
Vulture funds are not interested in negotiations, and all they want is to get hold of the money for re-structured bonds holders, said Argentina's Ministry of Economy in a release made public late Tuesday, the last exchange on the ongoing battle in a New York court with holdout hedge funds.

France's largest bank, BNP Paribas, has agreed to a record 9bn dollars settlement with US prosecutors over allegations of sanctions violations. As part of the deal, the bank will plead guilty to two criminal charges of breaking US sanctions against trade with Sudan, Iran and Cuba.

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld a ban by France on wearing the Muslim full-face veil, the niqab. A case was brought by a 24-year-old French woman, who argued that the ban on wearing the veil in public violated her freedom of religion and expression.

Twenty years ago, first July 1994, after decades of financial turmoil, Brazil introduced its current currency, the Real, marking a turning point in the country's fight against hyperinflation.

The Falkland Islands Government have minted a new circulatory £2 coin, to mark the Centenary of the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914.

Argentina's former foreign minister Jorge Taiana described lawmaker and presidential hopeful Julio Cleto Cobos current visit to the Falkland Islands totally “irresponsible” and 'without consultation'. He also blasted the fact that the lawmaker would have his Argentine passport stamped by the government of the Falkland Islands.

One of the holdout hedge funds involved in the lawsuit against the Argentine government over pending debt from the 2001 bonds default, pointed out on Tuesday that the agreements struck by Argentina with Spanish oil and conglomerate Repsol and the Paris Club are good examples for the basis of an eventual understanding.

Britain’s Europe Minister David Lidington toured the Gibraltar border on Monday evening and received an on-the-spot briefing from Chief Minister Fabian Picardo on the human impact of Spanish controls.

Violence in Mexico could thwart hopes of a budding shale boom, as oil and gas companies operating in Texas may think twice about moving south of the border.
Mexico holds an estimated 545 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas and 13 billion barrels of shale oil, but progress in developing those resources has been slow.

Holdout investors involved in litigation with Argentina over sovereign debt said on Monday they have not met with the government to negotiate a settlement on defaulted debt, and accused Buenos Aires of refusing to enter talks as a 30-day countdown to default begins.