases.

The further drop to the CPI eases pressure on the BoE to hike the 0.5% base rate, which has been at its historic low for the last five years.

Meanwhile, the ONS said UK house prices increased by 10.2% in the year to June, reaching a new high average price of £265,000.

House prices in the capital, however, shot up by 19.3% in the year to June.

It calculated the average house price in London at £499,000, and said that "house prices are increasing strongly across most parts of the UK".

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Twitter 'To Remove Gory Photos Of Death'

Twitter has said it will remove images and videos of dead people at the request of immediate family members.

In a crackdown on gory and upsetting photographs on the service, Twitter said it would consider removing images of deceased individuals taken "from when critical injury occurs to the moments before or after death".

However, it said it would take into account the public interest of any content and warned that it may not comply with all requests.

On Tuesday, following the beheading of American journalist James Foley, the White House contacted social networks asking them to remove videos of his death.

Twitter declined to say whether it had also had a request from Mr Foley's family.

But Google's former public policy chief Andrew McLaughlin warned the photos could have an important news value.

Robin Williams and his daughter Zelda

He told the Washington Post: "You can imagine that if you're a family member of this person, by all means you would want the horrific photos of their moment of death taken offline.

"But … the photos are obviously newsworthy.

"It's awful that these photos were taken, and it's awful that this moment happened, but their very existence is news.

"It's the sort of thing that moves history."

The policy change comes a week after Robin Williams' daughter Zelda abandoned her Twitter account over gruesome digitally altered images of her father.

Twitter's vice president of trust and safety Del Harvey said: "We will not tolerate abuse of this nature on Twitter.

"We have suspended a number of accounts related to this issue for violating our rules and we are in the process of evaluating how we can further improve our policies to better handle tragic situations like this one.

"This includes expanding our policies regarding self-harm and private information, and improving support for family members of deceased users."

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Standard Chartered Fined $300m For Lax Controls

UK-based Standard Chartered bank is to pay $300m (£180m) to US regulators over its failure to improve anti-money laundering provisions and stop financial crime.

The agreement with New York's Department of Financial Services (DFS) follows the bank's agreement two years ago to improve compliance.

As a result, Standard Chartered will suspend dollar exchanges through its New York branch for high-risk retail business clients at its SCB Hong Kong subsidiary.

"If a bank fails to live up to its commitments, there should be consequences," DFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said.

Although based in London, the bank's primary areas of operation are in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The bank will now close accounts for some businesses in Dubai and the UAE

After the announcement the bank released a statement about the settlement.

"The group accepts responsibility for and regrets the deficiencies in the anti-money laundering transaction surveillance system at its New York branch," it said.

"The group has already begun extensive remediation efforts and is committed to completing these with utmost urgency.

"More broadly, the group is committed to enhancing its effectiveness in the fight against financial crime, and in this context, has committed substantial resources to a multi-year financial crime risk mitigation programme."

Officials said the independent surveillance system established in 2012 at its New York branch failed to detect many potentially high-risk transactions for closer analysis.

Iran was hit with sanctions over its suspect nuclear programme

They said a significant number originated from branches in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which includes the commercial hub of Dubai.

In 2012 the bank was fined $667m (£400m) by US regulators for breaking sanctions on Iran by hiding transactions worth up to $250bn (£150bn).

It will now terminate client accounts with a number of small and medium-sized businesses in the UAE.

The bank said it was continuing to fix its compliance systems and would work with the small proportion of clients affected in Hong Kong and the UAE to minimise disruption.

It has agreed to extend surveillance of its New York branch and allow independent monitoring for another two years.

Just weeks ago the bank warned it was at risk of another US penalty, as it saw a profit drop of a fifth in its half-year profit.

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Ministers Face New Royal Mail Sell-Off Row

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Ministers considered selling the Government's entire stake in Royal Mail when the shares were trading close to their post-privatisation peak earlier this year - but decided against doing so because it risked antagonising City investors.

Sky News has learnt that Vince Cable's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Shareholder Executive - which oversees state-owned assets - discussed the sale of taxpayers' remaining 30% stake in Royal Mail in March, five months after it listed on the stock market.

