China Solar Panel Firm 'In Bond Default'

China has suffered what has been called its first corporate bond default, as the government tries to make its financial system more market-orientated.

A Shanghai-based manufacturer of solar panels paid only part of the 90 million yuan (£9m) in interest due on Friday for bonds issued in 2012.

Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology had earlier warned it would struggle to make the payment.

According to two bondholders hit by the default, only 3% of the due amount was paid.

The solar industry has been heavily criticised in the past for levels of state subsidies.

Competitor nations including the United States, and Germany - Europe's largest solar user - have been vociferous critics of Chinese state support in the sector.

Manufacturers in the US and Germany have struggled as cheaper Chinese panels flooded their markets.

Beijing has previously bailed out troubled companies in an attempt to maintain confidence in its credit markets.

However the ruling Communist Party has promised to make the domestic market more productive and competitive.

Chinese citizens have complained that bailouts have not encouraged a need for risk aversion by big businesses.

Legal representatives for the bondholders hit by the default said they would pursue the money owed.

Lawyer Gan Guolong said: "The default today is already an established fact. We will definitely help recover bondholders' interests through relevant legal action."

A commentary published by the official Xinhua news agency hinted that government policy over defaults was hardening.

"The episode should help reduce the moral hazard caused by the widespread assumption that an almighty government will always bail out underwater investments with taxpayers' money," Xinhua said.

"That, after all, is the market playing its own decisive role."

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US Jobs Up As Part-Time Work Hits New Record

The number of new jobs in the United States accelerated in February, as the number of part-time workers in the month reached an all-time high.

The rise of 175,000 jobs helped ease fears of an economic slowdown.

The dollar rose sharply on the news and the Federal Reserve is now expected to continue tapering its quantitative easing stimulus package.

The US Labor Department said the 35% job jump comes on the back of 129,000 new positions in January.

The unemployment rate, however, rose 0.1% to 6.7%. The previous figure was at a five-year low.

"This bodes well for the economy since there were massive head winds," Adam Sarhan, chief executive at Sarhan Capital in New York, said.

"This report plays perfectly into the Fed's script of tapering."

US shares opened higher on the data. The British pound dropped at first against the dollar before recovering.

The dollar also hit a six-week high against the yen.

Analysts had expected harsher figures as snow and ice hampered economic activity across swathes of the US.

Economists had expected non-farm payroll numbers rising by only 149,000 jobs.

Revised figures for December and January were also released, showing 25,000 more jobs being created in that period than previously thought.

Last month's weather did impact average working hours, with February being the lowest level since January 2011.

Economists now expect a reversal once the weather improves.

A smaller survey of households, from which the unemployment rate is derived, showed that 6.9 million people with jobs reported they were working part-time.

That was the highest reading for February since the series started in 1978.

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TV Licence Dodgers May Not Be Prosecuted

TV licence dodgers may no longer face prosecution in the courts under new plans being considered by the Government.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling says "serious work" on the plan is under way, with more than 100 cross-party MPs in support.

"The Culture Secretary (Maria Miller) and I both agree that this is a really interesting idea, particularly given the pressure on our courts system," Mr Grayling told The Daily Telegraph.

"Our departments will be doing some serious work on the proposal."

Efforts to change the law are being spearheaded by Tory MP Andrew Bridgen.

He said that for some cash-strapped families, the current law was "criminalising them for being poor".

"It is outrageous that so many people are brought into the criminal justice system through this means. I believe that non-payment should be treated in the way that parking tickets are," Mr Bridgen told the newspaper.

"It is absurd that the courts are being clogged up by such a minor offence."

Offenders currently face a £1,000 fine and a criminal record, as well as possible time in jail if fines are not paid.

Some 180,000 people faced magistrates last year after being accused of not paying the £145.50 fee, accounting for in excess of one in 10 of all criminal prosecutions.

Of those, 155,000 people were convicted and fined.

The proposed changes could see dodging payment of the TV licence become a civil matter, with a fine set by the Government.

A BBC spokesman said: "Legislation is a matter for the Government. However, changing the law could lead to higher evasion. Just a 1% increase in evasion would lead to the loss of around £35m, the equivalent of around 10 BBC Local Radio stations."

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'Bitcoin Founder' Denies Role Amid Tax Threat

A man tracked down to a modest suburban home in California has denied being the founder of Bitcoin, following a media report naming him.

Newsweek claimed a 64-year-old Japanese-American physicist was the mysterious 'Satoshi Nakamoto' behind the virtual currency.

But the man, who was mobbed outside his house after the report appeared, said he was misunderstood when approached by the publication.

