Virgin EMI Record Label Launched by Universal

Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Sir Elton John and Emeli Sande are being brought together on a newly-launched UK record label.

Virgin EMI will become the home for artists already signed up to Mercury and Virgin Records.

The move was announced by parent company Universal Music, which owns both the labels after last year's purchase of EMI for £1.2bn.

It marks a significant shake-up for the music business with Universal's UK boss David Joseph calling the new label a "creative powerhouse for the UK music industry".

Under the deal, both Virgin and EMI will operate with different marketing and A&R (artists and repertoire) sections - a move that "secures the future of the historic EMI name in the UK", according to a statement.

Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Arcade Fire and Chase & Status are a few more of the international artists who will now be on the Virgin EMI line-up.

Virgin's boss Ted Cockle will head up the new company, which takes its place alongside Island, Polydor and Decca as one of Universal Music's biggest UK labels. 

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HSBC Faces Fresh Money Laundering Probe

HSBC is facing fresh allegations of money laundering in the wake of its £1.2bn penalty to settle similar claims last year.

Argentina's government announced overnight it was also accusing the London-listed bank of facilitating tax evasion through the creation of an illegal scheme that enabled clients to hide more than £50m.

The country's tax chief Ricardo Echegaray claimed that the scheme, set up by HSBC's Argentina subsidiary, was tapped by a criminal organisation and fake receipts were used to launder money for various companies.

He said: "They evaded taxes and laundered money through the purchase of fake receipts that were later used to justify the issuance of cheques whose amounts were deposited under a generic tax identification number."

Mr Echegaray claimed that HSBC never informed the tax authorities about the alleged scheme and he named three companies which he said had created "phantom operations" to launder cheques and evade tax through it.

The bank's Latin America spokeswoman, Lyssette Bravo, issued a statement that did not deny the accusations and promised to co-operate.

She said: "HSBC takes compliance with the law, wherever it operates, very seriously and strongly supports the efforts of governments and regulators to detect unlawful activity and take appropriate action."

Last year, HSBC paid nearly $2bn (£1.2bn) to settle a money-laundering case involving illicit drug money from Mexico brought by US officials.

The bank's head of compliance resigned from his position and apologised to Senate investigators after it was found HSBC had lax controls that exposed it to money-laundering and potential terrorist financing.

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Energy Costs Push Inflation To 9-Month High

Rising energy and petrol bills combined to push inflation to a nine-month high in February, tightening the household spending squeeze.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) measured the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) at an annual rate of 2.8% in February, up 0.1% on the previous month and in line with economists' forecasts.

The ONS said the increase was also driven by higher video game and photographic equipment costs.

Higher energy bills saw housing costs rise 0.5% between January and February, while transport prices rose 1.2% due to a 4p-a-litre surge in the cost of petrol and 9% increase in air fares.

CPI continues to outstrip wage growth in the UK and the gap is expected to widen as experts predict inflation will top 3% by the summer.

The Treasury shrugged off the increase, insisting it was "in line with market expectations and down by almost a half from its peak of 5.2%."

But there are signs of even further inflationary pressure in the economy as the weaker pound leads to higher oil import costs.

Just last month, the Bank of England forecast that CPI inflation would remain above its 2% target into 2016, pushed up by higher energy and university tuition prices.

The latest inflation figures also cast doubt on the bank's ability to pump more money into the flat-lining economy through its quantitative easing programme.

We learn on Wednesday whether out-going governor, Sir Mervyn King, voted again to extend QE by a further £25bn when the minutes of this month's meeting of the monetary policy committee (MPC) are released.

In February, the MPC voted 6-3 against further stimulus.

Commenting on the rise in inflation, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady called for action from the Chancellor George Osborne: "Workers are suffering a double whammy of rising prices and stagnating wages.

"Ministers once reassured us that the recovery would be on track by now. Instead the squeeze on people's pay is getting even tighter.

"A boost to living standards is urgently needed in tomorrow's Budget, particularly with yet more welfare cuts due to kick in next month."

:: The Retail Prices Index (RPI), which also includes housing costs, dropped to 3.2% in February from 3.3% in January as food inflation eased slightly.

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Ryanair's Boeing Order 'To Create 3,000 Jobs'

Ryanair has revealed plans to buy around 175 passenger planes from US aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

The Dublin-based airline said its purchase of the 737-800 planes would create more than 3,000 new jobs across Europe.

Around 75 of the new aircraft will replace some of Ryanair's existing fleet of 737s - the plane known as the "workhorse of the skies".

