Argentina

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 17:45 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez meets Chavez family and has lunch with the Castro brothers

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is flying Saturday to Emirates the first leg of a trade tour that includes the Far East after spending 24 hours in Cuba where she met the Castro brothers, visited the relatives of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez and late Friday held a mini summit with Venezuelan Vice president Nicolas Maduro and Peruvian head of state Ollanta Humala.

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 12:32 UTC

  Eleven million Argentines surviving on 7 dollars per day, according to Indec

  

  Three Argentines out of ten living in urban areas, an estimated 11.1 million people must survive with less that 35.5 Pesos per day or 1.067 Pesos monthly, according to data from the latest Standing homes’ survey, performed by the country’s stats office Indec.

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 12:19 UTC

  Second indigenous teenager in a week murdered in the north east of Argentina

  

  Argentine police are investigating a second murder of a member of the Qom indigenous community in less than a week, after a 16-year old died in a Formosa hospital on Thursday after suffering for four days.

• Friday, January 11th 2013 - 08:36 UTC

  Argentine tourists must pay 8 pesos for the US dollar in neighbouring countries

  

  Following on the climbing tendency since the beginning of the year, the ‘blue’ or ‘parallel’ US dollar traded in Buenos Aires at 7.25 Argentine Pesos with a 46% gap over the ‘official’ dollar that remained relatively stable at 4.95 Pesos.

• Thursday, January 10th 2013 - 11:56 UTC

  In a highly political speech CFK appealed to the motherland and blasted hedge funds

  

  President Cristina Fernandez (CFK) as expected made the welcoming ceremony for the Argentine frigate ARA Libertad (retained in Ghana for 78 days) into a ‘sovereignty and dignity’ political rally including the support of 20.000 militants, mostly bused in by political organizations, in which she blasted hedge funds, ‘global social predators’ and warned that through extortion and force nobody is going to obtain anything from Argentina.

• Thursday, January 10th 2013 - 04:06 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez targets UK ‘threats’ to keep escalating the Falklands’ dispute

  

  Argentine president Cristina Kirchner targeted the UK for “threatening” to come “to militarize and invade our Malvinas Islands” following the announcement that an additional 150 British soldiers are been sent to the Falklands and PM David Cameron recent warnings on support of the Islands.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2013 - 05:12 UTC

  The 2012/13 cruise season: a new case of Argentine intolerance towards Malvinas

  

  Most probably this cruise season 2012/2013 will be remembered not for the record number of calls or visitors (estimated in half a million) but as a new case of Argentine intolerance with the Malvinas Islands in centre stage, writes La Nacion columnist Emiliano Galli.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2013 - 05:07 UTC

  Ms Nahón confirmed as Argentine ambassador in the US; takes office in February

  

  The US government approved the designation of Cecilia Nahón as the next Argentine Ambassador to the US, leading to her official appointment in the post, according to a release from the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2013 - 05:02 UTC

  Argentina rapidly changing oil/gas industry levies to attract foreign investment

  

  Argentina unveiled a new system of export duties on oil shipments that will cut levies as the government seeks to attract investment to revive stagnant production. The change means energy companies will receive 70 dollars per barrel of exported oil, up from 42 previously. Argentina controls the price of oil exports in order to guarantee domestic supply.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2013 - 02:41 UTC

  Indigenous 12-year old beaten to death in north-east Argentina

  

  The death by beating of a 12 year old indigenous Qom child in the north of Argentina had shocked public opinion following on another incident less than a month ago when a gendarme run over an indigenous grandmother and a ten month old baby girl.