News stories by Marcela Valente, page 4

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 12 (IPS) - The people of the Malvinas/Falkland islands voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to keep British rule, while Argentina has stepped up its claims to sovereignty over the South Atlantic archipelago located 450 km east of the South American nation.

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 08 (IPS) - Argentina is set to become the first country in Latin America to legalise surrogate motherhood as an option for heterosexual and homosexual couples or single people who cannot conceive but want to have a child who is biologically their own.

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 07 (IPS) - Despite the great strides made in Latin America with tobacco control legislation, the industry deploys a range of strategies to circumvent the restrictions imposed on cigarette advertising, social organisations and experts complain.

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 05 (IPS) - The trial over a campaign of terror coordinated among the dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America in the 1970s and 1980s began Tuesday in Buenos Aires with former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla as one of the main defendants, along with another 24 former military officers.

BUENOS AIRES, Mar 01 (IPS) - Despite the government's insistence that the purpose of the agreement struck with Iran is merely to investigate the 1994 bombing of the Jewish institution AMIA, as the Argentine parliament voted its ratification, discussions focused on geopolitics and the country's position in the changing international scenario.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 22 (IPS) - An agreement between Argentina and Iran to dig deeper into a 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish community centre in this city will test the solidity of the evidence garnered by a judicial investigation that has ground to a halt because of lack of cooperation from Tehran.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 21 (IPS) - It's carnival time in sunny northwest Argentina, and as usual, food vending carts are everywhere. But some of the carts are different this year: they offer food cooked on the spot – by the sun.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 16 (IPS) - In spite of repeated violations of house arrest by people convicted of crimes against humanity during Argentina's dictatorship, some activists remain in favour of this lenient alternative to prison, but they want better oversight by the courts.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 14 (IPS) - Almost imperceptibly, sustainable settlements that combine community living with the preservation of natural resources have mushroomed across Argentina as an alternative to rampant consumerism.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 12 (IPS) - The process of cleaning the Matanza-Riachuelo river basin, which in its final flow borders the Argentinian capital, shows remarkable progress. But the biggest challenge remains the cleaning of the watercourse, which has been damaged by centuries of neglect.