Argentina

• Wednesday, March 26th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Extreme tension after CFK speech: indefinite farming strike

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernandez refused to ease tax hikes on agricultural exports Tuesday, facing down angry farmers embroiled in a nationwide strike that has all but halted production in one of the world's biggest beef-exporting nations.

• Tuesday, March 25th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine officials tell farmers “no dialogue under pressure”

  

  The Argentine government will not dialogue “under pressure” with striking farmers said Monday Justice minister Anibal Fernandez. Farmers have completed twelve days of surprising successful protests against the government's tax policy on grain, beef and dairy exports.

• Tuesday, March 25th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina's foreign debt stands at 123 billion US dollars

  

  Argentina's foreign debt stood at the end of 2007 at 123.197 billion US dollars, a 13.3% hike over the 108.762 billion of 2006, according to the latest report from the country's Statistics and Census Institute, Indec.

• Monday, March 24th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Farmers' conflict in Argentina seems out of control

  Argentine industrialists and teamsters called on Sunday for dialogue to end the farmers' massive, crippling strike which threatens to leave the main cities short of meat, dairy produce and other food staples. The protest begun ten days ago and there's no solution on sight.

• Monday, March 24th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine Armed Forces running out of officers

  Argentina is preparing a package of benefits to retain military officers, who are abandoning the services attracted by higher salaries and better working conditions in the civilian sector, reports the Buenos Aires press.

• Thursday, March 20th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Aircraft remains trawled in S. Atlantic date back to 1961

  

  Remains of a military aircraft trawled by an Argentine fishing vessel 159 kilometers off Santa Cruz belong to an Argentine Navy North American SNJ-5C Texan that went down in 1961 and not to aircrafts involved in the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict as originally believed.

• Thursday, March 20th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Lack of Argentine gas forces Methanex redundancies

  

  Methanex in the extreme south of Chile announced this week it will have to cut its work force in approximately 15% because of the insufficient supply of Argentine natural gas.

• Thursday, March 20th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Controversy over public image support for Cristina Kirchner

  

  A controversy over the support for Argentine president Cristina Kirchner has been triggered by the publication in the Buenos Aires press of a public opinion poll which shows her rating falling six points to 47%.

• Wednesday, March 19th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Horsemeat: Argentina main exporter of promising market

  

  Argentina became in 2007 the world's leading exporter of horse meta, totaling 35.755 tons equivalent to 87.5 million US dollars, according to the latest report from the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food Secretary.

• Tuesday, March 18th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine farmers sixth day of protest, and more next week

  

  The stand off between the Argentine government and striking farmers who are protesting against export taxes on grains, beef and dairy produce has yet to see effective signals of a cooling of the situation or the possibility of a dialogue.