USA and Canada

Cerrejón is an integrated mining and transport complex in the La Guajira region, jutting out into the Caribbean Sea from the north of Colombia. The mine is independently operated, but belongs in three equal parts to subsidiaries of BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Glencore Xstrata: between them these partners approved investment of $1.3 billion in 2011 for an expansion project that will increase Cerrejon’s production and export capacity by 8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in 2012 - 2014 to reach a 40 mtpa production by 2015.

For its part Fairfax, already the smartphone makers’ largest shareholder has offered $9 a share in cash to buy the company, making the deal worth some $4.7 billion.

With limited natural resources and not much in the way of large manufacturing industries Jamaica is reliant on its tourist trade, the agricultural products, notably bananas, for which it has become famous, and its service industries. Its ports are naturally the focal point of the tourist industry, however the capital Kingston is also the main trading port of the country.

Boasting one of the highest growth rates and per capita incomes in all of Latin America, Trinidad and Tobago is among the wealthiest and most developed nations in the Caribbean. It is also the leading Caribbean producer of oil and gas, and its economy is heavily dependent upon these resources, with them accounting for approximately 40 percent of its GDP and 80 percent of its exports.

It was in December 2010 that two of the world’s foremost oil and gas companies came together in one of the globe’s most exciting locations for oil and gas development, Brazil. Repsol Sinopec Brasil was born out of a capital increase, in which Sinopec, the largest oil and petrochemical company in China, contributed more than $7.1 billion towards Repsol Brazil. The transaction gave rise to a company that today possesses a market value of some $ 17.8 billion.

Officially recognised as the fifth largest oil exporting country in the world, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela also boasts the largest reserves of heavy crude oil, estimated at more than 99 billion barrels as of 2010. When putting such an astronomical figure into context it is easy to see why the petroleum industry is universally seen as being the backbone of the country’s economy, accounting for half of total government revenues and approximately one-third of its annual GDP.

The stock rose 3.3 percent to reach $45.05 in New York. This comes as investors react favourable to the company’s efforts to better tailor its mobile site for advertisers, who provide most of the company's revenues.

Initially priced at $38 per share, Facebook stock soared in the hours following its debut, however in the months that followed its shares lost have their value. Efforts by the company to improve its mobile experience to attract more users have impressed investors, however.

Mother Nature has shown time and again that she possesses the power to both amaze and terrify in equal measure. Nevertheless, what we have also seen on numerous occasions in the past is that mankind has the ability to take the most disastrous of events and turn them into something positive.