By deciding not to press ahead, ministers effectively forfeited a further £500m gain for the public purse.

The disclosure risks reigniting the row over Royal Mail's controversial sell-off, with Mr Cable accused by MPs on the BIS Select Committee and the National Audit Office of costing taxpayers £1bn by pricing the shares too cheaply last autumn.

At the time the sale of taxpayers' remaining 30% shareholding was discussed in mid-March, the postal operator's shares were trading at around 590p, meaning that a sale would have generated close to £1.8bn.

Selling the shares at that point would have entailed breaking a lock-up agreement put in place at the time of the company's initial public offering (IPO) last October, under which the Government pledged not to sell any further shares for at least 180 days.

However, such lock-ups include scope for exemptions with the consent of the underwriting banks and are frequently broken by listed companies, meaning it would have been possible for ministers to sanction the early sale of the shares.

Critics argue that alienating institutional investors should not have been a preoccupation for ministers after some of the so-called 'priority investors' allocated shares during the privatisation sold them almost immediately, despite having been identified as long-term shareholders.

By the time the lock-up agreement expired on April 13, Royal Mail shares had fallen by approximately 20% from their mid-March level to around 490p.

With the shares having declined since then by a further 11%, ministers risk being accused of sacrificing a potential £500m gain by not having sold the 30% shareholding when it was under active consideration.

In a statement, a BIS spokesperson said: "Ministers receive regular advice on Government shareholdings of which Royal Mail is one.

"As is standard market practice, Government gave a commitment at the time of the IPO not to sell any further shares for 180 days post admission to the [London Stock Exchange] in order to provide the company with greater stability.

"The Secretary of State was never advised to break this lock-up period."

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, said the disclosure offered further evidence that the privatisation of Royal Mail had been "botched".

 "The handling of this since they bungled the IPO has been characterised by incompetence and attempted buck passing that will fool no-one," he said.

The sale of the Government's remaining Royal Mail shares is now considered unlikely before the General Election next May.

Sky News has also learnt that Labour is expected to include a commitment to retain the stake in its election manifesto.

The issue was discussed at the Party's recent National Policy Forum and will be debated at its autumn conference next month.

"The Tories have put the future of the postal service at risk. They pressed ahead with an unnecessary fire sale of Royal Mail, in the process short-changing taxpayers by hundreds of millions of pounds," a Labour spokesman said.

"As part of Labour's commitment to ensuring that the public interest in Royal Mail is upheld, the National Policy Forum discussed how Labour will commit to keeping the remaining stake in public ownership.

"These proposals will be discussed at Annual Conference as part of Labour's priority to safeguard the services consumers and businesses get from a privatised Royal Mail."

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Argentina's New Law To Dodge Debt Default

Argentina has unveiled new legislation aimed at skirting a US ruling, after it defaulted on payments to large hedge funds.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner unveiled a plan that seeks to push bondholders to swap defaulted debt for new notes governed by Argentine law.

Last month the South American country entered default status after a New York court blocked an interest payment of $539m owed to holders of debt issued under US legislation.

That deal was based on a restructure agreement after the country's record 2002 default.

The American ruling, which was slammed by Argentina, could not proceed with that payment until it had also settled on repayment terms with other hedge funds that demanded payment in full.

Ms Fernandez, who previously called the hedge funds "vultures", had insisted Argentina was not in default and called the US court rulings as an attack on Argentine sovereignty.

The new draft legislation is now seen as an attempt to bring Argentina's debt management back under its full control.

She said: "If bondholders decide - in individual or collective form - to ask for a change of the legislation and jurisdiction of their bonds ... the economy ministry is authorised to implement a swap for new public bonds under local legislation."

The new plan thwarts any possible negotiation with the hedge funds which have avoided reaching a default agreement.

A prolonged debt crisis is seen deepening the country's economic recession, weakening the ailing currency and sapping thin foreign currency reserves.

Usually strong on rhetoric, Argentina's president appeared on the verge of tears as she made the announcement on national television.

She said: "Excuse me if I get a little nervous, I usually have more poise.

