UK tobacco group Imperial Tobacco has reported a rise in first-half net profits of 34 per cent on the back of a strong performance in emerging markets.

The company said that net profit for the six months to March 31 was £926 million—up from £689 million the previous year—driven by a particularly strong performance in emerging markets outside of the EU.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced $2 billion of investment in high-speed rail projects across America.

Twenty-four states, the District of Columbia and Amtrak submitted nearly 100 applications competing for what the Department of Transportation has called an “historic investment”.

The Federal Railroad Administration selected 15 states and Amtrak to receive $2.02 billion for 22 high-speed intercity passenger rail projects as part of a network that will connect 80 percent of citizens to high-speed rail in 25 years.

Morocco’s Jorf Lasfar Energy Company has awarded the contract for the development of a 700MW coal-fired power plant in Morocco.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract has been awarded to a consortium of Japan’s Mitsui and South Korea-based Daewoo E&C. The consortium will construct two new units (5&6), each with a gross capacity of 350MW, at the existing Jorf Lasfar power plant site (currently four units each generating 350MW) near El Jadida.

California-based business technology specialist Trimble Navigation Limited has announced a public tender offer for Tekla Corporation, a leader in building information modeling technology (BIM) for the construction industry.

Headquartered in Finland, with a US office in Atlanta, Georgia, Tekla has approximately 500 employees and operations in 15 countries worldwide.

Trimble’s offer of €15.00 per share in cash is being handled by its subsidiary Trimble Finland Oy, and values Tekla at approximately €311 million ($451 million).

Vale, the world’s second largest mining company, has opened a new coal mine in Moatize, Mozambique.

Activities at the new coal mine in the Tete province have commenced ahead of operations at the processing plant, with production due to start in July.

The $1.658 billion mine will have a production capacity of 11 million tons per year of metallurgical and thermal coal, which will be transported 600 kilometres from Moatize via the Sena railway line to a coal terminal under construction at the Port of Beira in the Sofala province.

Intel has announced a major technical breakthrough in microprocessors with a 22 nanometer chip using 3-D transistors.

Intel’s 3-D transistor design (called Tri-Gate) is now ready for high volume production and will be introduced at the 22-nanometer (nm) node (referring to the size of individual transistor features) in a chip codenamed "Ivy Bridge." More than 6 million 22nm Tri-Gate transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.

Germany’s biggest steelmaker, ThyssenKrupp, has announced a major restructuring of its business as it seeks to increase its focus on engineering.

The €10 billion divestment plan is designed to enable the company to strengthen its existing competences in engineering and take advantage of opportunities in emerging markets to expand its current business scope.

Applied Materials, a leading equipment supplier to the semiconductor industry, has taken the first steps in the $4.9 billion acquisition of Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, a leading supplier of ion implantation equipment used by chip makers around the world.

After closure, Varian will operate as a business unit of Applied's Silicon Systems Group and continue to be based in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

The UK has the potential to capture just under a quarter of the global marine energy market, according to analysis released today by the Carbon Trust.

Becoming a global leader in the marine energy market would be worth the equivalent of up to £76 billion to the UK economy by 2050, and generate over 68,000 UK jobs, the Trust said.

New jobs would develop on the back of growing export markets in countries such as Chile, Korea and America, as well as European states facing the Atlantic Ocean, which benefit from powerful waves or currents.