
The Falkland Islands cruise ship season is looking “relatively healthy” to date, according to Sulivan Shipping Tourism Coordinator Samantha Marsh, with a third of the estimated 45,000 (total) passengers scheduled still to visit during February. The season got underway in October and to date 12,300 passengers have landed from 41 vessels of varying sizes.

In a day of chaotic trading the Argentine Peso on Thursday again plummeted against the US dollar losing 12.4% of its value in the official market, ending the day at just over 8 Pesos. In earlier operations the dollar was selling at 8,31 Pesos until the Central bank decided to intervene helping to cool the market.

January 2014 is becoming the hottest month in 53 years for Argentina with the thermal factor reaching an unbearable 47.6 Celsius mid afternoon before rain poured bringing some relief to most of the country an particularly in cement city Buenos Aires.

Argentina's trade balance during 2013 left of surplus of 9.24 billion dollars, 27% less than in the previous year (12.42bn), according to the latest release from the official stats office, indec. Exports in the past year grew by 3% to reach a value of 83bn dollars, while imports rose by 8% and totaled just over 74bn.

Argentina is considering the purchase from Israel of 18 multipurpose combat aircraft Kfir Block 60 after negotiations with Spain for 16 Mirage F1 fighter bombers fell through, according to a report from Buenos Aires daily Clarin.

Forty two days after her last public speech, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez was back on stage on Wednesday evening on national television to criticize the media, question the opposition and announce a new social plan to aid young unemployed and encourage them to study.

The Paris Club said it would study an outline from Argentina for repaying the more than 9.5 billion dollars it owes the group of creditor nations. Argentina is eager to resolve the problem of its outstanding debt with the group in order to regain access to international capital markets from which it has been shut out since its 2002 default.

A meeting of the presidents from Argentina and Uruguay, Cristina Fernandez and Jose Mujica has not been agreed but is 'in the agenda' said Uruguayan foreign minister Luis Almagro following an hour long meeting with his counterpart Hector Timerman on Wednesday in Montevideo.

Container operators in the port of Montevideo are demanding from Uruguayan authorities an agreement with Argentina to recover all the transshipment activity which has been lost since November when the government of President Cristina Fernandez retaliated against Uruguay over bilateral issues.

The US dollar in the Argentine official market on Wednesday soared 23 cents to 7.125 Pesos, establishing a new record in the midst of uncertainty and frantic trading. The last time the greenback price climbed 3.4% in a single day was back in April 2002. Since the beginning of the year the Argentine peso has plunged 9% against the dollar and a year ago the dollar stood at 5 Argentine Pesos.