
Global economic activity should strengthen in the second half of the year and accelerate in 2015, although momentum could be weaker than expected, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said, hinting at a slight cut in the Fund's growth forecasts.

The Minister for Europe, David Lidington, will visit Gibraltar on Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1 July. The visit will enable the Minister to visit the Gibraltar-Spain border to witness first-hand the continuing delays at the crossing, to hold discussions with HM Government of Gibraltar, and to meet a wide range of the people of Gibraltar.

Uruguay's second pulp mill Montes del Plata started production this week following an investment of 2 billion dollars, the largest ever in the recent history of the country. The announcement was made by the Chilean-Swedish complex that is running the plant.

The board of directors of French power-to-rail group Alstom unanimously approved US conglomerate General Electric's 12.35 billion Euro bid to acquire its energy business.

The Uruguay-Germany commerce and industry chamber (AHK), expressed its deepest concern over the current tension in relations between Uruguay and Argentina, and warned about the impact on the business climate for the two countries.

Uruguay has released a draft map of four ultra-deepwater and seven shallow-water blocks in the Punta del Este-Atlantic basin that will be on offer in the country’s third oil and gas bid round next year, officials said in Moscow this week, according to the oil and gas site Upstream.

Borders & Southern Petroleum PLC said on Tuesday that new data on the Darwin gas condensate discovery in the Falkland Islands show the potential for wider hydrocarbon distribution.

Argentine foreign minister Hector Timerman said that the pulp mill dispute with Uruguay is 'political' and wondered how great is Finland's' Botnia-UPM influence in the country, but at the same time underlined that all chances of dialogue have been 'exhausted'.

London AIM listed President Energy PLC, has spudded what it calls the first deep exploration well in the Paraguayan part of the Chaco basin in almost 30 years.

The lasted chapter of the resurgent diplomatic conflict between Argentina and Uruguay was not addressed during a brief encounter of presidents Cristina Fernandez and Jose Mujica in Bolivia where they attended the G77 plus China summit over the weekend.