Through the successful implementation of its various projects, CAT Telecom is striving to lead the way in providing wireless multimedia services in one of Southeast Asia’s most economically dynamic nations.

With a GDP worth $602 billion, Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia. Having enjoyed the world’s highest growth rate from 1985 to 1996, during which time it averaged 12.4 percent growth annually, the country is today considered to be a newly industrialised, emerging economy.

Come 2017, the agency anticipates global coal consumption to stand at 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, compared to 4.4 billion tonnes for oil itself. In its report, the IEA states that increased demand from India and China is fuelling this push.

"Coal's share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year," says IEA executive director Maria Van der Hoeven. "If no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade."

This is a difficult time for the coal industry in the United States. Janet Gellici, CEO of the American Coal Council, talks about finding a way to overcome the challenges.

The coal industry provides over 40 percent of the United States’ electricity, but it seems to be under attack from all quarters. Just because you’re paranoid, the saying goes, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

Zimbabwe is starting to make up for lost time, but economic development will depend on robust infrastructure, including the sound telecommunications network being built by a community of private and state players under the watchful eye of national regulator POTRAZ.

Global telecommunications group Millicom is helping to foster women’s entrepreneurship in the fast growing African mobile financial services industry.

In a public-private partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), it aims to provide over 4,000 women throughout Tanzania, Ghana and Rwanda with support and training to set up a business as a Tigo Mobile Money agent, contributing to financial inclusion for themselves and thousands of other people.

In addition to the Nikkei 225 index’s one percent rise, the Japanese currency, the yen, has also fallen to a 20 month low against the US dollar.

Liberal Democrat leader, Shinzo Abe, has made it part of this election promise that he will implement measures that will help revive what is the world’s third-largest economy. This includes taking steps to weaken the yen and fight deflation.

Figures published this week show that over 267,000 organisations in 158 countries are now certified to the global environmental management systems standard ISO 14001.

This makes ISO 14001 the world’s most successful voluntary approach to improving environmental performance in businesses and public sector organisations.

One billion tourists have travelled the world in 2012, marking a new record for international tourism, a sector that accounts for one in every 12 jobs and 30 percent of the world’s services exports.

On the symbolic arrival date of the one-billionth tourist (13 December 2012), the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) revealed the actions tourists can take to ensure their trips benefit the people and places they visit, as voted by the public.

PetroChina will pay $1.63 billion for BHP’s 8.3 percent stake in the East Browse and its 20 percent holding in the West Browse joint venture. If approved, it will be the latest in a series of investments by Chinese oil and gas firms this year, the biggest of those being CNOOC’s takeover of Canada’s Nexen for $15.1 billion.