
Brazilian police arrested on Friday Marcelo Odebrecht, the head of Latin America's largest engineering and construction company Odebrecht SA, ensnaring the most high-profile executive to date in the corruption investigation at state-run oil firm Petrobras.

Members of the Argentina's congressional bicameral commission investigating HSBC alleged illegal scheme to help Argentines evade taxes and siphon money out of the country, met in Paris with a group of French legislators and with UBS whistleblower Stéphanie Gibaud.

Latin America posted a decrease in high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) as falling commodity prices affect the continent’s economies, especially Brazil which accounts for more than 50% of Latin America’s HNWI wealth.

Middle East carriers again outranked US airlines this year in the 2015 Skytrax World Airline Awards. Qatar Airways took the top honor, up from second place in 2014. But the other Gulf airlines from the so-called Middle East Three group, Emirates and Etihad, were not far behind, in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Fourteen Caribbean countries are among 30 territories blacklisted by the European Union (EU) as the world’s worst tax havens. The list published by the EU on Wednesday includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The European Union also has difficulties in completing a draft proposal of goods and services to exchange with Mercosur in the search for a long delayed trade agreement between the two blocks, revealed Uruguayan vice-president Raul Sendic during a report to the Senate on his recent 10/11 June trip to Brussels for the Celac/EU summit. However in the third quarter of the year there should be positive news.

Citing an improving economy, the Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday it is most probably on track to raise historically low interest rates as early as September, but that rates are likely to climb more gradually than it previously

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has reiterated his support for a wider system of control on international sovereign debt restructuring, citing the examples of Argentina, Greece and Ukraine to back up his assertion that the area needs more supervision to protect those involved.

Tierra del Fuego's Consumer Prices Index, CPI for May was almost three times higher than the Argentine government official index from stats office Indec: 2.7% against 1%. The percentage was provided by Tierra del Fuego's Stats and Census Office, which also shows that in the first five months of the year inflation reached 11.4% and 28% in the last twelve months, well above the 15.3% from Indec.

The Falkland Islands have a bright future, not without challenges, or harassment or bullying, but the Islanders will face them with the same strength, tenacity and resolve that helped them through the conflict 33 years ago, said Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire at the annual Falklands' Government Reception in London.