Costain is close to handing over a newly refurbished main runway at Manchester Airport, after using a new surfacing material for the first time on the UK mainland which is now attracting interest from other UK airports. 

VINCI has won its first projects in the Dominican Republic with a €108 million contract to build sewer systems in five cities.

A huge catalogue of old weather data, from the ships' logs of historic voyages to World War I Royal Navy records, is being used for an international project to recreate the world's past climate.

England's biggest cities will be able to make their case for new powers from central government to drive faster growth under new clauses to the Localism Bill which have been welcomed by Cities Minister Greg Clark and Chris Murray, Director of the Core Cities Group.

The Environment Agency, which manages close to 6,000km of flood defences and 1,400km of sea defences, has published its flood and coastal erosion risk management progress report 2008-2011 for England.

.Over 200 leading players in the financial sector have united under a partnership with the United Nations to call for international policy agreement on deforestation and forest degradation reduction in developing countries.