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Diplomacy: After a weekend of cavorting in Colombia, the White House was caught flat-footed by Argentina's takeover of a big oil company whose loss will hike gas prices, harm Spain and slam U.S. investors. Lucky us. Never was a response to a global outrage more mealy-mouthed than the one from the U.S. after Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, standing under a portrait of Evita Peron, announced a brazen grab for YPF, the Argentine oil company that's 57% owned by Spain's Repsol. Markets fell, world leaders denounced the violation of contracts and economically battered Spain rallied European Union support. But...

President Obama erred during a speech at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when attempting to call the disputed archipelago by its Spanish name. Instead of saying Malvinas, however, Mr Obama referred to the islands as the Maldives, a group of 26 atolls off that lie off the South coast of India. Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine president, has renewed her country's sovereignty claim to the Falklands in the build-up to the 30th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the islands, which triggered the Falklands War, on April 2. She has accused David Cameron of maintaining a "colonial enclave"...

Thirty years ago this Monday, Argentine marines invaded the Falkland Islands, killed or captured its British defenders and declared the islands to be Argentine territory: Les Malvinas. Britain dispatched a naval "task force" to regain them less than a week later. The Falklands War had begun. According to newly released documents from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the U.S. almost took sides against its most important ally, driven by the diplomatic maneuvering of Secretary of State Alexander Haig... The most striking revelation from the meeting is the degree to which Haig's compromise favored the Argentines. The minutes are...

A group of British and American banks have been threatened with legal action by the Argentine government for advising and writing research reports about companies involved in the Falkland Islands’ £1.6bn oil industry. In what amounts to the start of a new trade war between the UK and Argentina, the banks - understood to include the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs - have been warned they face criminal and civil action in Argentine courts. The threats were made in a series of letters sent to as many as 15 banks by the Argentine embassy in London...

Peru cancels visit by British frigate over Falkland Islands Peru has cancelled an upcoming visit by a Royal Navy frigate to the country as tensions between Britain and Latin America mount over the Falkland Islands. HMS Montrose was scheduled to dock at Peru's El Callao naval base this week, but the visit has been cancelled by Peru in a show of solidarity with Argentina. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has criticised Britain’s territorial rights to the Falkland Islands, known in Latin America as the Malvinas. The dispute comes ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war in April,...

Pink Floyd star Roger Waters has reportedly stated that Britain should return the Falkland Islands, saying "Las Malvinas belong to Argentina". In an interview with Chilean television, Waters, who is on tour in South America, allegedly said he was "as ashamed as I possibly could be of our colonial past ... When we were out raping and plundering and stealing". The reported comments came as Argentina's industry minister called for all British imports to be banned as tensions escalate between the two countries ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands conflict. A journalist for the Chilean TVN state channel...

<p>HISTORY has left Argentines with more than their share of economic trauma. Having twice suffered destructive bouts of hyperinflation in the late 1980s, they are sensitive to rising prices. When they spot inflation their instinct is to dump the peso and buy dollars. But after the economy collapsed in 2001-02, horror at mass unemployment temporarily eclipsed the public’s fear of inflation. That has been the successful political calculation of the president, Cristina Fernández, and her late husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner. For years they stoked an overheating economy with expansionary policies. Faced with the resulting rise in inflation, their officials resorted to price controls—and to an extraordinarily elaborate deception to conceal the rise.</p>

The Falkland Islands put on a show of strength against Argentine aggression and outspoken left-wing Hollywood actor Sean Penn - with a mile-long convoy of 4x4s. Dozens of Union Flag-waving Falklanders snaked their way out of the capital Stanley yesterday afternoon in a patriotic blur of red, white and blue. The procession, which looked at times like a summer carnival parade, is unlikely to scare Argentina into not launching an attack on the dispute archipelago. It is also doubtful it will force Penn, who has consistently backed Argentina in recent days, to keep his mouth shut. But it does act...

Hollywood actor Sean Penn has criticised Prince William's deployment to the Falklands in a second attack on Britain in two days. Madonna's ex-husband was condemned as 'moronic' by Tory MP and former Army officer Patrick Mercer yesterday for claiming Britain's continuing hold on the Falklands was 'colonialist, ludicrous and archaic'. But the left-leaning actor showed he cannot keep his mouth shut over the islands by accusing the UK of 'insensitivity' for posting William to the disputed South Atlantic territory and labelling Britain a colonial dinosaur for the second day running.

Remember when Barack Obama promised to restore our standing with America’s allies and exercise “smart power” in diplomacy? Good times, good times. In the latest dispute over the Falkland Islands, Obama has failed to support our closest ally on the world stage even after their military and diplomatic support for our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in what the Telegraph’s Nile Gardiner called another knife in the back: First, military weakness is provocative. Argentina ramped up its aggressive rhetoric and diplomatic efforts to reclaim the Falklands only after P.M. Cameron announced massive cuts to the Royal Navy and British ground...

