According to a Rough and Polished report, analysts at the Boston-based global management consulting firm Bain & Company are of the opinion that the international diamond industry has not only bucked worldwide trends but has also witnessed a notable growth in size.

In a Thursday statement, Canada's biggest natural gas producer Encana Corp. revealed that it had signed a $2.2 billion deal with China's state-owned PetroChina --- an agreement which will pave the way for exploring and developing shale gas in Alberta.

KV Pharmaceutical Co., which has been in bankruptcy condition, has announced that it has been taking steps to overcome the problem. The Bridgeton-based drug maker told that they have received $85 million in the form of finances and has also entered into a settlement deal with a Massachusetts company for the drug Makena.

According to investment analyst Nadim Mohamed, who is a partner at First Avenue Investment Management, the year 2013 will probably be a more challenging year for two of South Africa's operators - MTN and Vodacom - even though they have "good leadership and assets."

On Thursday, oil prices in the US witnessed a drop because of the market's apparent fears about the country's `fiscal cliff' crisis which is threatening to pull the economy back to recession for the biggest crude oil consumer in the world.

In a human rights complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a Chinese miner - named Huizhi Li - has said that the protests which the United Steelworkers Union has launched over the foreign employees' issue have led to a situation where Chinese workers will be seen with contempt.

After running the Chinese-built FAW trucks on the South African highways for the last nearly twenty years, the FAW Group has recently revealed that it is now expanding its presence in the country, with the launch of FAW passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs).

Thursday observed a rise in the US dollar against the Japanese yen, while it slipped down against the euro.

The US dollar rose from ¥83.26 to ¥83.64 against the yen. The losses to yen are supposed to be due to the Federal Reserve's decision to expand monetary stimulus. It said that it would be buying additional ling-maturity securities worth $45 billion.