"It sounded like I was involved before with Bitcoin and looked like I'm not involved now. That's not what I meant. I want to clarify that," the man who identified himself as Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, told the Associated Press.

But the magazine stood by its story and said his career included classified work for the US government as a systems engineer.

The modest home of the alleged Bitcoin founder

It also insisted that he initially hinted of his role in the crypto-currency, that has unsettled the banking sector and frustrated governments.

His denial came just hours before the the Japanese government said Bitcoin was not a currency but it should be "subject to taxation".

Tokyo said banks would not be allowed to deal in Bitcoin transactions or allow accounts in the virtual wealth transfer vehicle.

It was launched five years ago and is generated by complex chains of connected computers around the world.

Japan said Bitcoin was not defined in law but added that if transactions were used for money laundering "that would constitute a crime".

Police are investigating the death of a Bitcoin exchange CEO, Autumn Radtke

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said: "As a matter of common sense, if there are transactions and subsequent gains, it is natural ... for the finance ministry to consider how it can impose taxes."

The move comes just days after police confirmed they were investigating the "unnatural death" of a Bitcoin exchange chief executive.

Autumn Radtke, 28, an American, was found dead at the base of a Singapore apartment block on February 26.

Officers said it is unclear how the boss of First Meta died, but ruled out foul play amid unconfirmed reports linking her with depression.

Last month, one of the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges filed for bankruptcy protection as it admitted hackers may have stolen all of its digital currency.

Japan's Mt Gox filed for bankruptcy which saw investors protest the closure

Mt Gox revealed 850,000 Bitcoins worth about £286m were unaccounted for following cyber attacks, and said it has 127,000 creditors.

Chief executive Mark Karpeles blamed a weakness in the exchange's computer system for the massive loss, which included 750,000 users' coins and 100,000 of its own.

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Coastal Areas Bid For £64m Storm Relief Fund

By Becky Johnson, North of England Correspondent

Coastal communities affected by flooding will be able to bid for a share of a £64m fund.

The Government has said projects to strengthen flood defences will be prioritised.

The fund was originally set up to ensure investment was made in seaside towns and villages, reduce unemployment and create apprenticeships and job opportunities for young people.

During the series of winter storms many coastal communities with already fragile economies have taken a battering both physically and financially.

In Aberystwyth, in west Wales, where the Victorian promenade was badly damaged as high tides and high winds combined to create the worst storms in living memory, the race is on to repair the seafront in time for the start of the tourist season at Easter.

The damaged rail line at Dawlish, in Exeter

Richard Griffiths who owns the Richmond Hotel on the seafront, describes how the waves broke over the promenade and through a sea wall before pummelling the front of his hotel.

He told Sky News investment in stronger defences will be essential to prevent future storms causing similar damage because tourism is a major source of income in the town.

"It's vital for the local economy that Aberystwyth is up and running. It is key to the whole area," he said.

The Government has announced that in England £17m is being allocated to flood hit areas including Great Yarmouth, Weymouth, Devon and North Tyneside.

New projects to help boost tourism across the UK include £170,000 to develop the Arran Coastal Way in Scotland, £270,000 to develop Northern Ireland's first lobster hatchery and £100,000 is being spent on a new water sports centre in Colwyn Bay in Wales.

Residents battle floodwater in Tirley, Gloucestershire

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, said: "The Coastal Communities Fund allows us to help communities across the UK to rebuild and regenerate their local economy, with projects this year supporting nearly 4,000 jobs and 1,000 training places.

"This is even more important given the extreme weather and I'm very pleased we're giving £17m of the fund to projects in areas hit by floods.

"Additionally, we have invested £5m from the fund's reserve into the government's programme for flood recovery."

But one expert has told Sky News that if, as he expects, we will see more frequent storms on the scale of those seen over the winter some communities may not withstand the damage.

Dr Stephen Tooth is a geography lecturer at Aberystwyth University. He has studied erosion and says it will be impossible to protect all coastal areas. 

He told Sky News: "There are some very difficult social and political decisions to be made here as to what we value and wish to defend. It's certainly not the case that you can protect everywhere. 

"Tough decisions are going to have to be made at various levels as to where the investment is going to be to protect our coastline, but I think there is tacit acknowledgement that we can't defend everywhere and to some extent, some sections of coastline are going to have to be allowed to erode."

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Birmingham City Owner Carson Yeung Jailed

The owner of Birmingham City football club, Carson Yeung, has been sentenced to six years in jail for money laundering.

Judge Douglas Yau handed down the sentence in a Hong Kong court after convicting the 54-year-old of five charges linked to the laundering of $93m (£55.6m).

