Argentina

• Monday, November 16th 2009 - 14:15 UTC

  FIFA bans Maradona for two months on qualifier incident in Montevideo

  

  Argentina head coach Diego Maradona has been banned from football for two months and fined by FIFA as punishment for his rant at journalists following Argentina's qualification for the World Cup finals a month ago in Montevideo, Uruguay.

• Saturday, November 14th 2009 - 13:51 UTC

  Argentine bishops call on CFK to combat poverty and consolidate democracy

  

  The Argentine Catholic Church urged the government to combat the “dramatic” situation of the poor and demanded the authorities consolidate democratic institutions and defuse growing social unrest.

• Saturday, November 14th 2009 - 13:47 UTC

  Argentina’s retail inflation climbs 0.8% during October

  

  Argentina’s consumer price index increased 0.8% during October, according to the official Statistics office, Indec. The education and apparel industries were the ones that most gained. The main private pollsters were expecting the retail prices index to rise between 1 and 1.3%.

• Friday, November 13th 2009 - 09:26 UTC

  Lavagna blasts Cristina Kirchner failed government: “stop looking for excuses”

  

  Argentina’ former Economy minister Roberto Lavagna said on Thursday that when governments begin to fail, “they begin to look for all kind of excuses”. The administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner faced with mounting social unrest and financial problems claims a “destabilization plan” has been set in motion.

• Friday, November 13th 2009 - 08:18 UTC

  Buenos Aires “picket-city”: 340 street protests per month

  

  Since September last year the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has faced 7.658 street protests and blocked routes, which is 68% more than the 4.451which took place during the four years mandate of her predecessor in the job and husband, Nestor Kirchner. This works out at an average 340 monthly street protests since Mrs. Kirchner took office in December 2007.

• Friday, November 13th 2009 - 03:58 UTC

  The Kirchner couple at their lowest public opinion rating

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her husband Nestor Kirchner are the politicians with the worst image according to a public opinion poll taken at the end of October by Management & Fit and released this week.

• Thursday, November 12th 2009 - 10:30 UTC

  Argentine church calls government to improve “social cohesion and bring peace”

  

  The Argentine Catholic Church called Wednesday on the government to improve “social cohesion and bring peace” to Argentines. At a conference headed by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to mark the 25th anniversary of a peace treaty between Argentina and Chile mediated by Pope John Paul II, the cardinal claimed the government “has the obligation to resolve all its controversies by the use of peaceful methods.”

• Thursday, November 12th 2009 - 09:29 UTC

  Argentine government monthly report: “signs of slow recovery”

  

  Argentina’s cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández reported there were signs of “a slow recovery” in the economy, during his monthly address to the Congress. “The usual soothsayers were wrong in their predictions,” he said, claiming that GDP fell less abruptly in Argentina than in Peru, Chile or even Brazil.

• Thursday, November 12th 2009 - 06:29 UTC

  Buenos Aires clogged and in chaos under picket rule

  

  Thousands of Argentine unemployed turned to the streets of Buenos Aires blocking streets in demand for government subsidies generating a massive traffic chaos for the second day running. On Tuesday it was the underground workers that walked out leaving literally millions stranded in Argentina’s capital as the political and social climate dangerously escalates.

• Wednesday, November 11th 2009 - 11:54 UTC

  Book crudely exposes Kirchner’s tactics to remain in power

  

  The Landlord (El Dueño) is the title of the latest book released in Argentina which tells the story of how a shy and humiliated adolescent manages to become the richest, most powerful and vindictive president of Argentina, according to the internet site Hipercritico.com which belongs to the author of the book Luis Majul.