Sean Penn has branded Britain 'colonialist' for its refusal to hand over the Falkland Islands to Argentina. The notoriously left-wing actor said that the UK was being 'ludicrous and archaic’ by believing it could hold on to what he called ‘the Malvinas Islands of Argentina’. Penn, who has no personal connection with the islands at all, added that diplomacy was needed to resolve the issue but that he was firmly on the side of the Argentinians. His comments will incense Britons, Falkland Islanders and the families of those who died in the war in the South Atlantic almost 30 years...

The Falkland Islands newspaper the Penguin News has triggered uproar on Argentinian social networks by calling President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner a *itch. The newspaper's website uploaded a photo of Fernández briefly using the insult as a file name on Wednesday, a day after she accused Britain of militarising the south Atlantic islands. (edit mine)

Back in April '82, a failing right-wing junta in Buenos Aires  -desperate for some populist appeal/diversion to quell domestic (economic) unrest- attempted to buoy public support through an ill-advised nationalistic military conquest. And it worked, for a while: not only was the planned invasion and occupation of the Falklands launched prematurely (for political reasons) with lightly-trained troops, the military government -under the command of General Leopoldo Galtieri- severely underestimated the steely resolve of PM Margret Thatcher in attacking what they refer to as the 'Malivinas', a small group of British-held islands 300 miles off the Argentine coast (then subsequently the inhospitable South Georgia Islands +840 miles further out to...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina said it doesn't seek another war over the Falkland Islands, and accused Britain of militarizing their sovereignty dispute by announcing Tuesday that it is sending an advanced warship to the islands along with Prince William "in the uniform of a conquistador." The assignment of Prince William, a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, for a six-week military mission in the Falklands in February and March has been a sore point for Argentina. It has sought to reclaim the South Atlantic archipelago that it calls the Malvinas Islands ever since Britain seized the islands some 180...

The UK Is Sending Its Most Advanced Warship To The Falklands Adam Taylor January 31, 2012The UK announced today that they would be sending their most advanced warship to the South Pacific, near the Falklands Islands. The announcement seems likely to inflame tensions with Argentina over the disputed Falklands, and may worsen the increasingly aggressive rhetoric from both sides, who went to war over the islands almost 30 years ago. The Telegraph reports that the HMS Dauntless is a Type 45 destroyer, worth over £1 billion ($1.57 billion), and is "the most advanced anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic ship in the world"....

Falklands’ conflict gunner meets Skyhawk pilot he shot down, at his home in Argentina A Royal Navy veteran from the Falklands War has completed an extraordinary journey to meet the Argentine pilot he thought he had shot down and killed during the 1982 conflict. Neil Wilkinson met his former enemy Mariano Velasco at his home in Argentina - and was welcomed inside with open arms. The emotional meeting - just weeks before the 30th anniversary of the moment they clashed in battle - was filmed for a BBC Inside Out Yorkshire and Lincolnshire documentary to be screened this week. Mr...

<p>Top secret papers are set to prove that the warship Belgrano was heading into the Falkland's exclusion zone when it was sunk, and not heading back to port as the Argentinians claimed.</p> <p>For decades debate and recrimination has raged over where the ship was heading when it was torpedoed by a Royal Navy submarine.</p>

War scares are running high in Great Britain, while the British Foreign Ministry is trying to cool down tensions with Argentina. At the same time Britain is attempting to demonstrate that it has no intention of abandoning the Falkland Islands claimed by Argentina. Prime Minister David Cameron, in his broadcast on Saturday, pledged to the Falklanders “We will always maintain our commitment to you on any question of sovereignty …Your right to self-determination is the cornerstone of our policy. We will never negotiate on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless you, the Falkland Islanders, so wish. No democracy could...

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's president, is using her refusal to appoint an ambassador to Britain as demonstration of her hardline on the Falkland Islands, a key plank of her platform for election in October. Tensions over the sovereignty of the Falklands have increased since British companies began drilling for oil in the region just over a year ago. Argentina responded last August by abandoning plans to install a new ambassador in London and reports in Buenos Aires now indicate that none will be appointed this year. Political analysts said the decision suggested that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner could...

Flashpoint Falklands: Britain dusts off war plans amid calls to send a nuclear submarine after Argentina joins forces with Brazil and Uruguay to blockade islands By Tim Shipman and Ian Drury Military chiefs are dusting off their plans for the defence of the Falklands after South American countries banned ships from the islands docking in their ports. Sources fear Prince William's six-month deployment to the South Atlantic as an air-sea rescue pilot next year could provoke more sabre-rattling. Yesterday Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner claimed Britain was ready to use its military to steal natural resources 'anywhere, anyhow'. She...