Britain to send nuclear submarine to Falklands

London: The Royal Navy is sending a nuclear submarine to the South Atlantic to protect the Falkland Islands from the threat of Argentine military action.

Prime Minister David Cameron has personally approved plans for one of the Navy's most sophisticated Trafalgar-class submarines to sail to the region.

Significantly, the heavily armed vessel is set to be in the islands' waters by April — the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1982 war.

It will provide an outer cordon of unseen protection for the Falklands. The move will re-open wounds over the Argentine flagship General Belgrano, which was controversially sunk by a British submarine during the two-month conflict with the loss of 323 sailors.

The deployment is certain to infuriate the Argentine government and lead to further deterioration in the already fraught relations.

Tensions between the two countries have increased dramatically following months of sabre-rattling by Buenos Aires over sovereignty of the disputed territory, which has been British since the 1830s.

Protesters in Argentina, who have vowed to target a different UK business every week, threw paint bombs at the HSBC branch in Buenos Aires yesterday. On Thursday a Union Flag was burned outside the British embassy in the capital.

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