Lawyers for the former hairdresser earlier said they were expecting a "significant" jail sentence.

He had faced up to seven years' imprisonment.

Lead defence lawyer Graham Harris told the judge that Yeung, who built a business empire from hair salons, fertiliser and property, "came from rags to riches, and he's likely to return to rags".             

The Chinese businessman took control of Birmingham City in 2009

Pleading for a light sentence, Mr Harris said there had been "no subterfuge" in Yeung's dealings, as the accounts in question were held in his own name and his father's.

Yeung was a generous philanthropist and head of a young family, with two children aged under three as well as a 19-year-old son, the lawyer said.

Before his emergence in English football, the businessman was little known in Britain.

He took control of Birmingham City in 2009 in an £81m takeover from David Sullivan and David Gold, now the co-owners of West Ham.

Throughout the trial, Yeung and the prosecution painted differing pictures of how the tycoon amassed his fortune.

The prosecution said the millions of pounds that passed through the five accounts came from "unknown parties without any apparent reason".

Yeung insisted he had accumulated his money through share trading, upmarket hair salons and business ventures in mainland China, as well as investing in casinos in Macau.

He also said he made up to £2.3m from gambling in Macau, adding that he gambled as if he were "running a business".

It emerged during the trial that his business dealings included transactions with businessman Cheung Chi-tai, who has links to the Macau casino industry.

Sentencing Yeung on Monday, Yau said any "right-thinking" person would conclude transactions between the pair were "proceeds of an indictable offence".

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Lloyds Commits To Credit Unions Amid Pay Row

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group will make a series of pledges on Wednesday aimed at combating financial exclusion, even as the industry runs headlong into another pay row.

Sky News understands that Lloyds will announce as part of its annual report that it will contribute an additional £1m annually to supporting credit unions, an increasingly popular form of alternative finance.

The commitment to credit unions, which the Government hopes will reduce the reliance on payday lenders of millions of Britons, will be one of dozens made by Lloyds under the slogan 'Helping Britain Prosper', launched by the bank's chief executive last month.

Sources said that Antonio Horta-Osorio would also promise to provide at least one in four so-called basic bank accounts, in line with its share of the broader current account market.

Other commitments would include employing a specific number of apprentices as Lloyds positions itself for a full return to private sector ownership later this year, they added.

Last month, the bank, which is 33%-owned by taxpayers, said it would employ women in 40% of its top 5,000 jobs within six years, while increasing net lending to small businesses and a host of other stakeholder-friendly measures.

Although the scale of some of the commitments is modest in the context of Lloyds' size, the bank hopes that they will convince politicians and the public that it is serious about changing its image.

The publication of Lloyds' annual report will include its remuneration report, which will show that the number of employees paid more than £1m in 2013 rose from 25 staff the year before.

The most toxic publicity, however, is likely to be reserved for Barclays, which also plans to release its annual report on Wednesday.

Barclays will say that it also increased substantially the number of millionaires on its payroll in 2013, as well as setting out the details of substantial pay hikes for Antony Jenkins, chief executive, and other senior risk-takers.

Lloyds and Barclays declined to comment.

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Standard Chartered To Slash Chief's Bonus

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Standard Chartered, the emerging markets bank, will reveal on Wednesday that it is slashing its bonus pool and its boss's payout as it bids to stave off the kind of row with investors that has hit rivals such as Barclays.

Sky News has learnt that Standard Chartered will announce alongside its annual results that it is paying roughly $1.2bn (£720m) in bonuses for 2013, down from $1.4bn (£840m) the year before.

The percentage fall in bonuses is substantially higher than the decline in the bank's profits for the year, reflecting its desire to demonstrate pay restraint, a source close to Standard Chartered's board said on Tuesday.

Peter Sands, the bank's chief executive, will see his bonus cut by a bigger margin than the reduction in the overall pool, according to a source.

StanChart is Liverpool's shirt sponsor

His £2m payout for 2012 had been reduced to not much more than £1m to reflect "a challenging year" for the bank, which sponsors Premier League side Liverpool, they added.

While a comparison with Barclays is unlikely to be explicitly drawn by Standard Chartered, the source said Mr Sands and Sir John Peace, its chairman, were keen to avoid the publicity over pay which had damaged its UK-based rival.

Last month, Barclays increased its bonus pool for 2013 to £2.4bn despite a slump in profits, a move which has sparked fury from a number of leading City investors.

Standard Chartered has been a darling of the stock market for many years, with its presence in Africa, Asia and Latin America underpinning a decade-long unbroken run of record profits.

