Showing posts with label ARGENTINA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ARGENTINA. Show all posts

South America: Brazil beats Argentina to reach World Cup


ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) -- Brazil qualified for its 19th consecutive World Cup, outplaying Argentina 3-1 Saturday night in a match that left its South American rival in a precarious position.

Luisao put the five-time World Cup champions ahead in the 24th minute, and Luis Fabiano scored in the 30th and 67th. Jesus Datolo got Argentina's goal in the 65th.

Brazil (8-1-6) leads South American qualifying with 30 points, while Argentina (6-5-4) is fourth with 22 points with three matches remaining. The top four teams advance to next year's tournament, while the No. 5 nation goes to a playoff against the No. 4 nation in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Brazil became the seventh nation to join host South Africa in next year's 32-nation field, following Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, North Korea and South Korea and the Netherlands

The defeat could cost Argentina coach Diego Maradona his job. The Albiceleste play at Paraguay on Wednesday, then close South American qualifying at home against Peru on Oct. 10 and at Uruguay three or four days later.

Argentina benefited from Colombia's 2-0 victory over Ecuador on Saturday. Had Ecuador won, it would have moved ahead of Argentina.

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Brazil tops worldwide H1N1 deaths, officials say

Brazil has confirmed 557 deaths caused by H1N1 flu, the highest total in the world, the nation's Health Ministry says.

The United States has counted 522 fatalities through Thursday, and nearly 1,800 people had died worldwide through August 13, U.S. and global health officials said.

In terms of mortality rate, which considers flu deaths in terms of a nation's population, Brazil ranks seventh, and the United States is 13th, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said in a news release Wednesday.

Argentina, which has reported 386 deaths attributed to H1N1 as of August 13, ranks first per capita, the Brazilian health officials said, and Mexico, where the flu outbreak was discovered in April, ranks 14th per capita.

Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the United States have the most total cases globally, according to the World Health Organization.

The Brazilian Ministry of Health said there have been 6,100 cases of flu in the nation, with 5,206 cases (85.3 percent) confirmed as H1N1, also known as swine flu.

The state of Sao Paulo had 223 deaths through Wednesday, the largest number in the country. In addition, 480 pregnant women have been confirmed with H1N1, of whom 58 died. Swine flu has been shown to hit young people and pregnant women particularly hard.

Many schools in Sao Paulo have delayed the start of the second semester for a couple of weeks, and students will have to attend classes on weekends to catch up. Schools also have suspended extracurricular activities such as soccer, volleyball and chess to try to curtail spread of the disease.

Flu traditionally has its peak during the winter months, and South America, where it is winter, has had a large number of cases recently. The World Health Organization said this week that the United States and other heavily populated Northern Hemisphere countries need to brace for a second wave of H1N1 as their winter approaches.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other U.S. health agencies have been preparing and said this week that up to half of the nation's population may contract the disease and 90,000 could die from it.

Seasonal flu typically kills about 64,000 Americans each year.

A vaccine against H1N1 is being tested but is not expected to be available until at least mid-October and will probably require two shots at least one week apart, health officials have said. Since it typically takes a couple of weeks for a person's immunity to build up after the vaccine, most Americans would not be protected until sometime in November.

The World Health Organization in June declared a Level 6 worldwide pandemic, the organization's highest classification.
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Leaders meet over power plant row


The presidents of Brazil and Paraguay are meeting to try to resolve a dispute over the Itaipu hydro-electric plant, one of the biggest in the world.

The two countries run the project jointly. But Paraguay uses less power than Brazil.

It says it is obliged to sell its surplus to Brazil at an unfair price.

President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay wants to renegotiate the deal, a demand opposed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Source of tension

Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America and its president comes to Brazil keen to resolve what has been a long-running source of tension between the two sides.

The Paraguayan government believes it is not getting a fair share of the profits from the massive power project.

As the smaller of the two countries it only takes a limited amount of the electricity produced at the plant.

Under the terms of the Itaipu treaty which was negotiated in the 1970s, Paraguay says it is obliged to sell its surplus energy to Brazil at prices well below what it could get on the open market.

The Brazilians say they covered most of the cost of constructing this vast project, and argue that their smaller neighbour has to pay its fair share.

However the debt is huge and Paraguay has threatened to pursue an international court case to dispute the amount involved.

