Argentina

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 16:05 UTC

  Argentina and Brazil moving towards “financial integration”

  

  Argentina and Brazil signed Wednesday an agreement to swap domestic currencies for the equivalent of a total 1.8 billion US dollars, which could be used to increase international reserves. The accord was described as an important effort towards “financial integration” in the framework of Mercosur.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 15:46 UTC

  Buenos Aires tragic rock club manager convicted to 20 years in prison

  

  Argentina's Court of Justice on Wednesday convicted and sentenced a club owner to 20 years in prison for a deadly club fire that killed 194 people but absolved the band that had played the night of the tragedy.

• Wednesday, August 19th 2009 - 12:24 UTC

  Some positive signs for Argentine industrial activity in spite of poor data

  

  Argentine industrial activity during July plunged for the tenth month running going down 9.5% compared to a year ago, and accumulates so far this year a contraction of 8.7%, according to a private financial consultant group based in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, August 19th 2009 - 12:20 UTC

  Honduras breaks diplomatic relations with Argentina

  

  Honduras suspended diplomatic relations with Argentina on Tuesday in retaliation for having its ambassador expelled from Argentina last week. The move stems from tensions between the two countries over the June 28 coup in which Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was replaced by congressional leader Roberto Micheletti.

• Wednesday, August 19th 2009 - 12:10 UTC

  Catholic Church insists 40% of Argentines live in poverty

  

  The Argentine Catholic Church insisted on Tuesday that 40% of the population is poor or living below the poverty line and the gap between rich and poor is “scandalous”. The statement comes when Argentine bishops are meeting in Buenos Aires,

• Tuesday, August 18th 2009 - 13:03 UTC

  US media sets eyes on Argentina’s “manipulation of numbers”

  

  Argentina’s Statistics Institute controversy was joined Sunday by a most reputable newspaper, the Washington Post that called Indec numbers a ”manipulation (...) done under pressure from above”.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2009 - 07:55 UTC

  Malvinas Families will inaugurate Argentine Memorial next October

  

  The Commission of Malvinas war Families confirmed to the Buenos Aires press that the Argentine Memorial at the Falklands’ Darwin cemetery will be inaugurated next October in two consecutive Saturdays. An advance party to coordinate the events is expected in the Falkland Islands at the end of the month.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2009 - 07:28 UTC

  Argentina faces the worst squid season in years

  

  With only two weeks left, Argentina is facing the worst squid season in years forcing jiggers to abandon the fisheries given the poor catches.

• Monday, August 17th 2009 - 12:31 UTC

  It is official: Argentina’s economy contracted in May and June

  

  Argentina's economy officially contracted in May and June for the first time since the economic crisis in 2001 and 2002 which led to a massive default, according to the latest release from the official statistics office, Indec.

• Friday, August 14th 2009 - 05:27 UTC

  Nationalized Aerolíneas Argentinas remains deep in the red

  

  Argentina’s re-nationalized flag air carrier Aerolíneas Argentina lost in July 48 million US dollars which is “a little bit more” than the same month a year ago when the company belonged to the Spanish tourism group Marsans, according to the company’s current CEO Mariano Recalde.