“It was in 2006,” explains Clive Robinson, “that Curves first came to South Africa with a mission to launch the brand amongst the female population as an alternative to existing gyms and weight loss programmes. In 2007, the first Curves opened in Pietermaritzburg and within three years it had expanded to more than 100 franchises across the country, and ten franchises outside the borders of South Africa.”

“The US alone,” managing director, Gordon Stove enthuses, “represents the single largest geophysics space in the world, with a revenue generation of over $2.4 billion a year from geophysical survey services alone. This is just one of the reasons why we are so keen to expand into that part of the world.”

The Australian dollar is so strong that it is beginning to be looked at internationally as a reserve currency.

Whatever the reason it can’t be simply because it has been talked up by Julia Gillard. In February the Prime Minister predicted: “Our dollar is likely to remain relatively high for years to come.”

The proposed £14 billion power plant, to be built at Hinkley Point in Somerset, would eventually be capable of powering some five million homes.

It is believed that EDF hopes to build two new reactors at Hinkley that would provide approximately seven percent of the UK’s electricity needs, while employing 25,000 people on the construction of the project alone. The energy giant says the project would generate taxes equivalent to a few percentage points of what the entire financial sector yields for the exchequer.

Earlier this year, The Channel Partnership undertook research in partnership with The Leadership Foundation to examine the relationships between sales and marketing professionals in businesses. A thousand sales and marketing professionals were interviewed to understand why disconnects and communication breakdowns are so common between sales and marketing teams.

The order, worth 18.4 billion euros, beats last year’s record order for 230 Boeing planes, also from Lion Air.

Lion, now a major airline in Indonesia, started up 13 years ago. The two orders, once fulfilled, would put the airline in the world's top ten by number of aircraft. Lion currently has just 92 Boeing planes, which fly mainly within Indonesia but also to Saudi Arabia.

At the same time as the company, the world’s largest mobile operator, increased its subscriber base to more than 710 million, its net profits increased to $20.8 billion on revenues up 6.1 percent.

China Mobile said revenue growth last year was mostly driven by its data business. The company said the number of its subscribers rose by 9.3 percent to 710 million. Some 87.93 million customers joined its 3G network.

The two drill holes in question are 185 metres apart and were drilled from west to east intersecting the Director Vein structure. Both returned assay values of 80.12 percent CaF2 over 3.95 metres in hole DS-13-100 and 51.94 percent CaF2 over 13.39 metres in hole DS-13ÔÇÉ101.

The Pilbara’s red earth, splendid scenery and vast extent combine to create the image of Australia that has caught the imagination of generations. The top-left corner of Western Australia is home to a population that has inhabited it continuously for over 40,000 years; to them it is a very precious landscape. However, today there is another dimension to that value, because the region is rich in the most useful mineral to mankind—iron.