Argentina

• Thursday, March 21st 2013 - 06:14 UTC

  Urgent meeting of Argentine economic team as US dollar jumps 10% to 8.75 Pesos

  

  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%.

• Wednesday, March 20th 2013 - 23:40 UTC

  Argentines expect inflation to reach 33.5% in the next twelve months

  

  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.

• Wednesday, March 20th 2013 - 08:40 UTC

  Before his coronation mass Francis talked to the Catholics gathered in Plaza de Mayo

  

  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.

• Wednesday, March 20th 2013 - 08:35 UTC

  Francis first beatification could be a Franciscan friar killed by Argentine military

  

  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.

• Wednesday, March 20th 2013 - 08:29 UTC

  Suspended potash project top officials left Argentina following union threats

  

  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.

• Wednesday, March 20th 2013 - 08:13 UTC

  For Argentina’s tax-revenue office Afip, Malvinas are a foreign territory, most probably British

  

  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.

• Wednesday, March 20th 2013 - 07:31 UTC

  Pope Francis can do without Cristina Fernandez

  

  By Jimmy Burns (*) - This is the same President that has viewed Jorge Bergoglio as an opponent when he served as Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires and has allowed her allies in the Argentine media to try and wreck his reputation by claiming, unjustly, he was complicit in the military regime’s dirty war.

• Wednesday, March 20th 2013 - 07:23 UTC

  Falklands: OAS sceptical about possible mediation from the Pope: he’s Argentine

  

  The Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza is sceptical about a possible mediation from Pope Francis between Argentina and the UK over the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty dispute as was requested by President Cristina Fernandez.

• Tuesday, March 19th 2013 - 06:38 UTC

  Tehran insists accord with Argentina includes Interpol lifting red notices against Iranian suspects

  

  Iranian Foreign Affairs minister Ali Akbar Salehi criticized Interpol for having stated that the existing red notices (international arrest warrants) on six Iranians suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish organization remain active.

• Tuesday, March 19th 2013 - 06:19 UTC

  HSBC accused by Argentina of tax evasion and money laundering

  

  Argentina’s tax agency formally accused the local unit of British banking giant HSBC Holdings Plc. of conspiracy to hide bank accounts, thereby helping private companies evade tax payments and launder money.