Farming makes a major contribution to Brazil’s GDP and exports. Agro Amazonia’s director Roberto Motta explains to Gay Sutton how the company is helping farmers increase productivity, build a safer workplace, and reduce their impact on the fragile and precious natural environment.

Shell Iraq is part of a consortium working to significantly increase production at the Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq. But the project has not been easy: some of the major challenges to date have included de-mining, safety and marsh preservation, as Becky Done discovers.

Asim Imdad Ali, head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at Pakistan Tobacco Company, talks to Gay Sutton about corporate social initiatives to improve welfare in rural tobacco-growing communities, and the threats posed by illicit trade.

Turkish mine Çayeli Bakir is the only mine in the north-eastern province of Rize. Jane McCallion talks to managing director Iain Anderson about the mine’s recent multi-million dollar capital investment programme and its close relationship with the local community.

Çayeli Bakir is an underground copper and zinc mine located in the north-east of Turkey, close to the Black Sea coast. The facility, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada’s Inmet Mining, became operational in 1994 and is expected to run until at least 2017.

Plans have been announced for the development of a new low-carbon power plant west of Edinburgh.

Summit Power Group, a Seattle-based developer of low-carbon electric power projects, has entered into an agreement with National Grid and Petrofac to seek funding for the development—which would include full-chain, commercial-scale carbon capture and storage—at the Port of Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth.

America's steel industry is leading manufacturing out of the recession, according to a recent report.

In his analysis Economic Impacts of the American Steel Industry, Dr. Timothy J. Considine, professor of energy economics, University of Wyoming, notes that "Every one job in the US steel industry supports seven jobs in the US economy, reflecting its ripple effect on employment."

For 2011, the report states, the American steel industry directly employed 150,700 people, and the multiplier effect means it supported more than 1,022,009 jobs.

Wessex Exploration has received a surprise takeover offer from French oil major Total, sending the Bristol-based company’s shares rocketing by over 30 per cent.

Total said it is looking to buy Wessex, which has interests in the south of England and offshore Africa, for around £71 million.

Dutch logistics giant TNT Express is to be acquired by its US-based rival UPS for €5.16 billion, it has been announced.

The two companies said the combined entity will create a global leader in the logistics industry with annual revenues of more than €45 billion.

TNT Express delivers close to one million consignments, from documents and parcels to palletized freight, each day. The company operates road and air transport networks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. In 2011, the company had revenues of €7.25 billion.

GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest drugs maker, has agreed to divest several of its over-the-counter (OTC) European brands to Omega Pharma for €470 million (£391 million).

The brands being divested include Lactacyd, Abtei, Solpadeine, Zantac, Nytol and Beconase, which together generated sales of approximately £185 million in 2011. The divestment is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2012, subject to regulatory approvals.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said it expected the net cash proceeds from the transaction to be approximately £310 million.