The US telecommunications firm plans to pay $48.5 billion in cash and stocks in order to gain access to DirecTV’s 40 million digital TV customers in the US and in Latin America. The deal would also give AT&T a new source of revenue beyond its traditional telecommunications business.

With nearly all 543 seats declared by the morning of May 17 the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)'s victory in India's general election was secure as Narendra Modi arrived in New Delhi. The BJP announced that he would not formally take office until after Tuesday, however speculation as to the implications of this landslide for India's economy is already rife.

Modi faces overwhelming challenges on the economic front, though his victory comes at an auspicious time, with a background of world economic recovery and a strengthening currency

The country’s GDP rose 1.5 percent in the January-to-March period, against a revised 0.1 percent in the prior quarter. The figure, led by a rise of 2.1 percent in consumer spending, beats previous forecasts of 1.0 percent growth and came ahead of a sales tax increase introduced at the beginning of April. Capital spending by businesses also outperformed, rising by 4.9 percent, which was more than double analyst expectations.

The owner of the Currys and PC World brands, Dixons Retail, and mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse have announced they are to merge in a deal worth £3.8 billion. Dixons operates electronics and appliances stores mainly in the UK and Northern Europe, while Carphone Warehouse operates more than 2,000 cellphone stores across Europe. The all-share merger, brings together two of the UK's biggest retailers to create a company valued at more than £3 billion.

Established in 2007, when Severstal Group, one of Russia's most successful metals and resources corporations, decided to move into the gold market, Nordgold has since become recognised as one of the industry’s fastest-growing gold mining companies with operations based in West Africa, Kazakhstan and Russia.

“The company itself commenced operations in 1994 with only a small handful of employees, focusing at that time on electronic products, repairs on remote control system, lights and radios,” explains Marc Lamothe, Business Development Manager for Meglab. “When our President, Louis Valade, bought into the company in 2005, bringing with him some 30 years of mining experience, he quickly set about establishing a whole new electrical division within the company.

With a name meaning “place of leopards” in the language of Sesotho, Mangaung, also widely referred to as Bloemfontein, is the capital city of the Free State Province of South Africa and one of the country’s three national capitals. Officially founded in 1846, “the city of roses”, as it is affectionately known due to both the abundance of the flowers in the city and its annual rose festival, is today home to approximately 370,000 people, while the Mangaung Local Municipality boasts a population of more than 645,000.

It's really not long since we last spoke to Éléonore's energetic site manager Guy Belleau, but in the space of little over eight months – eight months with a severe Canadian winter in them by the way – the site has changed beyond all recognition. Belleau has lost none of his infectious élan. “We are on the last stretch now. I can smell the gold. We promised we would be pouring gold in the last quarter of this year and that is what we will be doing!”

Lying in close proximity to Gelibolu, along the coast of the Dardanelles, one will find Gelibolu Shipyard. A present day reminder of the historic links this part of Europe has to the maritime sector, Gelibolu Shipyard is a family owned newbuilding yard founded in 1975. One half of Aksoy Shipping Group, it specialises in the building of small-to-medium sized sea and river going vessels for its ship chartering sister company, Ali Riza Aksoy Denizcilik.

Who would invest in an airline? The industry is facing a lot of challenges right now with escalating fuel prices, reduction in passenger volumes caused by the global recession and arguably the growth of technology that allows people to communicate and confer without the need to travel. These are things that affect airlines all over the world, but in South Africa life is even more challenging for a private sector airline operator that has to compete with the heavily subsidised national carrier South African Airways (SAA) and its low-cost brand Mango.