News stories by Marcela Valente, page 7

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 17 (IPS) - A bill that would lower the voting age from 18 to 16 is headed for approval in the Argentine Congress, in line with a reform that has already been adopted in Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and that has begun to be debated in Bolivia, Chile and Uruguay.

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 06 (IPS) - Behind “yerba mate”, a caffeinated herbal brew that is popular in Argentina and neighbouring countries, lies a shameful reality: the dismal labour and living conditions of the workers who harvest the leaves of the bush used to make the infusion.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 28 (IPS) - "The new buildings in the Argentine capital were built by Paraguayans,” Isidro Méndez says with some pride. The 60-year-old immigrant, who runs a construction company, is one of the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who came to this country with hopes for a better future.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 21 (IPS) - Scientific uncertainty about the health impacts of electromagnetic fields is fueling worries among people in the Argentine capital who are demanding that energy power transformers be located far from their neighborhoods.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 17 (IPS) - After more than a decade of campaigning against toxic agrochemicals, a group of women from a poor neighbourhood in the northern Argentine city of Córdoba have brought large-scale soybean growers to trial for the health damages caused by spraying.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 08 (IPS) - There is little likelihood that South America’s Mercosur trade bloc will take up China’s proposal to establish a free trade agreement, at least in the short term. Experts and industrialists fear an invasion of cheap Chinese goods, and unequal competition.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 07 (IPS) - The arid high Andean Puna plateau in northwest Argentina was much greener thousands of years ago. Climate changes forced the local inhabitants to develop adaptation strategies that could offer lessons for today, researchers say.

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 19 (IPS) - A group of prisoners convicted of crimes against humanity committed during Argentina's last dictatorship (1976-1983) have put university and prison authorities in a difficult position by asking to enrol in an academic study programme for inmates financed by the state.

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 11 (IPS) - The governments of most of the countries that share the Río de la Plata basin are doing little or nothing to halt the golden mussel invasion, despite the serious damages and losses it is causing.

BUENOS AIRES, Jul 04 (IPS) - By simultaneously admitting Venezuela into its fold and suspending Paraguay’s membership, Mercosur has sparked dissension within the trading bloc that threatens the future legal architecture of the Southern Common Market.