Daily Headlines: May 8, 2009

* Latin America: Brazil and Argentina have become the latest countries to confirm cases of the swine flu, while Haiti overreacted and rejected a Mexican ship carrying food aid.

* Venezuela: Authorities are looking into the murder of labor union leader Argenis Vasquez.

* Colombia: The country invited former Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku to speak at a conference then expelled him after he was wanted in Serbia on war crimes charges.

* Latin America: According to the International Monetary Fund, Latin America and the Caribbean will recover faster than economies in developed countries.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- LAHT, AP, Xinhua, MSNBC, Reuters

Argentina says ‘no’ to independent Kosovo

Update: Venezuela also declared that it's against Kosovo's independence. President Hugo Chavez said that he was worried that the debate over Kosovo could trigger war in the region. (Link via Milenio).

Argentina is reluctant to recognize Kosovo’s recent declaration of independence. According to Argentine daily Clarin, the main sticking point has to do with the effect Kosovo's independence would have on the South American country’s claim to the Falkland Islands:

Respecting the principle of territorial integration, negotiations, and agreement between the sectors involved when faced with a sovereignty dispute is part of the Argentine strategy in its difficult relations with the Great Britain since the military defeat of 1982. [Ed. – personal translation]

Argentina thus joins countries like Serbia, Russia, China, and Spain in not accepting Kosovo’s independence.

Argentina may have lost the Falklands War yet they have recently strengthened their claims to the Falklands. During last year’s silver anniversary of the war, then-president Nestor Kirchner expressed hope that the Islands will soon return to Argentine control.

Sources (English)- MercoPress, UPI, Reuters, Xinhua, Wikipedia, The Latin Americanist

Sources (Spanish)- Clarin

Image- Gulf Daily News