Uruguay may have found an offshore natural gas field holding as much as 3 trillion cubic feet of resources during studies of exploration areas it plans to auction in July 2009, the country's state oil company said.
José Pablo Arellano, CEO of Chile's state-owned CODELCO copper company, this week questioned the utility of a Pinochet-era law that gives 10% of CODELCO sales to the Chilean military.
Former Chilean president and currently UN Climate Change special envoy Ricardo Lagos said that industrialized countries would be imposing green barriers as a future strategy to combat climate change, basically taxing imports according to the contamination generated by the production of the goods involved.
The European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said that the ECB remains in full alert because of the continued inflation in the Euro zone and suggested that a rate hike, next July 3 is possible. However he emphasised that this would not signal the first step for a ladder of rate hikes.
Ecuador will not resume diplomatic ties with Colombia after the latter decided to postpone renewal of relations, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador announced this week in Quito.
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy called on Wednesday for a group of ministers from thirty main countries to meet from July 21 to push the Doha round of global free trade talks toward conclusion, diplomats said.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he will focus his attention on raising the issue of food security at the G8 summit of major industrialized nations in Japan early next month, as well as the challenges of climate change and the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
President Hugo Chavez said that Venezuela will continue to strengthen its military power following the announcement that vice president Ramon Carrizalez and Defence minister General Gustavo Rangel Briceño would be traveling to Russia to intensify military cooperation.
Uruguayan authorities downplayed the announcement earlier this week of the discovery of significant natural gas reserves and possibly oil in the River Plate close to the Brazilian border.
In a move which did not surprise, the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept interest rates unchanged at 2%. In its usual release following the two day meeting the Open Market Committee said that recent information indicates that overall economic activity continues to expand, partly reflecting some firming in household spending.