The deal - which needs to be approved by Ryanair's shareholders - is expected to be worth around $15.6bn (£10.3bn) at current prices

The order is Boeing's largest to date in 2013, and comes as the company struggles following the grounding of its 787 Dreamliner planes due to technical faults.

Last week, the US company unveiled modifications to its 787 batteries and assured passengers that the plane will be airborne within weeks.

The airline's chief executive Michael O'Leary and the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Ray Conner, signed the agreement in New York.

Mr O'Leary said he was pleased with the deal, which will allow Ryanair to grow its airline service by around 5% per annum over the next several years.

"Ryanair is proud to buy Boeing, who have always made great aircraft and the 737-800 has been the cornerstone of Ryanair's success due to its great engineering and phenomenal reliability," he said.

"These 175 new airplanes will enable us to lower cost and airfares even further."

The announcement comes a day after European aviation giant Airbus - Boeing's rival - announced a record order worth 18.4bn euros (£15.7bn) from Indonesia's Lion Air for 234 medium-range A320 jets.

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Nuisance Phone Calls: Which? Demands Action

Campaigners have demanded tougher regulation to clamp down on companies who plague people with unwanted phone calls and nuisance text messages.

Consumer group Which? found seven out of 10 consumers had been cold-called in the last three months, while two-fifths had received unsolicited texts.

The majority of calls and messages came from claims management companies (CMCs) offering to take up payment protection insurance (PPI) and personal injury cases.

Which? urged regulators including Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to set up a joint taskforce to pull the plug on "intrusive and distressing" calls and texts.

It said offenders should receive fines and be put out of business.

"Unwanted calls or texts are not just a nuisance, they can be intrusive and distressing," executive director Richard Lloyd said.

"Many of us have been bombarded with spurious claims of PPI or injury compensation. People are telling us they are totally fed up with this nuisance and want to see action.

"Our research once again shows the behaviour of unscrupulous claims management companies must be tackled to stop them exploiting consumers who could claim compensation for free themselves.

"We want to see tougher regulation from the Government to clean up the CMC industry."

Which? said that a quarter of its members who made a claim on their car insurance were contacted by a CMC within three months.

Many of them were then bombarded by repeated messages. More than a fifth said they were sent at least 10 texts and one in eight received 10 or more phone calls.

The Transport Committee is currently investigating the extent to which bogus and exaggerated whiplash claims push up the cost of car insurance.

False claims are estimated to add around £90 to the cost of every premium.

From next month, insurers will be banned from receiving money in exchange for the details of customers who make personal injury claims.

However, Which? said the rules will not cover non-injury claims such as car repairs.

It urged people to register their details with the Telephone Preference Service and to avoid opting into third party marketing when taking out an insurance policy.

It also said consumers should not respond to spam texts, even to text "stop", as this alerts the sender to the phone number being active and in use.

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Budget: Childcare Boost For Working Families

Working families will receive up to £1,200 per child a year under major plans to slash the cost of childcare.

More than two million families stand to benefit from the tax-free childcare plans, which have been announced ahead of Wednesday's Budget.

Eligible families will be given up to £1,200-a-year for each child, up to a maximum of 20% of their total childcare costs.

To qualify, both parents - or one parent if they are raising children alone - will have to be in work and each must earn less than £150,000.

But the scheme, which will replace the existing employer supported childcare programme (ESC) will not come into effect until late 2015, after the next general election.

Initially the measures will cover children up to five years old, but the level of support will build up "over time" to include children under 12.

Ministers say to start with, 1.3 million families will benefit, compared to 450,000 under ESC, eventually rising to around 2.5 million.

The leaders promised to boost childcare support in their mid-term review

The Government is set to invest £1.4bn in the plans - half-funded by abolishing the current childcare vouchers scheme and with the rest of the cash diverted from other departments.

Under the current scheme, parents get vouchers worth up to £55-a-week, deducted from their salary before tax is paid.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg pledged in their January mid-term review that they would act to help working families with childcare costs.

The move appears designed to appease many parents furious at losing their child benefit after cuts to what was once a universal handout.

Mr Cameron said: "Too many families find paying for childcare tough and are often stopped from working the hours they'd like.

"This is a boost direct to the pockets of hard-working families in what will be one of the biggest measures ever introduced to help parents with childcare costs."

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg added: "The rising cost of childcare is one of the biggest challenges parents face and it means many mums and dads simply can't afford to work.

"This not only hurts them financially, but is bad for the economy too."

