Argentina

• Monday, September 21st 2009 - 11:16 UTC

  Italian tax police seize Maradona’s earrings

  

  Football legend Diego Maradona had his earrings seized by Italian authorities to help pay off his back taxes, according to media reports. The current coach of Argentina's national team was staying at a clinic in northern Italy in a bid to lose weight when finance police swooped, according to Reuters and later confirmed by the Argentine press.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 11:26 UTC

  Reflecting recession, Argentina’s foreign trade dropped by 40% during August

  

  Argentina's August trade surplus dropped 48% from the same month a year ago to 1.16 billion US dollars as exports sank, the government said on Friday. Imports fell by 37% during the month to 3.25 billion, while exports dropped by an even bigger 40% to 4.40 billion USD due to lower prices and reduced volumes, particularly by the drought-hit farming industry.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 07:32 UTC

  Argentina’s capital flight in the first half of 2009 reached 7.5 billion USD

  

  Capital flight in Argentina climbed during the second quarter, with net outflows of 4.279 billion US dollars from the non-financial private sector, according to Friday’s report from Indec.

• Saturday, September 19th 2009 - 07:25 UTC

  Argentina’s GDP contracts 0.8% in August but expands 3% in last 12 months

  

  Argentina's GDP fell 0.8% in the second quarter compared to a year ago, the first time in six years, but accumulates a 0.6% raise in the first half of the year, according to a Friday release from the national statistics bureau, Indec.

• Friday, September 18th 2009 - 12:03 UTC

  Argentina set to recover in 2010 with growth reaching 2.5%

  

  Argentina’s Economy Minister Amado Boudou made the official presentation Thursday of the 2010 budget before the Lower House of Congress, in which he estimated that the economy would grow 2.5% in the upcoming fiscal year, with retail prices in the range of 7% and the primary budget surplus 2.7%. of GDP.

• Friday, September 18th 2009 - 11:29 UTC

  Argentina plans to reach agreement with “holdouts” and Paris Club

  

  Argentina plans to reach an agreement with holders of the country's defaulted debt in an effort to return to international lending markets, according to a draft of the 2010 budget submitted to Congress this week.

• Friday, September 18th 2009 - 06:11 UTC

  Argentina, a country of “paranoiac reactions”, and the Kirchners, “what a gang”

  

  “The Kirchners are lefties, but what a left, mamma mia, what a gang!” and Argentina is a country “of hysteric, mad, paranoiac reactions”. The comments belong to Uruguay’s ruling coalition presidential candidate, Jose Mujica and whom opinion polls show him comfortably ahead for next October’s election.

• Thursday, September 17th 2009 - 04:31 UTC

  Spanish apology to Argentina for “protocol error” involving Falklands’ delegation

  

  Argentina formally accepted Wednesday apologies from the Spanish government which admitted having committed a “protocol error” on allowing the presence of a delegation from the Falkland Islands in an international fisheries sustainability conference, reports Efe, the Spanish government news agency quoting the head of Argentina’s Fisheries Department Norberto Yauhar.

• Wednesday, September 16th 2009 - 08:52 UTC

  Buenos Aires optimistic about the coming cruise season

  

  In spite of the global slowdown, the cruise industry in South America seems to be steaming ahead according to the latest estimates from Buenos Aires Port, which for the coming 2009/2010 season is expecting 143 calls.

• Tuesday, September 15th 2009 - 09:49 UTC

  Argentina accuses Uruguay of “irreversible damage” to the ecosystem

  

  Argentina told the International Court of Justice Monday that Uruguayan pollution of a border river was a grave infringement of Argentinean rights. Argentina and Uruguay have been wrangling for years over a giant pulp mill sited on the Uruguay River, which divides the two South American nations.