Vale's Clydach Refinery, one of the largest in Europe, has become the first company in the UK and only the second in Europe over in the 25 years since the awards were inaugurated, to be awarded the prize, dubbed the "Nobel Prize of Manufacturing" by Business Week.

The deal between Cerberus Capital Management, which owns several chains including Albertsons, and Safeway has been valued at approximately $7.64 billion in cash, however this could eventually increase to more than $9 billion.

Bob Miller, chief executive of Albertsons, said that the size of the new outfit would improve its bargaining position with suppliers. The merger will create an organisation boasting more than 2,400 stores and 250,000 employees.

The two diamonds, the 162.02 carat type II diamond and the 161.31 carat type I, were both recovered from the company’s Letšeng mine in Lesotho at the end of January 2014 and sold for $11.1 million and $2.4 million respectively.

In a press release the company noted that the two rough diamonds both achieved top prices, in accordance with their respective colour, clarity and expected  polished yield, at Letšeng’s February tender.

CG/LA Infrastructure Inc, which specialises in strategic infrastructure project identification, yesterday announced the recipients of its sought-after awards. The awards honour the leaders driving the next generation’s most transformative global infrastructure projects in five categories: strategic, finance, engineering, job creation, and green/new infrastructure.

BFL CANADA is a no-nonsense insurance brokerage and risk management firm, founded by Barry F Lorenzetti in 1987 and now the largest employee-owned and operated commercial insurance broker and consulting services firm in the country, with offices in nine major cities from Vancouver in the west to Halifax in the east. Though BFL is active in upward of 20 vertical business sectors, one of the most important of these is mining, mineral processing and exploration.

For many years tourism and agriculture have been the traditional drivers of economic growth for the Dominican Republic. However in more recent times a third pillar has been slowly emerging and developing and that is mining. Today the sector is a cornerstone of the country’s economic prosperity, with the mining industry’s contribution to its GDP rising by as much as 74 percent in 2011 alone.

The $19.5 billion it made topped the $14.8 billion achieved in 2012, with growth in the company’s book value coming it at 18.2 percent. "On the operating front, just about everything turned out well for us last year - in some cases very well," Mr Buffett wrote to shareholders.

Rising sales and an increase in demand from China, seen by the Danish company as being a future core market, contributed towards the toymaker’s profits of 6.12 billion kroner ($1.12 billion).

The world’s second largest toymaker, behind Mattel, has been increasingly looking towards Asian markets as a way to boost future sales. "During the coming years the Lego Group expects to grow moderately ahead of the global toy market that is expected to grow low single digits," said Lego in its annual report.

Europe’s largest aerospace group saw net income rise by 21 percent in 2013 to €3.6 billion, while revenues rose five percent to €59.3 billion.

The past year witnessed the group delivering a record 626 planes, with Airbus expecting to deliver a similar number this year. Included in this will be an increasing number of its A320 jets, with production to expand to 46 planes a month from 42 by 2016.