Britain's interest in the Malvinas Islands is 100% economic and if hydrocarbons exploration in the waters surrounding the archipelago advances we could be facing a major ecologic disaster, said Daniel Filmus, head of the Argentine Foreign Ministry Malvinas Affairs Secretariat.
In a rare interview, the Argentine Colonel who was responsible for placing mines in the occupied Falkland Islands in 1982 as part of the defense strategy against the advancing British forces, admits that between 15.000 and 20.000 of antipersonnel and anti tank explosives were planted, but also claims some stretches of the Islands' coast already had mines which had been placed by the British.
A strong 8.2-magnitude earthquake has struck off the northwestern coast of Chile, killing at least five people and setting off a small tsunami that prompted evacuations along the country's Pacific coast. Chilean Interior minister Rodrigo Peñalillo confirmed that five people had died, “four are men and a woman in Iquique and Alto Hospicio, caused by heart attack and crushing”.