Topsy, one of only a handful of firms that has access to Twitter’s entire data stream, specialises in using data from the social media site to track customer sentiment. It has recently created a searchable database of all tweets sent - more than 400 billion - since Twitter's launch.

Apple did not say how much it paid for the firm, but it has been suggested the figure comes in at around $200 million.

On 26 December, 2012, Shinz┼ì Abe took office to become Prime Minister of Japan for the second time, and in doing so once again became head of government of the third largest world economy by GDP. In the year since his return to power, Prime Minister Abe has perhaps been most synonymous across the plant with the term ‘Abenomics’.

By beating off rival bids from Brazil, Turkey and Russia, Dubai will become the first Middle Eastern city to hold the expo, which attracts hundreds of countries every five years to show off the latest achievements in architecture and technology.

In what was seen as the last hurdle the two firms needed to clear for the merger to proceed, a US federal bankruptcy judge ruled in favour of the plan to bring the companies together. American Airways says it now expects the deal to be completed by 9 December.

Kevin James acquired CBH in 2003 when it was a small and struggling operation processing just 250,000 chickens a week at its Bloemfontein location. However, having just shaken the dust of Zimbabwe, where he had built up a thriving poultry business, he hit an auspicious moment for the South African market, with feed prices declining and chicken prices firm. A year later he and his partners were able to buy and restart an operation in Mafikeng turning out 400,000 birds a week.

The value of the virtual currency has been rapidly rising since a US Senate committee hearing earlier in November which described it as a “legitimate financial service”.

It was almost 350 years ago that the seeds of Canada’s mining sector were sown with the discovery of coal on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Three and a half centuries on and there are more than 800 mines across the country providing direct employment for more than 363,000 workers.

Today Canada ranks first in the world for the production of potash and uranium, and among the top five for the production of nickel and diamonds, with its mining industry contributing approximately five percent of its gross domestic product.

"Providing service for what we sell" is the formula which has endured for eight decades and managed to consolidate Finning as the most important partner in the distribution of Caterpillar equipment worldwide. This is stated by Marcello Marchese, CEO of Finning South America, who has led the company since June 2012, taking command of the Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay branches, where the company is positioned as the major CAT equipment and services distributor for the mining, construction, energy, forestry and oil & gas industries.

To some, solar power represents the perfect environmental energy source, one which will be ever present so long as the sun continues to shine. Arguments for solar power also draw on the fact that solar power plants promote clean energy production by producing virtually nothing in the way of pollution, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of a project.