
The UK and Argentina joined Foreign Ministers from six other countries to call for a universal Arms Trade Treaty. Countries of the world gathered at the UN in July 2012 to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty but the conference could not reach an agreement.

By James Kirchick (*) - Americans might wonder why they should care about the fate of a tiny set of islands closer to Antarctica than to Florida, where penguins outnumber humans by more than 300 to 1. But the fate of the Falkland Islands — whose citizens expressed a near-unanimous desire to remain part of the United Kingdom this month — will set an important precedent for the universal principle of self-determination

Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman showed his “gratitude” to Interpol legal counsellor Ronald Noble for the letter he sent to Buenos Aires considering the recently approved Memorandum of Understanding signed with Iran “positive.”

Argentina ratified its controversial trade policy during the periodic country review at the World Trade Organization, WTO, arguing Argentina has grown sustainedly since 2003, as have social indexes supported by the strong and successful re-industrialization program.

President Cristina Fernandez called an urgent meeting on Wednesday evening of her economic team following a day of hectic trading in the currency exchange market which had the US dollar climb to 8.75 Pesos in the parallel market, expanding the gap with the official rate to almost 70%.

Argentines expect inflation to reach 33.5% in the next twelve months, according to the latest report from the Finance Research Centre, CIF, which belongs to the Torcuato Di Tella University. This is half a percentage point higher than the previous release.

As thousands of Argentine Catholics were congregated at Plaza de Mayo in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral, where huge screens and Vatican and Argentine flags were set up for people to joyfully celebrate the beginning of Francis’ papacy, the Pontiff surprised the masses with an unexpected phone call.

A Franciscan friar tortured and killed by Argentina’s last civil-military dictatorship, could become the first religious leader to be beatified by Pope Francis according to a piece in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Top officials from the Brazilian mining company Vale which suspended a 6 billion dollars potash development project in Argentina left the country for Sao Paulo last Friday following “on instructions from the security department” of the corporation, according to reports in the Brazilian press.

Despite persistent claims before the world, and his Holiness, that the Malvinas Islands are Argentine, for the tax office in Buenos Aires in practical terms they really are a foreign country, according to the latest resolution which applies an additional fee of 20% to tickets and overseas expenditure with Argentine debit or credit cards.