Europe

The company believes that there may be up to 170 trillion cubic feet of gas in the areas it is licensed to explore in northern England alone.

IGas is one of the companies granted a licence by UK authorities to explore parts of the country believed to contain large resources of shale gas. The company's licences cover an area of 300 square miles across Cheshire.

The deal, which Tui claims will see them acquiring the new planes at a discount to the list price of $6.1 billion, includes an option to purchase a further 90 aircraft of the same model at a later date.

Tui, which is the world's largest tour operator with a presence in 180 countries, currently operates 141 aircraft across six European airlines, Thomson Airways, Tuifly, Tuifly Nordic, Arkefly, Jetairfly and Corsair.

Pre-tax annual profits for the vehicle-maker behind such iconic models as the E-Type rose 11 percent to £1.67 billion and helped temper a 36 percent fall in profits at the company's parent group, Tata Motors.

The results showed that total world sales at the company increased by 22 percent over the course of the year to almost 375,000 vehicles.

Total world sales at Jaguar Land Rover were up 22% to almost 375,000 vehicles in the financial year that it introduced an all-new version of the Range Rover, the Jaguar XF and XJ and the XF Sportbrake.

It is estimated that the 40MW farm off the north-west coast of Lewis will ultimately produce enough energy to power around 30,000 homes.

Wave energy firm Aquamarine Power said it would begin installing its Oyster devices in the next few years, once grid infrastructure is put in place. The project will be carried out by Aquamarine subsidiary Lewis Wave Power Limited.

Boosted by strong demand in the UK, registrations rose 1.8 percent to 1.08 million, compared to figures released at this time last year.

April’s increase is the first since September 2011, yet without UK sales, which were up 15 percent, registrations would have recorded another fall.

Demand for new cars across Europe fell to a 17-year low last year, with most economies weak, or in recession, and unemployment hitting record highs. For the first four months of 2013, overall volumes are down seven percent, compared with the same period a year ago.

Before he established Er-Bakir, A. Nuri Erikoglu had already forged his own reputation through the building of hand-crafted home purpose copper products including boilers, braisers and trays. A visionary in many ways, Erikoglu was one of very few individuals to foresee the future potential of copper. With this vision and his unique entrepreneurial spirit he would go on to create Er-Bakir with the mission of producing copper wire in electric cable, a product now used on a mass global scale in all areas of life.

Few companies can provide a dedicated team-led approach to decommissioning like Optimus. The Aberdeen-based oil and gas engineering consultancy has gone from strength to strength since it launched Optimus Decom in 2010, a subsidiary established to meet growing demand for its engineering services for the decommissioning of on and offshore oil and gas facilities.

The first line on Madrid’s underground railway network, the Metro de Madrid, was inaugurated on the 17th October 1919 by King Alfonso XIII. It had eight stations along 3.3 kilometres of track. Ever since that date the Metro has experienced progressive growth, which has made access possible to the majority of the capital's districts and to some of the most important municipalities in the metropolitan area. Today it is the sixth longest metro system in the world, with 300 stations and 292 kilometres of track, 90 percent of it underground.

Manchester United had previous held the top spot every year since the list was first compiled in 2004, however its value according to Forbes of $3.17 billion has fallen behind that of the Spanish giants which is now totalled at $3.3 billion.