Europe

The priority of most private investors is to see a healthy return on their outlay—with ethical considerations coming second. But the two do not have to be mutually exclusive, as Becky Done finds out from Lawrie Smith, co-founder of ethical investment company Greenleaf Global.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, The Lanesborough is renowned for quality and service. Front of house manager Michael Naylor-Leyland explains to Gay Sutton how this enviable reputation has been achieved.

The Brussels-based EFQM, formerly the European Foundation for Quality Management, has had a busy 12 months—and its schedule for the coming year doesn’t look to be any less hectic either. Becky Done finds out what changes the Foundation has made in order to reflect today’s business environment, and how it is looking ahead to tomorrow.

Cluff Gold brought two gold mines to production during 2008 and is now poised to develop a third, much larger prospect. Chairman Algy Cluff talks to Gay Sutton about the rocky road to success.

Russia and Norway ended a 40-year dispute yesterday when they signed an Arctic border treaty, opening up the region to offshore oil and gas development.

Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev and Jens Stoltenberg, the premier of Norway, attended the signing in Murmansk, a Russian Barents Sea port near the Norwegian border.

The disputed territory in the Barents Sea covered 175,000 square kilometres—roughly half the size of Germany—between the Novaya Zemlya archipelago on the Russian side and the Svlabard archipelago on the Norwegian side.

London-based miner Rio Tinto has said it will spend £518 million expanding its diamond operations.

The mining group’s diamond business is often overlooked, due to the success of its primary iron ore, copper and coal operations. However, its diamond unit is the third-largest in the world behind industry leaders De Beers and Alrosa.

Rio Tinto’s diamond division is based on three mines, including Argyle in the north-western desert area of Australia.

French industrial gases company Air Liquide has said it will invest $450 million in two global-scale hydrogen production units to supply Saudi Aramco with hydrogen for its planned Yanbu refinery.

Saudi Aramco's refinery will be located in Yanbu Industrial City, on the west coast of the kingdom. The new incorporated Red Sea Refining Company will process 400,000 barrels of heavy crude per day when the facility is completed in 2014.

The two hydrogen production units will have a total production capacity of 262 million cubic feet per day.

Tullow Oil has today announced a key new oil discovery in its Owo-1 exploration sidetrack in the Deepwater Tano licence offshore Ghana which confirms that its Owo well is now a "major new oil field."

Tullow said that the sidetrack showed a "very substantial" 200 metre gross oil column in the heart of the Owo oil field, with new condensate and gas accumulations below.

Around 2,500 jobs have been saved at troubled UK social housing group Connaught, after specialist construction group Morgan Sindall acquired the majority of its assets and contracts.

Connaught, which carries out essential maintenance and repairs to homes, called in administrators to its main social housing unit after government cuts caused contract deferrals, leading to financial difficulties.

Administrator KPMG had warned of potential redundancies among Connaught's 10,000 staff.