Argentines hold Falklands protest

Riot police and protesters are squaring off outside the British Embassy in Buenos Aires amid an escalating diplomatic dispute over the Falkland Islands.

A small crowd of demonstrators turned out today after British Prime Minister David Cameron accused Argentina of “colonialism” over its claims to the islands because the inhabitants wanted to remain British.

Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman say Cameron is ignoring history, and that everyone knows that Britain has been the world’s leading colonial power for centuries.

Argentina is trying to get Britain to negotiate the islands’ sovereignty at the United Nations.

Britain has refused and is instead planning to send more military support to the remote archipelago.

Hundreds died when a British task force drove Argentine occupying troops from the islands in a brief but bloody war in 1982.