‘Venezuela’s entry to Mercosur strengthens the region,’ CFK

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

Brazil´s President Dilma Rousseff and Venezuela´s President Hugo Chávez shake hands during the special summit held in honour of incorporating Venezuela into the Mercosur bloc.
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner assured today during a press conference held at the Mercosur summit in Brasilia, that Venezuela’s entry to the bloc “strengthens the entire region.”
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay made the action official today in a special summit held in Brasilia.
The heads of state from the four participating countries – Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, Uruguay’s José Mujica and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner met this morning, following taking a group photo just before 10.55 am at the Planalto Palace.
A press conference was held this afternoon before the leaders moved on to the Brazilian Itamaraty Chancery where they were attending a special lunch in honour of the heads of state.
During the conference President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, expressed her joy over Venezuela’s entry to the bloc, mentioning how her late husband had fought and hoped that this day would arrive.
“Néstor Kirchner and Lula Da Silva always dreamt of this happening.»
Venezuela’s swearing into the bloc makes it the first country to join the bloc since it was founded in 1991.
buenosairesherald.com

US surprise ‘Las Leonas’ once again

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

Shannon Taylor (on ground) of the US celebrates after scoring a goal against Argentina.
Argentina’s national women’s field hockey team stumbled once again against the United States and faced the first defeat in the Olympic Games in a match that lacked accuracy in the penalty corners.
US came to the field willing to stop Argentina, and although it also did lack precision in the penalty corners, it took advantage in the defence to score a goal that was enough to gain its first three points in London.
Goalkeeper Amy Swensen managed to stop the attempts of Argentina’s Josefina Sruoga and Noel Barrionuevo to open their score.
By the end of the first part of the game, Shannon Taylor netted the only goal of the match, leading her team to the victory over «Las Leonas.»
Despite Argentina’s intention to score, they were not able to tie the result by the end of the second part of the match.
Argentina will now have another opportunity against New Zealand, which has already won both matches it has played.

Line-ups:
Argentina: Mutio; Scarone, D’Elía, Barrionuevo; Sruoga J., Rodríguez, Sánchez, Sruoga D.; Aymar, Rebecchi, Merino, Cavallero, Habif, Luchetti and Maccari.
United States: Swensen; Dawson, Taylor, Reinprecht J., Reinprecht K., O’Donell, Selenski, Laubach, Falgowski, Bashore, Crandall, Gonzalez, Vittese, Puzo, Kasold, Nichols.
Goals: 0-1, m.28: Shanon Taylor.
buenosairesherald.com

Schoklender requests threats probe is handled by a City court

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

Former financial manager of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo foundation Sergio Schoklender requested Judge Ariel Lijo to recuse himself to investigate the Hebe de Bonafini’s charges of threat and asked the case is handed by the City Judiciary.

Sources said that Schoklender’s lawyer Perla Martíniez de Buck requested Lijo to turn over the threats investigation to a City court.

Lijo, in turn, replaces Judge María Romilda Servini de Cubría.

Schoklender told reporters today that on Wednesday he will gather witnesses that will testify that they met for hours in the northern Greater Buenos Aires area of Pilar and not that he was anywhere near the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’s Foundation headquarters in the City.

Following that report, Bonafini requested that Schoklender is banned of getting less than 500 metres awaw of the foundation.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Argentina issues its first same-sex parent birth certificate

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

Argentina issued today the first same-sex parent birth certificate, the LGBT rights group (FALGBT) informed. The boy named Tobías, registered under two fathers, was born in India after a surrogacy process.

The boy was registered in the Buenos Aires City Civil Registry with no distinction between the biological one and the non biological parent . Alejandro Grinblat and Carlos Dermger are the proud fathers of Tobías.

“This huge step puts our country once again at the vanguard of protection and promotion of rights of the LGBT community,” said Estaban Paulón, president of FALGBT.

“Although the Marriage Equality Act states that no difference should be made between children of same or different sex couples, and besides the fact that many birth certificates with two mothers have already been issued, it wasn’t easy to get to this point,» Secretary for International Relations at LGBT Alejandro Nasif Salum explained.

«The Civil Registry was reluctant to do it,” Nasif said.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Use of public services gain 9.7% in June

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

The use of public services climbed 9.7 percent in June against the volume registered the same month last year, boosted by the passengers’ tranport sector, according to the Indec national statistics bureau.

The official data also reported that it has accumulated a 8.7 percent increase during the first six months of 2012, year-on-year.

The passengers’ transport service rose 17.1 percent, followed by telephone services with a 11.8 percent increase.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Moody’s upgrades Uruguay’s rating

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

Moody’s headquarters in New York City.
Moody’s Investor Service upgraded Uruguay’s sovereign ratings from Ba1 to Baa3, following Standard & Poor’s upgrade announced on April.
The rating action was applied because of the «credit profile that, in general terms, has come in line with that of Baa-rated investment-grade countries.»
Moody’s assured that a «steady improvement in Uruguay’s fiscal metrics coupled with a significant strengthening of the government’s balance sheet,» and also a key was the «reduced credit vulnerabilities to regional shocks in light of increased diversification and ample liquidity buffers.»
The ratings agency backed its decision by stating that the country headed by President José Mujica has registered an «annual growth of more than 6 percent during 2004-2011,» same period that has shown «an upward shift in total factor productivity» and that «government deficits have been on the order of 1 percent to 2 percent of GDP.»
Moody’s highlighted that the government’s debt ratio has dropped below 40 percent of the Gross Domestic Product after «reaching nearly 80 percent in 2004.»
Earlier this year, Standard and Poor’s had also upgraded Uruguay’s credit rating.
buenosairesherald.com

Italy beat Argentina 3-1 in men’s volleyball

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

Italy beat Argentina 3-1 (25-17, 20-25, 25-17 and 25-23) in a men’s volleyball Group A game prevailing. The team coached by Javier Webber will face Poland on next Thursday in a crucial match to keep the aim at the olympic podium.
Italians had and inspired duo on Lasko with 18 killers, and Zaytsev (17), while Argentina Facundo Conte led th way with 14 killers followed by Rodrigo Quiroga and Pablo Crer with 10 killers each.
buenosairesherald.com

CFK, Chávez sign YPF, PDVSA cooperation agreement

Felipe Ago 1, 2012

After attending a Mercosur meeting in Brasilia, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, signed a cooperation agreement to develop a strategic energy plan between state oil companies YPF and PDVSA.

The bilateral summit took place in the Argentine embassy in the Brazilian capital.

After signing the accord, Fernández assured that the Mercosur “should aspire to become the fifth global economy behind the US, China, Germany and Japan.”

Fernández and Chávez met after a Mercosur summit in which Venezuela officially became a part of the regional trading bloc.

Source: Buenos Aires Herald