Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has launched a new mobile phone service in partnership with Qtel Telecom in Qatar.

Virgin Mobile Qatar, launched in a brand licensing agreement with state-owned Qtel, will offer a prepaid mobile phone service within Qtel's network.

In a statement, Virgin said the service would be “open, fun and simple to use”, as well as being supported by a range of retail stores and a new, dedicated contact centre in Doha.

Calgary-based Crescent Point Energy Corp. has announced it is buying back its spinout Shelter Bay Energy for $1.1 billion, in order to boost its dominant status in two promising Saskatchewan oil plays.  Crescent Point holds the largest position in the Bakken, Canada's second-largest oil field. Together with Shelter Bay, it also holds nearly 90 percent of Lower Shaunavon production, a deep oil play in south-west Saskatchewan.

SwitzerlandÔÇÖs federal railways company SBB has awarded a CHF 1.9 billion (Ôé¼1.3 billion) contract for high-tech, energy efficient trains to the Swiss arm of CanadaÔÇÖs Bombardier Transportation.

The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and the Ontario TeachersÔÇÖ Pension Plan have joined forces with Australian fund manager CP2 to make a sweetened bid for Melbourne-based Transurban.  The $6.4 billion offer came six months after the Australian company rejected a previous bid from the consortium.

Plans have been unveiled for the construction of more offshore wind farms that will double the UKÔÇÖs current wind energy capacity and power 1.4 million homes.

Chevron Canada has begun drilling the countryÔÇÖs deepest offshore oil well in the North Atlantic offshore Newfoundland.  The exploratory well, known as Lona 0-55, is expected to establish a new record in Canada with a water depth of 2,600 meters. Located in the largely unexplored Orphan Basin, an area spanning 100,000 square kilometers, it lies around 430 kilometers north-east of Newfoundland's capital St. John's. Chevron Canada has a 50 percent stake in Lona 0-55.

The Spanish telecoms firm Telefonica has made an offer to buy 50 per cent of Brasilcel from Portugal Telecom for Ôé¼5.7 billion.

Montreal-based CGI Group has agreed to purchase information technology business Stanley in order to expand its reach into the US defense contracting market.  Arlington, Virginia-based Stanley provides technology services to military, intelligence and government agencies. The acquisition will make CGI's federal unit a government IT provider with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Montreal-based CGI created its federal arm, which is headquartered in Fairfax, when it purchased American Management Systems in 2004.

The London-based mining group Vedanta Resources has purchased Anglo American's zinc assets for $1.34 billion, in order to increase its exposure to the metal, it has been announced.

Canada's biggest iron ore producer, Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC), has said it will invest $435 million in the first of a three-stage expansion of capacity at its Labrador City mines and concentrator.  IOC, which is 58.7 percent owned by the mining and metals giant Rio Tinto, is reinstating a program suspended in 2008 when steel production was slashed during the global economic crisis.