BUENOS AIRES, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Argentina’s biggest energy
firm YPF said on Monday it had found nearly a billion
barrels in unconventional energy resources in Patagonia, more
than double the country’s annual oil consumption.

The find at YPF’s Loma La Lata property in Neuquen province
could eventually help put the brakes on falling oil production
in Latin America’s No. 3 economy, where energy demand is rising
due to strong economic growth.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Alfredo Astiz, Argentina’s infamous “Blond Angel of Death,” and 11 other death squad members from the 1970s were jailed for life on Wednesday in one of the country’s biggest human rights cases.

Astiz, nicknamed for his cherubic looks, stood trial with other former officials accused of horrific crimes at the ESMA Naval Mechanics School, where about 5,000 dissidents were held and tortured during the 1976-1983 “Dirty War” dictatorship. Few of the captives survived.

ZARATE, Argentina, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Argentina launched
on Wednesday the final start-up phase for the country’s third
nuclear plant, as it expands its reliance on nuclear power just
as Europe starts to shy away from this technology.

Construction on the Atucha II plant began in the early
1980s but it was disrupted for years, partly due to safety
concerns raised by accidents such as the 1986 Chernobyl
disaster.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Still dressed in black six months after her husband’s death, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has a heavy burden to bear.

Fernandez, who succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president four years ago, carries the hopes of die-hard supporters who want her to run in October’s presidential election and deepen the leftist reforms he began.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Still dressed in black six months after her husband’s death, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has a heavy burden to bear.

Fernandez, who succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president four years ago, carries the hopes of die-hard supporters who want her to run in October’s presidential election and deepen the leftist reforms he began.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato, whose novel “The Tunnel” is hailed as an existentialist classic and who presided over a probe into the crimes committed by the nation’s military rulers, died on Saturday at age 99.

“Humankind cannot live without heroes, martyrs and saints,” Sabato, an intellectual known as a tireless activist for justice and human rights, once said.

BUENOS AIRES, April 8 (Reuters) – A labor dispute in
northern Argentina has halted an oil refinery and also
disrupted imports of Bolivian natural gas, union leaders said
on Friday.

Meanwhile, negotiations were ordered by the government in a
bid to end another strike, now more than a week old, which has
cut oil and natural gas output in the Patagonian province of
Santa Cruz, which produces about 20 percent of Argentina’s
crude. [ID:nN07104896]

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s largest real estate company, IRSA, is considering selling global bonds this year to finance expansion plans at home and abroad, Chairman Eduardo Elsztain said on Friday.

Last year, IRSA (IRS.BA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(IRS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) became one of the first Argentine companies to sell foreign debt since a massive 2002 sovereign debt default, which battered private companies’ credit ratings and sent lending rates soaring.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Argentine President
Cristina Fernandez is using strong-arm tactics to stifle
surging inflation, ordering businesses not to raise prices and
pressuring economists over their independent forecasts.

Inflation is estimated at 25 percent a year by private
forecasters, posing a threat to Argentina’s economic boom and
worrying voters eight months from a presidential election in
which Fernandez is expected to seek another term.

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 14 (Reuters) – A two-week old labor
dispute at Argentina’s largest energy company, YPF, could start
to cause fuel shortages in the coming days as refineries run
out of crude oil supplies, two energy firms said on Tuesday.

YPF (YPFD.BA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a unit of Spain’s Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), halted
operations at four sites in the Patagonian province of Chubut
last week following the suspension of production at several
sites in neighboring Santa Cruz province. [ID:nN06197652]