Falklands, Argentina trade barbs after referendum shows 99.8 percent want to be British

STANLEY, Falkland Islands – Falkland Islanders are celebrating a referendum showing 99.8 percent want the area to remain a British Overseas Territory.

Legislative Assembly Member Gavin Short says the message to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is that "We have absolutely no desire to be ruled by the government in Buenos Aires." He says he hopes she'll respect that.

Not likely: Argentina's ambassador to London says the vote was organized by and for the British, just to claim the islands for Britain. But Ambassador Alicia Castro says that a few hundred islanders are no match for "millions and millions and millions" of people who recognize Argentine sovereignty over the islands it claims as the Malvinas.

Castro spoke Monday in a radio interview in Buenos Aires while the Falkland lawmakers spoke in their capital of Stanley.