
FOR the Falklands to be short of bananas as a result of Argentina’s bully-boy blockade and trade restrictions is understandable. For Argentina to run out of bananas you’d think would be impossible in a sub-continent which grows millions of them. But a few weeks ago, they had no bananas in Buenos Aires shops. Only the incompetent Argentines could achieve the impossible. It’s not just bananas they are slipping up on.

Serious incidents broke out on Thursday in the Argentine Patagonia port of Comodoro Rivadavia when a British flagged cargo vessel docked to load cement and were met with anti British-Falklands protestors.

Cuba said it was unacceptable that it will not be invited to an upcoming hemispheric summit in Colombia and blamed the United States for insisting that Cuba be excluded.

February inflation in Argentina according to an average of private agencies which is released monthly by members of the Congressional opposition was 1.65%, climbing to 22.75% in the last twelve months. The official Indec inflation is scheduled to be released next March 13.

The custodianship of the Royal Navy's oldest commissioned warship HMS Victory is to be transferred from the MOD to a charitable trust. The 18th century warship based at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth will now be maintained by the HMS Victory Preservation Trust, established as part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

Brazil approved the allocation of 40 million Reais (approx 22 million dollars) to rebuild and modernize the country’s Antarctic research station Comandante Ferraz which was destroyed during a fire last month.

Economic growth in Latin America should speed to 4.5% in 2013 thanks to monetary stimulus and steadier global conditions, raising the risk of policy complacency, the Institute of International Finance said on Thursday.

By Robert Cox (*) - Charleston, South Carolina - The misbegotten war over the Islands that need not be named has reversed the concept that war is a continuation of politics or diplomacy by other means. The conflict continues in political and diplomatic terms in Argentina and in Britain. Lost in the clamour is the key to the solution: the interests of the native Islanders.

In his memoirs, former UK Defence Secretary Sir John Nott describes France as Britain's greatest ally during the Falklands War. However, formerly secret papers and other evidence seen by the BBC show that was not the full story. Before the war, France sold Argentina's military junta five Exocet missiles.

Spain’s Foreign Secretary Manuel Garcia Margallo admitted there is great concern in Madrid over the situation of Repsol-YPF in Argentina, which is questioning the oil corporation for not having invested sufficiently or paid sufficient taxes, and revealed that King Juan Carlos has been on the phone with President Cristina Fernandez.