That performance will come to an end on Wednesday when it is expected by City analysts to report a fall in earnings of about 6% to just over $7bn (£4.2bn).

The bank's shares have suffered recently as a consequence of City speculation about a dividend cut and rights issue, as well as broader concerns about the volatility of emerging market economies.

Standard Chartered plans to use Wednesday's results announcement to address speculation about its capital position, an insider said.

The bank is understood to be frustrated about what it perceives to be a lack of explicit guidance from the Prudential Regulation Authority, the UK banking regulator, about its future capital requirements.

Standard Chartered, which is in the process of selling a number of assets in markets such as Lebanon and South Korea, declined to comment.

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China Goes For Green Amid Slower Growth

China has moved to reduce the pace of investment to the slowest in a decade, as it seeks a more sustainable and 'greener' expansion programme.

Leaders of the world's second biggest economy have given the strongest hint of reversing the goal of greater economic growth.

It also promised to wage a 'war' on pollution, which has blighted large swathes of the country amid rapid industrialisation.

In an annual parliament meeting, Premier Li Keqiang said his country's goal was to expand the economy by 7.5%.

Delivering the message in a State of the Union style address, he stressed that growth would not halt planned reforms.

Mr Li, China's first premier with an economics doctorate, said the country would pursue reforms from the environment to the financial sector.

His measured language comes after more than two decades of double digit growth.

Although it has improved economic standing for millions of workers, it has left an unenviable legacy, reminiscent of Britain's industrial revolution.

Air and water pollution have become politically sensitive issues, formenting unrest, and it is saddled with ominous debt levels.

Premier Li Keqiang has impressive economic credentials

"Reform is the top priority for the government," Mr Li told around 3,000 select delegates of the National People's Congress- seen as a rubber stamp for the ruling Communist Party.

"We must have the mettle to fight on and break mental shackles to deepen reforms on all fronts."

He added that idle factories would close, more private investment promoted and an environmental tax plan accelerated.

The aim is to encourage more balance and a greener ethos in the economy, Mr Li said.

To aid the transformation, China's economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, said there would be 17.5% growth in fixed-asset investment this year, the slowest in 12 years.

Investment is the largest driver of China's economy and accounted for over half of last year's 7.7% growth.

At a plenum meeting last November, China announced ambitious reforms from investment- and export-fuelled growth towards a slower sustained expansion.

The new pledge signals that the plan continues, albeit with caution.

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Holidaymakers Warned Over Online Scams

By Tadhg Enright, Sky News Correspondent

Police have warned holidaymakers to be wary of online booking scams after £7m was stolen by fraudsters last year.

A total of 4,500 cases of booking fraud were reported to police in 2013, with almost a third of cases involving consumers paying for holiday villas and apartments that did not exist.

A report by fraud investigators from The City of London Police said the other most common scams included fake airline tickets and some package holidays to sporting events and religious pilgrimages.

Detective Superintendent Pete O'Doherty said: "The internet has changed the way we look for and book our holidays.

"Unfortunately it is also enabling fraudsters, using online offers of villas, hotels and flights that simply don't exist or promising bookings that are never made, to prey upon those looking for that perfect break."

Laura and Seán Parks told Sky News about their ordeal after they were scammed while trying to book a Valentine's Day break while Seán, a soldier, was home on leave from Afghanistan.

Having seen an online advertisement for log cabins near Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands she was duped into paying £400 into the fraudster's bank account - only to find upon arrival that the cabins did not exist.

Seán said that booking service appeared to be legitimate: "The website looked 100%. Everything else, the invoices, they all looked genuine."

Laura added: "He was using a booking company, wasn't he? And I contacted the booking company to ask if they were aware of any of this and they weren't.

"But you have no reason to doubt anything when you have invoices coming through, and you're paying into a bank account."

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, the travel industry body the Association of British Travel Agents and the Get Safe Online campaign have urged consumers to be wary and prepared the following advice:

• Do your research: Do not just rely on one review, do a thorough online search to ensure the company's credentials. If a company is defrauding people there is a good chance consumers will post details of their experiences, and warnings about the company, online.

• Use your instincts: If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

• Pay safe: Never pay directly into an owner's bank account. Paying by direct bank transfer is like paying by cash and the money cannot be traced and is not refundable. Where possible, pay by credit card or a debit card that offers protection.

ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: "Fraudsters are conning unsuspecting holidaymakers and travellers out of thousands of pounds each year - leaving them out of pocket or stranded with nowhere to stay through fake websites, false advertising, bogus phone calls and email scams."

Get Safe Online chief executive Tony Neate said it was vital for holidaymakers to do their research before booking.

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