Six years ago Jan Koum and Brian Acton applied for jobs at Facebook. Both were turned down and Acton would often quip: “We’re part of the Facebook reject club.”

The purchase will result in the creation of the world’s biggest cement maker with combined sales of more than €32 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Lafarge shareholders will receive one Holcim share for each Lafarge share they own.

In order to ease competition concerns surrounding the deal the two companies have agreed to sell various assets. The companies forecast total annual savings from joining forces to be around €1.4 billion. The combined firm will be based in Switzerland.

A survey commissioned by the Bank of Scotland questioned 100 companies in the industry and found that expectations of employment growth had increased since last year, with 69 percent of executives questioned proclaiming their optimism about their business’ growth prospects in 2014/2015.

The plans, the first to be unveiled this year, come in the wake of a string of disappointing data that has sparked fears of a slowdown. In response the government has said it will cut taxes on small firms and speed up the construction of the country’s railway lines.

"We will find innovative ways including fiscal and financial methods to...steady economic growth," the cabinet said in a statement on the government's website. "We must roll out policies that spur businesses' vitality, effectively increase demand and boost jobs.”

Pioneer Resources are currently drill testing a 200 metre structure at the Kalpini South prospect, a move that is designed to extend the strong gold results that were returned in 2013. These results included ten metres at 6.38g/t gold, 15 metres at 2.93g/t and nine metres at 5.31g/t.

Desalination is an increasingly viable solution to providing potable water in places with limited fresh water on land but plenty of access to coastal water – almost a dictionary definition of a small island. The islands of the Caribbean are not traditionally thought of as arid but water supplies in the region are under stress as populations increase, and climate change is not helping the situation. Intense rains were reported in some Caribbean areas in 2013, but that doesn't always result in an increase in fresh water supply.

An indigenous Nigerian oil and gas exploration, development, production and distribution company with assets and interests centred on two core areas in the northwest and southeast of the Niger Delta, Seven Energy’s vision is to solidify itself as the leading supplier of gas to the domestic market for power generation and industrial consumption.

It was in 1995 that the government of Jamaica took the decision to restructure its public transportation industry, one which saw the formation of Metropolitan Management Transport Holdings which was tasked with bringing order to a sector lacking in the required infrastructure.