Sally Russell, co-founder parenting site Netmums.com, said: "If implemented carefully, it should help a greater number of families with the crippling costs of childcare and keep parents in work."

But William Higham from Save The Children criticised the scheme for failing to prioritise low earners and for the delay in its introduction.

"A policy that doesn't benefit struggling families until 2016 will mean another three years of juggling costs amidst a deep recession. Some parents will be unable to work until that comes into force," he said.

Ministers have already announced plans to let childminders look after more children, which they hope will reduce costs and make more nursery places available.

Britain has some of the most expensive childcare costs in the world - with fees rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, according to the Daycare Trust.

A report by the Trust recently found that a place at the UK's most expensive nursery cost £42,000 - some 25% more than a place at a top public school such as Charterhouse, which charges £30,574 a year.

Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said: "Families need real help with the cost of childcare now, not promises of help in two and a half year's time."

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'Horsemeat Free' Sainbury's Sees Sales Boost

Sainsbury's chief executive has reported a rise in sales over recent months - due in part to avoiding the horsemeat scandal.

The supermarket - which says no traces of horsemeat have been found in its products - reported a 3.6% rise in like-for-like sales excluding fuel over the 10 weeks to March 16.

Its market share also increased during the period, as food inspectors identified horsemeat in products sold by rivals including Tesco, Iceland and Lidl.

Justin King told Sky News: "Our sales have accelerated in the last couple of months.

"I think most customers are quite aware that a good number of retailers have not had horsemeat in their food and they're been rewarded with some extra business."

But Mr King added that he feels a sense of "there, but for the grace of God" as the food contamination scandal continues.

The supermarket has been DNA testing its products for over 10 years, Mr King said, and uses only UK and Irish sourced beef in its products.

"So there are good reasons why we've avoided the scandal," he said.

But he added: "I think you have to be open minded to the possibility that it could still happen.

"We've put all the checks and balances in place - have done for a long time and of course we've dialled them up now we're aware there is this problem."

Sainsbury's, Britain's third largest supermarket chain, reported a 1.8% increase in like-for-like sales over the year excluding fuel.

Its results were helped by a strong performance online - where sales were up almost 20% year-on-year - and by its convenience store business, which grew at over 18%.

Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said the supermarket's market share increased to 17% in the 12 weeks to February 17 from 16.9% a year earlier.

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Budget: Extra £2.5bn Boost For Spending

George Osborne has ordered government departments to slash their budgets by another £2.5bn to fund extra capital spending.

The Chancellor and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told ministers that they can afford to trim another 1% a year until 2015.

Mr Osborne said at Cabinet that it was possible because departments have under-spent their budgets this year by more than the average.

George Osborne in Downing Street

The extra cuts will not hit the departments protected by ring-fences - the NHS, international aid and schools. HMRC is also protected, as is the police budget for the first year.

There is no detail yet on how the extra cash will be spent, but it will help Mr Osborne satisfy critics that he is not doing enough to boost growth.

The announcement comes on the eve of his Budget, in which he is under intense pressure to inject some life into an economy teetering on the brink of a triple-dip recession.

The Ministry of Defence will be allowed to roll over unspent money to compensate for the cuts being demanded from the department.

This flexibility is worth £1.6bn to the department over the next two years - more than the total value of the extra 1% in cuts for 2013/14 and 2014/15.

But others including environment, energy, transport and justice will have to find the 1% annual savings to day-to-day resource budgets in full.

The cuts will also be reflected in the central Government funding arrangements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Total annual underspends across Whitehall departments have averaged around £6bn since 2007.

Number 10 said the forecasts for 2012/13, which will be announced by the Office for Budget Responsibility alongside the Budget, are expected to be "somewhat higher".

Cabinet ministers including Philip Hammond have recently gone public with concerns at the level of cuts their departments are likely to face in June's Spending Review.

But the PM's spokesman said Mr Osborne's announcement was greeted with"unanimous agreement around the Cabinet table that it was the right thing to do".

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "With the economy stagnating, the pressure is on the Chancellor to deliver a pro-growth Budget.

"But spending just £2.5bn a year more on infrastructure projects will boost growth by a measly 0.06%. Worse still, funding it through departmental spending cuts will mean further reductions in public services.

"With interest rates negative in real terms, the Chancellor has the perfect opportunity to invest in Britain's future, rather than raiding departmental budgets to cover his failed economic strategy."

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Hinkley Point Nuclear Plant Given Go-Ahead

The building of a new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset has moved a step closer after Energy Secretary Ed Davey granted the scheme planning permission.

