
Uruguayan oil company ANCAP announced Wednesday through a press release that one of its companies, Carboclor S.A., based in Argentina, had turned to the courts to start the reorganization proceedings, known in Argentinian law as Concurso Preventivo, which is very similar to the United States' Chapter Eleven bankruptcy mechanism.

British ambassador in Uruguay Ian Duddy, on Monday, made the official presentation of his diplomatic credentials to President Tabaré Vázquez, thus completing the formalities of his post.

The Uruguayan government seems to have found the clue to climate change phenomena: it is looking into the legal aspects of limiting weather information, forecasts and warnings, to the official reports from the national Met Office, Inumet (veiled censorship?), which has on several occasions missed to anticipate some serious climate events.

On the eve of Argentina becoming the next chair of Mercosur, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro revealed he held an hour long video conference with his Uruguayan peer Tabare Vazquez and they both agreed in building a path to channel the current conflict, which has Venezuela suspended from the group, but is rejected point blank by Caracas.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday raised its forecast for economic growth in Uruguay this year to 0.7%, a substantial increase from the 0.1% estimated in October, and underlined the country's resilience to the problems of its neighbors Argentina and Brazil.

Unemployment in Uruguay in October fell to 7.1% and marked the lowest monthly record of the year, according to data published on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In September this index was at 8.4% and a year ago, in October 2015, at 8.5%.

A historic lawsuit loss to Uruguay over tobacco-related cancer damages and other technological developments have Philip Morris focusing on new alternatives. I think the time will come when we will have enough acceptance of these alternative products to begin to propose, along with the governments, a gradual elimination of conventional cigars, the company CEO Andre Calantzopoulos announced.

Uruguay's derby between Peñarol and Nacional was called off on Sunday after fans clashed with police in and around the Centenario stadium, while cooking gas carafes were dropped from the stands against officers injuring several. An estimated 150 hooligans were finally arrested by riot policy with horses and dogs and the match was suspended when the police said it could not guarantee the safety of players and people at the stadium.

Uruguay will expand sewage and rainwater drainage systems in Montevideo and improve management of City Hall's sanitation system thanks to a US$60 million loan approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The money represents the second stage of a line of credit that the IDB approved for investment projects in December 2006.

Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez is off to Europe for a two-week business and academic interests trip which begins on Friday in Spain and will continue in the Vatican, Austria and France. On Friday, Vazquez is scheduled to hold a private meeting with King Felipe IV of Spain, and on Monday with president Mariano Rajoy.