
At least eight people are reported dead after torrential rain and powerful winds battered Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires and surrounding neighbourhoods flooding streets, knocking out power, downing trees and damaging homes and cars, officials said Tuesday. An estimated 350.000 people have been affected by the floods.

A diplomatic ‘gaffe’ referred to the Falklands/Malvinas Islands and the recent referendum seems to have been committed by the British embassy in Colombia, gaining great display in the Argentine media.

In full half page white and blue ads the Argentine embassy in Montevideo expressed on Tuesday how grateful it is to Uruguay for its support in the Malvinas Islands claim and for having been one of the first countries to reject the ‘legitimacy and publicity stunt’ of the ‘pseudo-referendum’ recently held in the Falklands.

President Cristina Fernandez announced on Tuesday that 91 next of kin of Argentine combatants buried in NN graves at the Falkland Islands Darwin memorial have agreed and signed to have the remains DNA tested and clearly identified.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez marked Tuesday's 31st anniversary of the start of the Falklands War by again demanding that Britain agree to discuss sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands.

An estimated 11 million Argentines or 26.9% out of a population of 40 million live in poverty according to the Social Observatory from the Argentine Catholic University, (UCA) based on a survey taken at the end of last year. However according to Argentina questioned stats’ office Indec, in the second half of 2012, poverty was down to 5.4% of the population equivalent to 2.2 million poor.

President Jose Mujica confirmed that the project for the construction of a liquid gas re-gasification plant in the River Plate coast, originally planned with Argentina, “will go ahead with of without the Argentine government”.

With insistent rumours of imminent measures to try and control the value of the US dollar in Argentina, Central Bank Governor Mercedes Marcó del Pont, stressed that the country has more than 40 billion dollars in reserves to manage the foreign exchange market avoiding sharp changes.

“I THINK there is no doubt that the Argentine Government will continue to look for opportunities to pull stunts of one kind or another.”
The speaker was Dr Peter Hayes, the Director of the FCO’s Overseas Territories Directorate who was paying a short visit to the Falkland Islands last week.

Foreign minister Luis Almagro said on Wednesday that Malvinas Islands’ sovereignty belongs to the whole of Latinamerica and as part of Latinamerica and the Caribbean, “we will defend the territorial integrity of the continent”.