- For a topic outline on this subject, see List of basic Argentina topics.
Argentina is a country in South America which covers an area of 2,766,890 km2 (1,068,302 sq mi) (excluding territorial claims). It extends 3,800 km (2,361 mi) from North to South—from latitude 22º to 55º South. Argentina has borders with Uruguay, Brasil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Chile with a total border length of 9,376 km (5,826 mi). The name Argentina comes from the Latin "argentum", meaning "silver" and was first used by the early Spanish conquerors visiting the Río de la Plata. The present population of the country is approximately 39 million inhabitants, mainly concentrated in the urban agglomerations of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario.
Ángel Cabrera, is an Argentine professional golfer who plays mainly on the European Tour. He is known affectionately as "El Pato" (The duck) for his waddling gait. He is a former U.S. Open champion and the current Masters champion and is the first Argentine to win either The Masters or the U.S. Open...
Chascomús railway station circa 1875 - from the Argentina National Archives
- ...that Argentina has the highest percentage of psychoanalysts per capita in the World, followed by France?
- ...that Lake Argentino (in Spanish, Lago Argentino) is the biggest lake in Argentina, with a surface area of 1,466 km2 (566 sq mi) (maximum width: 20 km (12 mi)). It has an average depth of 150 m (492 ft), and a maximum of 500 m (1,640 ft)?
- ...that the Buenos Aires Metro, opened in 1913, is the oldest subway system in the Southern Hemisphere and in the Spanish-speaking world?
- ...that the average high temperature in Ushuaia is 9C (48F)?
- 3 July Dr. Juan Manzur, the new health minister, said Friday that 44 people had died from swine flu and that the country had 2,800 confirmed flu cases. The numbers reflected a sharp increase compared with a week earlier, when there were 26 deaths and 1,587 cases. Swine flu has killed more people in Argentina than in any other country in South America, where the winter flu season is just beginning. The death rate of 1.6 percent is more than three times the world average, Claudio Zin, the health minister of Buenos Aires Province, said Friday. Argentina passed Canada this week as the country with the third-highest death toll from the flu, but it remains behind Mexico and the United States. Dr. Manzur said that officials now suspect that there are 100,000 cases of swine flu in the country, compared with 320,000 cases of other types of flu.NYTimes
- 1 July Argentina swore in a new health minister on Wednesday as the spreading swine flu epidemic prompted schools nationwide to give students an early vacation and one province to declare a public health emergency. Juan Luis Manzur, a doctor and vice governor in Argentina's Tucuman province, announced plans to boost public health spending by $263 million this year and said pregnant women could miss work for 15 days to avoid contracting swine flu. He replaces Health Minister Graciela Ocana, who resigned on Monday as concerns over the virus rose.AP
- 30 June Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Shinsei Bank Ltd. and Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. have filed suit against the Argentine government, claiming 10.7 billion yen (USD$111 million) owed from bond purchases, the banks said in a statement. The three banks are so-called commissioned companies for holders of the Samurai bonds sold by the Argentine Republic from 1996 through 2000, according to the statement published in the Nikkei newspaper this morning. The banks’ role is to ensure holders of the bonds are paid. The statement in the newspaper doesn’t name the holders.Bloomberg
- 29 June Graciela Ocaña, Argentina’s health minister, resigned Monday amid a fast-spreading outbreak of swine flu that has killed 26 people in the country, government officials said. Speculation had grown in recent weeks that Ms. Ocaña was considering resigning over differences with the government in the handling of the outbreak and a previous dengue fever outbreak. Argentine news media reported that other cabinet ministers had blocked her proposed measures for handling the epidemics.NYTimes.com
- 29 June Argentina's government will likely slow state spending and focus on paying its debts after voters dealt a sharp blow to President Cristina Fernandez in Sunday's midterm election. Argentina, which has been largely shut out of global credit markets since it defaulted on $100 billion of debt in 2002, faces $20 billion in debt payments through end-2010 just as a slowing economy tames tax revenue growth. "After the election they're going to be frugal in terms of spending because they no longer have the money they did a few years ago," said Eduardo Levy-Yeyati, head of emerging market strategy at Barclays Capital.Reuters
- 1 June Argentina suffered another blow in its legal battle with holders of its defaulted bonds this week, with a U.S. judge finding the government to be in contempt of court, a rare ruling for a sovereign entity. Wednesday's ruling by District Court Judge Thomas Griesa stems from transactions Argentine social security agency Anses undertook through a private brokerage last month. The bondholders allege those trades allowed the government to bypass an asset freeze Griesa had imposed. Dismissing the defendant's claims that Anses' status as an independent agency exempted it from a ruling against the government, Griesa said Argentina's failure to provide information on those transactions left it in contempt. The contempt motion, which was led by hedge fund Aurelius Capital Partners but included other plaintiffs, stems from reports last month that Anses repatriated 870 million pesos ($220 million) from the funds in question with the help of Argentine investment group Capital Markets America, or CMA. The news prompted Aurelius and others holding $30 billion in overdue Argentine debt that was withheld in 2005 from a $100 billion bond swap to force the security agency to provide information on the transactions. WSJ
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