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CARACAS, Venezuela — Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro delivered a hysterical reaction on Monday to the election of libertarian economist Javier Milei to the presidency of neighboring Argentina, declaring Milei a “neo-nazi” and a “threat” to Latin America. Maduro, whose authoritarian regime has yet to issue any official statement regarding Argentina’s Sunday presidential election at press time, made the claims against Milei during his weekly television show Con Maduro+ (“With Maduro Plus”). Maduro offered no evidence to substantiate any of his accusations against Argentina’s president-elect.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Argentine military submarine with 44 crew members on board was missing at sea on Friday, prompting a massive search to locate the vessel which may have suffered a communication error, a navy spokesman said. The vessel was in the southern Argentine Sea when it gave its last location two days ago.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez was indicted on Friday over accusations that she oversaw irregularities in the central bank's sale of U.S. dollars in the futures market while she was in office. Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio charged Fernandez, her former economy minister Axel Kicillof and former central bank chief Alejandro Vanoli with "unfaithful administration to the detriment of public administration," according to court papers. The ruling, which gives a green light for prosecutors to put Fernandez on trial, may be appealed. There was no arrest warrant. The accusation is that the central bank took billions of...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine judge has issued an arrest warrant for Justin Bieber on Friday, saying the singer failed to respond to summons related to allegations he ordered bodyguards to attack a photographer in 2013. Judge Alberto Julio Banos ordered the "immediate detention" of Bieber and bodyguards Hugo Alcides Hesny and Terrence Reche Smalls. An email sent to a Bieber representative was not immediately returned.

Sitting in his workshop in San Telmo, pencil in hand, goldsmith Juan Carlos Pallarols drafts one of his most meaningful works of art: a chalice that will be delivered to “Pope Jorge” on behalf of all Argentines. Pallarols knows that this is not just another piece amongst his many other works that have earned him the reputation of being one of the best goldsmiths in the world. This is special. “It’s a particular gift, it’s for a friend, for a good man, but this is not just a gift coming from me. It comes from the Argentine population,” he said,...

Embattled Argentine President Cristina Kirchner cheerfully mugged for photos in the Cu Chi tunnels used by the Viet Cong to ambush United States troops during the Vietnam War and likened Ho Chi Minh to George Washington during a visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Sunday. Kirchner playfully peeks her head out of one of the spiderholes in one photo. She sits cross-legged and grinning outside the tunnel, dressed in guerrilla-style fatigues, in another.

About one minute before the first torpedo hit, Seaman Marcelo Pozzo had lain down on his bunk and was looking forward to some sleep. He had been on duty for most of the day at the Damage Control Station in the heart of the light cruiser the General Belgrano as it pushed through the 15m waves of the South Atlantic, and he was due back on at midnight. As soon as Pozzo closed his eyes, he felt a ‘hammer blow’ that propelled him into the air with such force that he hit the upper bunk. ‘When I fell down, a...

TEGUCIGALPA — The military-backed regime in Honduras has given Argentine diplomats until Friday to leave the country, the latest escalation in a tit-for-tat political dispute between the two nations. The Honduran foreign ministry on Wednesday said it had ordered Argentina's diplomats gone by Friday, despite Buenos Aires's warning that it had no intention of removing its representatives. The move was "in strict reciprocity" with Argentina's decision to expel Honduran envoys in Buenos Aires, the Foreign Ministry said. Honduras on Tuesday broke off diplomatic ties with Argentina, which is pushing hard for the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya's return. Argentine...

A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered. Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination. What's more, people are unwittingly helping the mega-colony stick together. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) were once native to South America. But people have unintentionally introduced the ants to all continents except Antarctica. These introduced Argentine...

The steep fall in global commodity prices over the past several weeks has brought Argentina to the brink of fiscal collapse—alas, not an unfamiliar position for the South American country. For far too long, the Argentine government behaved as if commodity prices would keep rising forever. It spent like a drunken sailor and made unsustainable commitments to the public sector. Such irresponsible fiscal policies were promoted aggressively by Argentine President Néstor Kirchner, who served from 2003 to 2007, and they have been continued by his wife, Cristina, who in 2007 was elected to succeed her husband as president. Until recently,...

Optimists say that emerging-market defaults are a thing of the past. Emerging markets today, the argument goes, are relying more on domestically issued local currency debt, both inflation-indexed and non-indexed. This means their debts are far more stable and reliable than in the recent past, when a much larger share of government debt was issued externally and denominated in hard currency. This argument is wrong. In the past, the combination of high levels of domestic debt and inflation surges has often proven deadly for both foreign and domestic investors. Just look at Argentina today, a country not nearly as prosperous...

