A court hearing in New York scheduled for Thursday midday between hedge funds holders of Argentine defaulted bond and lawyers for the Argentine government was called off on request from the holdouts.
China Petrochemical Corporation, Sinopec, has agreed to buy a 33% stake in the Egyptian oil and gas business of US firm Apache Corporation. Sinopec will pay Apache 3.1bn dollars in cash for the stake. The deal is the latest in a series of similar moves by Chinese oil firms as they look to secure energy supplies to meet growing domestic demand.
British MPs have rejected possible UK military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to deter the use of chemical weapons. A government motion was defeated by 285 to 272, a majority of 13 votes.
On 17 July, Nicaragua announced that US-based Noble Energy would invest 30 million dollars in drilling two offshore wells in the Caribbean—launching Nicaragua's first-ever oil exploration.
Mexico was selected to be the official host country for World Tourism Day (WTD) 2014 and Burkina Faso for WTD 2015. The respective themes will be “Tourism and Community Development” for 2014, and “One billion tourists, one billion opportunities” for 2015
China's foreign minister urged restraint in the growing tensions over Syria, saying any military intervention in the crisis would only worsen turmoil in the Middle East. China all along has tried to maintain a neutral position on the issue, not accompanying the West’s intentions of imposing sanctions to Syria but calling on Damascus to begin talking with the rebels.
Gibraltar will sidestep an ‘illegal’ Spanish ban on overland cross-border shipments of rock, sand and aggregates by shipping the vital building materials in by sea. The ban was announced at the weekend by the Spanish authorities, which are denying export permission for these commodities and say they are being used to reclaim land in breach of EU environmental rules.
Australia Livestock Health and Pest Authorities (LHPA) are encouraging all sheep producers to test their rams for ovine brucellosis, following recent positive tests that the disease might be spreading throughout the country.
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza recalled on Wednesday the 50 years since the historic address by the great civil rights leader in the United States, Martin Luther King, “in which he shared his dream of inclusion and his will to put an end to racial discrimination using non-violent means.”
Addressing hundreds of thousands of people commemorating on Wednesday the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for civil rights, US President Barack Obama underlined the unfinished business in the struggle for equality and justice in America