
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.

Mercosur leaders called for dialogue with the Pacific Alliance over its perception that Mercosur is becoming an obstacle to integration and wider growth in the region. Uruguayan Vice-President Danilo Astori seemingly sparked the debate a few weeks ago when he said that “Mercosur mustn’t be a terminal station,” calling for formal trade deals with the Pacific Alliance.

President Barack Obama and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet pledged to work together to strengthen the ties between both nations, including projects on energy, education and free trade. Obama met in the Oval Office on Monday with Bachelet, whom he called his second favorite Michelle.

The naming of HMS Queen Elizabeth, which takes place this Friday at Rosyth, Scotland is a unique occasion of historical significance as it marks the beginning of a new era of UK carrier operations.

China will court-martial one of its most senior former military officers on charges of corruption, state media said, the highest-ranking official to date felled in President Xi Jinping's battle against deep-rooted and pervasive graft.

The OAS Permanent Council, responding to an Argentine request, agreed to convene a Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, July 3 the headquarters of the OAS in Washington DC to discuss “Sovereign Debt Restructuring: The Case of Argentina and its Systemic Consequences.”

Argentina confirmed that next Monday, 7 July it will hold a meeting with Judge Thomas Griesa delegate, Daniel Pollack, in the framework of the current litigation with speculative funds, according to a Monday release from the Ministry of Economy in Buenos Aires.

Uruguay promulgated the bill which incorporates Bolivia as the latest member of Mercosur, the South American group made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. The incorporation of Bolivia should help with the consolidation of a Mercosur Atlantic-Pacific corridor across South America.