New home sales surged some 16 percent in January to their highest rate since July 2008, while The Conference Board index of consumer attitudes rebounded to 69.6 in February from an upwardly revised 58.6 in January.

This latter figure suggests Americans has recovered from the shock of a sharp rise in payroll taxes over the New Year.

Markets were buoyed by the US data, which were both well above expectations, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovering half a percent in morning trading.

It was in 1972 that Dame Shirley Bassey released the iconic song Diamonds Are Forever. Immortalised as the theme tune to one of Sean Connery’s greatest James Bond adventures the song spoke of how diamonds will remain long after a person’s love has gone. The truth is that not only will diamonds outlive many generations to come, the creation of natural diamonds pre-dates life on earth itself.

Bus transport could have been made for South Africa. Though it’s a big country with huge variety across its nine provinces, unlike many of its neighbours it has an excellent road network and one of the four major intercity bus lines travels to nearly every city and village. Not only is cross-country bus travel in South Africa cheaper than flying but it is far more satisfying. The Rainbow Nation’s landscape is as varied as its people.

According to the Zambia Tourism Board this nation surrounded by eight neighbours has over 40,000 kilometres of roads, only 8,200 kilometres of them tarred and another 8,000 kilometres all weather gravel road. The rest are made of compressed laterite and vary in condition from reasonable to rather bad, being vulnerable to the seasonal rains.

Wherever life may take us, we are all born with the same basic skill set. However it is from this point onwards that we each develop and progress as human beings in hugely different ways from one another. Nevertheless, the vast majority of us will one day find ourselves in a similar position to when we were young in that we will require training to embark on our future career paths.

Abu Dhabi Aviation (ADA) was formed in 1976 as a joint venture between the emirate of Abu Dhabi and an overseas company, its mission to provide the Arabian Gulf offshore oil industry with air support services. Its journey from those tentative beginnings, operating just two aircraft, to become the largest commercial helicopter operator in the Middle East is a remarkable success story. It currently operates more than 100 of its own and its client’s helicopters as well as three fixed wing aircraft, offering its experience and its services globally.

It is expected that this time-saving functionality will enable users to gain a rapid interpretation of mineral’s properties while actually in the field, this eliminating the need for geologists to wait for lab results to verify what they are working with.

XRF machines are portable geochemical analysers designed specifically for in-field mining and exploration use. By scanning a sample, an XRF machine provides users with an immediate analysis of elements.

According to numerous geological surveys and available seismic data, the country of Iraq possesses what might well be one of the largest collections of oil reserves on the planet, estimated to total over 350 billion barrels. However decades of sanctions, two Gulf Wars and the subsequent years of civil unrest left its oil infrastructure in dire need of modernisation and investment.

Derived from the Latin word “concretus”, meaning compact or condensed, concrete has had an immeasurable impact on both the ancient and modern world with its usage dating as far back as 800 BC. Today the global use of concrete is twice that of steel, wood, plastics and aluminium combined, and is only exceeded by the usage of naturally occurring water.

Copper fundamentals are highly buoyant. Demand for copper is increasing at over half a million tones annually, most of it driven by China, which consumes 20 percen of global supply. Demand for copper shows no sign of levelling off in the opinion of researchers at Yale, who calculated from 2006 consumption figures that global demand for copper would exceed the amount extractable from the ground by 2100.