"However, I really feel that we are living a moment of great injustice in Argentina."

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Two BoE Members Wanted Interest Rate Rise

Looking Into the Interest Rate Crystal Ball

Updated: 12:43pm UK, Wednesday 20 August 2014

By Ian King, Business Presenter

It is certainly dramatic news, on the face of it, that two members of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have voted to raise interest rates.

After all, no MPC member has voted to tighten monetary policy since July 2011.

Yet the development is not as startling as it might have seemed. Many market commentators had been speculating, in advance of the minutes being published at 9.30am on Wednesday, that this would be the month in which the MPC's unanimity finally disappeared.

That the two MPC members who did vote to raise Bank rate were Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty also came as no surprise.

The hugely respected Mr Weale, in particular, is a fiercely independent soul. For example, he was a dissenting voice when the Bank, under its then-new Governor Mark Carney, introduced a policy of 'forward guidance' last year.

Moreover, as recently as June, Mr Weale gave a speech during which he indicated that he thought there was less slack in the economy - the key measure that Mr Carney has said will now guide interest rate policy - than the 1% to 1.5%of GDP that the Bank's quarterly inflation report in May was suggesting.

Since then, there has been further evidence that slack in the economy has fallen away, most notably with the continued fall in unemployment at a rate that continues to surprise.

Mr Weale has also previously indicated that he favours raising the Bank rate this year because - as he stated in an interview with Sky News in February this year - it would be difficult to do so during the run-up to the General Election.

So his vote ought to have come as no shock.

Mr McCafferty, meanwhile, also nailed his colours to the mast during a speech in June in which he said that an early rise in interest rates would enable the MPC to move more gradually and in a way that would minimise disruption to households and businesses.

So his vote should really be no surprise either.

What will confuse some, though, is that details of the vote come just days after the Bank's latest quarterly inflation report struck a markedly more dovish tone.

This is not the first time that the MPC minutes have appeared to be at odds with the way in which Mr Carney has presented the inflation report.

The big question households and businesses will now be asking is whether this makes an early rise in Bank rate more likely. The answer is - only slightly.

There is an outside chance that the committee will raise the base rate before Christmas - November would be the likeliest month as Mr Carney would then be able to explain the move at that month's quarterly inflation report press conference - but more likely is that the MPC will wait until February next year.

These latest minutes note that, for most MPC members, there is "insufficient evidence of inflationary pressures to justify an immediate rise in Bank rate".

And that was before the latest figures published on Tuesday showed Consumer Price Index of inflation falling from 1.9% to 1.6% and further away from the Bank's 2% target rate.

Inflation is likely to remain benign in coming months and not least because of the current softness in oil prices.

So a rise in Bank rate early next year, rather than this side of Christmas, remains the way to bet.

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Carlsberg Goes Flat As Russian Sanctions Hit

Carlsberg has issued a profit warning after sanctions against Moscow hit its vast Russian lager market.

The Danish brewer currently controls 38% of the lager sector in Russia, and said it expects a further deterioration in sales as the year progresses.

It said its eastern European markets are "increasingly challenging and uncertain," with consumption declines likely in both Russia and Ukraine.

The warning from the world's fourth biggest brewer comes as it revealed its second-quarter results.

It said net profit grew slightly to 2.2bn kroner (£23.6m), up from 2.1bn kroner in the same period a year ago.

It saw revenue increase slightly from 19.2bn kroner (£2.06bn) for the three months ending June 30, from 19.06bn last year.

Rival Heineken said it had been boosted by sales during the World Cup

It said the full-year net profit was expected "to decline by mid- to high-single-digit percentages".

The Danish warning comes as Dutch rival Heineken saw its half-year pre-tax profit up 9%, boosted by football World Cup sales.

Heineken is the world's third biggest brewer and expects sales to remain strong for the rest of 2014.

Earlier this week the European Commission said it would offer compensation for EU fruit and vegetable producers after Russia banned imports, in retaliation to EU-US asset freezes against Kremlin insiders.

The tit-for-tat economic actions were prompted by western claims that Russia was stoking a separatist rebellion in the eastern portion of Ukraine.

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