
Soybean prices again climbed on Tuesday in Chicago reaching a historic record of 650.74 dollars the ton, boosted by investors’ purchases fearing limited supplies because of the worst drought in the US in the last five decades.

Moody's has lowered its outlook for the European Union's AAA credit rating to negative and warned that the bloc's rating could be downgraded. The move reflected the negative outlook for the ratings of the EU key budget contributors.

The death of Sun Myung Moon deprives the Unification Church of a charismatic leader, the engine behind the business and religious success, and now faces an uncertain future when the number of followers has been falling since the eighties.

The president of the European Commission Jose Durao Barroso said on Tuesday that the EU 27 members still want to reach a free trade agreement with Mercosur, but warned that the “protectionist stances” from some of its members makes it difficult.

British Prime Minister David Cameron reshuffled his ailing coalition government on Tuesday, but kept unpopular finance minister George Osborne and foreign minister William Hague in their jobs.

Argentine nationalized oil company YPF moved forward in the signing of an agreement with Russian state oil company Gazprom to develop conventional and non-conventional gas in Argentina and the eventual supply of liquefied gas.

French Foreign Trade minister Nicole Bricq said that there are “great problems” in the current negotiations between the EU and Mercosur to reach an association agreement which also includes a free trade chapter.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that any suggestion of a risk of breach for Julian Assange’s human rights on extradition to Sweden is completely unfounded and recalled that international, EU and UK law fully address the concerns raised by Assange and by the Government of Ecuador.

Argentine Defence minister Arturo Puricelli strongly criticized the announced referendum the Falkland Islands government is scheduled to hold next March which he described as a ‘parody’ and “entirely lacking imagination and creativity”.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble rejected on Monday a European Commission plan to give the European Central Bank sweeping powers to monitor all Euro zone banks, saying it should instead focus only on systemically important institutions.