MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Englishwoman death in Argentina reaches House of Commons

The mysterious death in Argentina of a young Englishwoman in October of last year has reached the floor of the British House of Commons with her family's MP questioning a junior Foreign Office minister about the adequacy of the support received by the deceased woman's family from the British Embassy in Buenos Aires and questioning the return of her body to the UK without its organs.

Laura Michelle Hill from Eastbourne in Sussex was found dead in October last year in Buenos Aires. Initial reports stated that she had died of natural causes and been found on a bench in a park but subsequent investigations showed that she may have been the victim of a crime. While questioning Kim Howells, a junior Foreign Office Minister in the House of Commons on Wednesday her family's Tory MP, Nigel Winterson, claimed that there had been "a lack of support" shown by the British Embassy to the Hill family and that it had provided "contradictory information" about the circumstances surrounding her death. He also described how Hill "arrived in Argentina on August 19, 2007, and kept in regular contact with her family in Eastbourne until September 14, when the phone calls stopped. Her parents had no reason to suspect that anything was amiss until, to their horror, on October 2, the police arrived at their door to inform them of their daughter's death." Winterson went on to ask whether it wasn't "obvious from the outset that there was something suspicious about the circumstances (of Hill's death)? Laura was healthy, young and did not have any significant health problems." The MP then told of how the initial reports that Hill had died of natural causes were contradicted by an autopsy which showed that "she had been found not on a park bench but in the first-floor hallway of an apartment building. She had suffered extensive bruising on various parts of her body, and other tests suggest that she may have been interfered with sexually." He also confirmed that Hill "had a lethal dose of cocaine in her body when she died." and added: "I am told that the dose was so high that it was unlikely that she could have administered it herself." Winterson expressed his discontent with the role played by the British Embassy in Buenos Aires in the affair, asking "at times during this case, it has escaped me why we bother to have diplomatic representation at all." The Sussex MP also expressed concern as to the fact that Hill's body had been returned to the UK without its organs, contrary to what her family had been led to expect. BAH Argentine government takes over Aerolineas and Austral Argentina announced Thursday it had reached an agreement with the Spanish group Marsans for the transfer of the country's main airline Aerolíenas Argentinas and its subsidiary Austral to the Argentine state. "We've arrived to a very elaborate agreement", said Argentine Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime who broke the news. Jaime added that as of today "begins a period of 60 days for the transfer process" during which all necessary related issues, documents, numbers, auditing, will be addressed under the guidance of a "transition council" made up of three government representatives and two from the Spanish tourism group. The Argentine official said that the agreement would be formalized next Monday by the Planning Minister Julio De Vido and Marsans shareholders. "It's a highly significant milestone to have the Argentine flag air carrier back in service of Argentines and the national economy", said Jaime who pointed out that the companies unions "want Aerolineas and Austral to be part of the vigorous recovery Argentina is undergoing". No price was advanced for the operation, but Jaime said that the government will look for ways to inject fresh funds to the company and did not discard the re-privatization of Areolíneas "in not a too distant future". Pervious to this morning's announcement in Buenos Aires press reports from Madrid indicated that a spokesperson for Marsans said that an agreement had been reached to sell the airline. "The final price of the operation will be known in two months time", based on information supplied by both sides said the spokesperson. "We're satisfied how things worked out", he added underlining that it was a "private transaction". Aerolineas has been facing mounting financial and labor problems caused by (government) frozen air fares, high fuel costs and continuous disruptions allegedly sponsored by the Kirchner administration which is keen to recover what it considers iconic corporations for the Argentine state. Apparently during a court hearing last Tuesday Marsans Aerolineas admitted debts of 890 million US dollars of which 220 million were short term demandable. In a release Aerolineas said that commercial debt "accumulated rapidly in the last months, as of the beginning of the year, because of higher fuel costs, increased labor strife and delay in enforcing measured required by the air transport industry". Since last week the Argentine government has paid for back salaries, fuel and maintenance and leasing of over half the fleet which if not could have been grounded by the end of the month.