The proposed development of Hinkley Point C by French energy company EDF is a boost for the nuclear industry following a series of setbacks in plans to construct a new fleet of reactors in the UK, which ministers say are needed to cut carbon and keep the lights on.

The deal is expected to be rubber-stamped within weeks when EDF and the Government secure agreement on decommissioning the price the company will be paid for the electricity it generates.

Mr Davey told Sky News there would be no public subsidy and the cost would be "affordable for consumers and businesses" but he refused to go into further detail as the commercially-sensitive negotiations continued.

Once up and running it is anticipated that the plant's two reactors will generate enough electricity to provide 7% of the country's needs, or power five million homes.

The minister told the Commons that affordable new nuclear would play a "crucial role" in ensuring secure, diverse supplies of energy in the UK and decarbonising the electricity sector and the economy.

He also confirmed that EDF had now secured the majority of consents it needed to build and operate the plant and that he expected to announce shortly a deal on the so-called 'strike' price.

Under electricity market reforms, low-carbon power such as nuclear reactors and offshore wind farms will have long-term contracts with a guaranteed price for their electricity, to give investors certainty to invest in projects with high capital costs.

It has been reported that the costs of the new power station would run to around £14bn and the development would create up to 25,000 jobs during construction and 900 permanent positions once in operation.

But environmental groups reacted angrily to the news and raised questions about dealing with the waste.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven claimed Hinkley Point C failed the test on economic, consumer, environmental and arguably even legal grounds.

He said: "It will lock a generation of consumers into higher energy bills, via a strike price that's expected to be double the current price of electricity, and it will distort energy policy by displacing newer, cleaner, cheaper technologies.

"Giving it the green light when there is no credible plan for dealing with the waste could also be in breach of the law," he warned.

Friends of the Earth's policy and campaigns director Craig Bennett added: "The Alice-in-Wonderland economics of the nuclear industry killed off previous plans for a new reactor at Hinkley – decades later, little has changed.

"The only way this plant will be built is if the Government hands over a blank cheque from UK taxpayers to French developers, EDF.

"The most cost-effective way to cut carbon and keep the lights on is a combination of energy efficiency and investing in renewables, the cost of which are falling year on year.

"For decades nuclear industry has over-promised and under-delivered – we can't afford to keep throwing money at it."

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Cyprus Bailout: Cash Flown Out To British Troops

A plane has left Britain for Cyprus with one million euros onboard to ensure soldiers have access to cash.

Banks in Cyprus have been closed since before the weekend and will not reopen until Thursday in order to prevent a run on the banks as the government discusses taxing all savers in order to secure an EU bailout.

The Cypriot parliament went ahead with a session to vote on the levy and the bailout on Tuesday, despite the governing DISY party calling for a one-day delay while a solution that would prevent "the big dangers our country is facing" was sought.

British soldiers stationed on the island and their families would be able to borrow from the one million euros flown out of Brize Norton if cash machines and debit cards in Cyprus stop working completely, the Ministry of Defence said.

"The MoD is proactively approaching personnel to ask if they want their March, and future months' salaries paid into UK bank accounts, rather than Cypriot accounts," it said in a statement.

"We're determined to do everything we can to minimise the impact of the Cyprus banking crisis on our people."

Protesters gathered outside parliament before the bailout vote

Around 2,500 to 3,000 British military personnel are currently stationed in Cyprus.

Chancellor George Osborne has already pledged that military personnel and civil servants would be protected from the levy, telling Cabinet they would be "compensated in full" for any losses.

Cyprus' finance minister Michael Sarris, meanwhile, has reportedly offered his resignation.

Reporting from outside parliament, Sky's Ashish Joshi said: "The situation here is deteriorating quite rapidly.

"Michael Sarris is one of the chief economists in Cyprus, he was one of the architects of this plan, he was in Brussels with the president and (Germamy's Angela Merkel last week talking about what they could do to rescue the country's economy."

The seizure of savers' deposits, in return for shares in the lenders, was meant to raise 5.8 billion euros (£4.96bn), towards the country's financial rescue.

But outrage from Cypriots and the impact on international markets had already apparently pushed politicians to consider an exemption for smaller savers. 

President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters earlier: "The feeling I'm having is that the house is going to reject the bill.

"Because they feel and they think that it is unjust and it's against the interests of Cyprus at large."

The draft Bill expected to be discussed in parliament would have imposed a 6.75% tax on all savings between 20,000 and 100,000 euros and 9.9% on all savings over 100,000 euros.

More follows...

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