In recent weeks Brazilian ministers have been working on proposals to resolve these contentious issues, but so far there is no sign that what is on offer is enough to bridge the gap between both sides.

President Lugo made it a key part of his election campaign that his country would renegotiate the treaty of Itaipu, arguing that control over the country's energy was a question of national sovereignty.

For the moment talks are continuing, but with little sign of agreement, it may be one for the lawyers after all.

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Argentina priests in drug protest

Hundreds of priests in Argentina have highlighted their concern after two of their number received death threats.

Some 353 Catholic priests in Buenos Aires signed a document in support of the men, who work with addicts in some of the city's poorest neighbourhoods.

The Church last month published a report highlighting a huge increase in drug addiction and dealing in the city.

The report said hard drugs, like Paco - a kind of crack cocaine - are sold openly and often near schools.

The report added that there was is a lack of political will to deal with the results.

"The drug trade has been like a tsunami breaking over us," said Padre Pepe de Paola, one of the priests who has received death threats.

"Heavy drug trafficking started in 2001 when the Argentine economy crashed and we haven't been able to cope."

One dose of Paco costs around $1.50 (£1) and children as young as 12 are becoming addicts, taking up to 40 doses a day.

The Church says there is a lack of spending on education and decent schooling where children can develop their own way in life.

It adds that Argentina as a whole has a disregard for the problems of the young and poor.

Most of those who are making money from drug trafficking, the document says, do not live in poor neighbourhoods but in rich ones.

Two years ago, government figures said there were 27,000 addicts in greater Buenos Aires, but recent research estimates this figure has doubled.

"It's going to take a long time, and it's not just one government who will need to work on this, it's got to be a long-term approach," said Padre Pepe de Paola.

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Argentine courts seize Iran diplomat's property

An Argentine court has ordered a second seizure of property owned by a former cultural attache at Iran's embassy in Buenos Aires who is sought for his alleged role in a 1994 terrorist attack.

A judge has approved prosecutor Alberto Nisman's motion to seize five more buildings owned by Moshen Rabbani due to his alleged role in a bombing that flattened a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires and killed 85 people.

The judge approved the seizure of six buildings in November.

Nisman told The Associated Press that the action is part of a survivor's suit for $1 million in damages.

If Rabbani is convicted, his property would be auctioned and the money would go to the victims of the attack. His whereabouts are unknown.

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Bishop who denied Holocaust ordered to leave Argentina


BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- Bishop Richard Williamson, who last month denied the existence of the Holocaust in an interview with Swedish television, was ordered Thursday to leave Argentina within 10 days, the Ministry of Interior said.

"The bishop has repeatedly forged the true motive for his stay in the country, having declared that he is an employee of 'La Tradicion' Civil Society when, in reality, his true activity was as priest and seminary director of the Society of Saint Pius X in the neighborhood of Moreno," Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said in a written statement.

Williamson and three other bishops who belong to the Society of Saint Pius X were excommunicated in 1988. The society was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve, who rebelled against the Vatican's modernizing reforms in the 1960s, and who consecrated the men in unsanctioned ceremonies.

"Williamson has had public notoriety following his anti-Semitic statements to Swedish media in which he questioned whether Jewish people were victims of the Holocaust," Randazzo continued.

"For these reasons, along with the strong condemnation from the Argentine government of how statements like these harm Argentine society, the Jewish community, and all of humanity by trying to deny a historic truth, the national government has decided to demand that the Bishop leave the country or be expelled."

In the interview with Swedish television, Williamson said, "I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against -- is hugely against -- 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler.

I believe there were no gas chambers," he stated.

Williamson, who had already been removed from his seminary post in Argentina, made headlines in January when he and three other ultra-conservative bishops were welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church, more than 20 years after Pope John Paul II excommunicated them on a theological question unrelated to the Holocaust.

The rehabilitation of Williamson sparked condemnation from Israel, American Jewish leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, among others.

The Vatican pointed to several statements by Pope Benedict XVI condemning the destruction of European Jewry. The pope said he did not know of Williamson's views on the Holocaust when he lifted the excommunication.

The Vatican said Williamson will not be allowed to perform priestly functions until he recants his Holocaust denial.

Williamson apologized for "distress" his remarks caused the pope, but has not retracted them.

Last week, a German court refused to intervene on behalf of Williamson, who is facing prosecution for denying the Holocaust -- a crime in Germany.
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