The soccer team suspension brought dismay across Iraq, where the team is a rare source of unity.

NPR: Iraqi Soccer Team's World Cup Hopes Revived

At a time when markets seem to deliver nothing but bad news, that is a rare source of cheer.

ECONOMIST: Making sense of the fall in commodity prices

The premium spirits business has been a rare source of growth in recent years, much of which has been generated by rising sales to emerging market consumers and particularly Chinese consumers.

FORBES: Whiskey Stocks to Burn the Throat

The only buildings that have been repaired are those that belong to the aid agencies, whose four-wheel-drive vehicles also account for most of the traffic on the roads - as well as a rare source of employment for Angolan drivers.

BBC: Mission impossible for UN in Kuito

But the Moon is a source of rare earth elements, as well as Helium-3, a possible future fuel for nuclear fusion reactors (if we ever actually invent them).

FORBES: Richard Branson Wants a Population on Mars. Here's How He Can Create It.

Molycorp, an American firm which in various guises dates back to the early 1950s, intends to restart what was once the world's largest source of rare earths, a mine in California closed in 2002 over environmental concerns and the then unjustifiable cost of correcting them.

ECONOMIST: Rare earths

In doing due diligence on Molycorp, Bhappu learned that many consumers of rare earth elements desperately wanted a Western-supply source.

FORBES: The Money Man Behind America's Rare Earth Minerals

Because although I can see who has checked out my profile on LinkedIn, it is rare indeed that I can credit this social media source for lassoing a new client for me.

FORBES: Are You Among LinkedIn's Elite?

The tightening of America's trade rules has resulted in a virtual standstill in mining in the volatile eastern part of the country, until recently the source of rare metals used by American manufacturers.

ECONOMIST: Middle East and Africa: A sub-Saharan spring? | The