Argentine alert as inflation spectre stalks half the world Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Last Updated: 1:12am BST 03/06/2008 Argentina is defaulting on its sovereign debt yet again, this time by stealth. Wealthier Portensos with a nose for trouble are pulling their savings out of Buenos Aires banks. Most are buying dollars, or slipping across the Rio de la Plata to deposit their stash in Uruguay. European and US pension funds that snapped up Argentina's peso bonds at the height of the credit bubble are discovering that it pays to probe the politics of Latin America - and indeed, Eastern Europe, and emerging...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - President Cristina Fernandez blasted striking farmers at a rally of 20,000 supporters Tuesday, comparing their nearly three-week-old protest to a 1976 strike that sowed chaos one month before a military coup. Seeking to build popular opposition to the strike against a disputed export tax increase, Fernandez urged farmers to immediately end hundreds of highway blockades. "Is it good that highways are cut so that food cannot be transported to market?" she said angrily, adding that such pressure tactics will not work in times of democracy. On the strike's 20th day Tuesday, farmers manned 300 road blockades,...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentina's Congress criticized the United States on Wednesday over an alleged cover-up involving a cash-stuffed suitcase that U.S. prosecutors say was bound for President Cristina Fernandez's campaign. U.S. prosecutors say a Venezuelan-American man who brought $800,000 to Argentina for Fernandez's campaign was offered $2 million by Venezuelan agents to keep quiet and help cover up the source of the money. Fernandez describes herself as the victim of dirty politics by the U.S. intended to undermine Argentina's relationship with Venezuela. But the U.S. insists its prosecutors act independently and have pursued the case without influence from the...

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Three rare white tiger cubs delighted visitors at the Buenos Aires zoo on Thursday, tumbling in the grass of their enclosure in their first public appearance since being born late last year. Zookeepers said the birth of the blue-eyed Bengal tiger triplets represented an important contribution to saving the animals from extinction. "There are only about 250, not even 300, animals of this variety in captivity, so every birth in the Buenos Aires zoo contributes to saving this type of Bengal tiger," chief veterinarian Miguel Rivolta told Reuters Television. Rivolta said the zoo's breeding record showed...

Argentina 'arrests' British squid trawler Oliver Balch in Buenos Aires (Filed: 26/02/2006) Argentina has impounded a British trawler in a dramatic escalation of a dispute over squid fishing rights off the Falkland Islands, raising tensions between the two countries. The high seas "arrest" of the trawler last week follows a low-level "squid war" that has been waged amid allegations of over-fishing and infringements of sovereignty. Argentina claims that the John Cheek was illegally fishing in the Argentine economic exclusion zone last Monday. The British Embassy in Buenos Aires, however, believes that the trawler, now under Argentine coastguard control at the...

Royal Navy hopes Argentine visit will break the ice By Oliver Balch in Buenos Aires (Filed: 26/01/2006) A Royal Navy ship has anchored in an Argentine port for the first time since the Falklands conflict. During the goodwill visit to Ushuaia, more than 2,000 miles south of the capital Buenos Aires, by the icebreaker Endurance, British and Argentine officers were joined by veterans as they laid wreaths at a monument honouring those who fell on both sides in the fighting 24 years ago. But the presence of Endurance was not universally popular. A resident held a placard that read: "Murdering...

Argentina protests at Falklands link to EU By Seamus Mirodan in Buenos Aires (Filed: 30/04/2005) Argentina has voiced outrage at the inclusion of the Falkland Islands as British territory in the draft EU constitution. "We are perturbed, we reject this thoroughly, but it is not a new issue and we will have to fight about it for years to come," said foreign minister, Rafael Bielsa. Argentina has complained to Brussels and ordered its ambassadors in the 25 EU capitals to issue protests. London wants to see the Falklands permanently lodged in an annexe to the EU constitution as part of...

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 23 - When the Argentine economy collapsed in December 2001, doomsday predictions abounded. Unless it adopted orthodox economic policies and quickly cut a deal with its foreign creditors, hyperinflation would surely follow, the peso would become worthless, investment and foreign reserves would vanish and any prospect of growth would be strangled. But three years after Argentina declared a record debt default of more than $100 billion, the largest in history, the apocalypse has not arrived. Instead, the economy has grown by 8 percent for two consecutive years, exports have zoomed, the currency is stable, investors are gradually...

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine politicians, blamed by voters for leading the country to its worst economic crisis, would have to undergo psychiatric tests to ensure they are mentally fit to hold office if a bill before Congress is approved. Sen. Jorge Capitanich, a former Cabinet chief, has submitted a bill that would require all congressional and presidential candidates to take mental as well as physical exams, a spokesman for the legislator said Wednesday. The bill, possibly due for debate this week, would also require future leaders to present any criminal records and proof they have paid taxes in a...