Argentina

Exactly two years ago, I arrived in Buenos Aires with a CNN team to cover the millennium celebrations. Millennium fever was in the air. The futuristic-sounding Year 2000 was approaching, and the scariest thing we could picture for the coming age was a computer threat we called Y2K. Once we arrived, we learned that celebrations in Argentina had been canceled. The economy was in trouble, and the new president, Fernando de la Rua, was taking strong action to put things right. That meant strict austerity measures.

The Argentine national soccer team, which plays the United States in a friendly match next Sunday in Palo Alto, Calif., can be forgiven if it is not really concentrating on that game. It has tougher opponents ahead than the United States. Argentina's soccer reputation suffered a terrible beating in last year's World Cup, in which Argentina made few friends with its nearly successful attempt to win the championship via scoreless ties and penalty kicks. Even though it may have been a bad call that gave West Germany the penalty kick that beat Argentina in the title game, most of the soccer world registered dismay at Argentina's bid to capture the title through defensive stalling tactics.

Argentina pulled off a victory that until recently seemed nearly impossible. The South American nation upset the United States, 87-80, last night in the World Championships, the first loss for a U.S. basketball team in 59 games since the Americans began sending NBA players to international events in 1992. The defeat did not knock the United States out of the tournament, but the team will now be seeded lower in the medal round, where the nations could meet again. The United States plays Yugoslavia in a quarterfinal tonight.

Argentina, the defending champion, yesterday tied Romania, 1-1, a result that moved both countries into the second round of the World Cup. Defender Pedro Monzon gave Argentina the lead in the 62d minute when he headed home a Diego Maradona corner. But the Romanians, who earlier had squandered half a dozen good chances, came back six minutes later with a header goal by Gavril Balint. The tie left Romania second in the group behind Cameroon and Argentina third, both with three points.

A federal court yesterday acquitted five men of being accessories to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people, the deadliest terrorist attack on Argentine soil. In a nationally televised verdict, a three-judge panel cleared four former provincial police officers and a former used-car salesman accused of supplying the van used in the attack, which also injured about 300 people. Judge Miguel Pons read the long-awaited verdict, which cleared the suspects of all major charges after a three-year trial - the longest in Argentine history.

Once upon a time (that is to say, in pre-Peron Argentina), a beautiful and intelligent shopkeeper bore a child, equally beautiful and intelligent, but refused to admit that her undersized daughter was a dwarf. In Maria Luisa Bemberg's subversively funny and poignant film, the mother's denial is met with the daughter's equally powerful pride in her difference. The underplayed drama between these two life forces is the backdrop to this delicious and affecting romance involving the daughter and village playboy Marcello Mastroianni who, at first, seems to be courting the mother.

"Miss Mary," a drama starring Julie Christie, Nacha Guevara, Tato Pavlovsky, Gerardo Romano and Luisina Brando. Directed by Maria Luisa Bemberg. Screenplay by Jorge Goldenberg and Maria Luisa Bemberg. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 99 minutes. At the Roxy Screening Room. This must be the season for mature English actresses to do embarrassing things on screen. A few weeks ago, we had Julie Andrews in "Duet for One," swallowing and then vomiting up a vial of sleeping pills.

On a freezing July day in this Southern Hemisphere winter, residents of one of this city's burgeoning suburban shantytowns gathered at the house of Susana Sarcena to plan supper at the local soup kitchen. "Meat? What's that?" Sarcena asked with a bitter smile. "We'll have noodle soup or gruel, which you can make with flour and water. It's better than nothing, but it's still malnutrition. " Like all her friends and neighbors, Sarcena is a lifelong Peronist, and she voted in May for the Peronist candidate, Carlos Menem, who was inaugurated as president of Argentina yesterday.

Germany overcame a quick goal by Argentina to claim the Intercontinental Cup field hockey championship with a 2-1 victory at Villanova yesterday. In other action as the 12-day tournament concluded, Canada won the bronze- medal game with a 1-0 victory over Russia, and ninth-place Japan was presented with an award for good sportsmanship. The top-five teams, including fifth-place United States, qualified for the 1994 World Cup in Dublin, Ireland. Argentina jumped out to a 1-0 lead just one minute into the game on a goal by Vanina Onetto.

The 76ers' Andres Nocioni is likely to play for his native Argentina against Germany on Saturday in its opening game of the FIBA World Championships in Turkey. We think. The Sixers' Andre Iguodala, as anticipated, will be part of the USA team that will open Saturday against Croatia. Iguodala has been one of the key men on the USA squad, and is a likely starter. The U.S. has one "friendly" remaining, today against Greece in Athens. Nocioni, a rugged 6-7 forward, did not play in his country's final "friendly," a 93-89 overtime victory over Turkey, earning the Argentines the Efes Pilsen World Cup. Nocioni has been coming back from a left ankle sprain suffered July 31. He played 13 minutes in an 89-82 victory over Lebanon, sitting out after the first 5 minutes of the third quarter.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Activists say Argentina now leads the world in transgender rights after it granted people the right to change their legal and physical gender identity simply because they want to, without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical procedures beforehand. The gender identity law that won congressional approval with a 55-0 Senate vote Wednesday night is the latest in a growing list of bold moves on social issues by the Argentine government, which also legalized same-sex marriage two years ago. These changes primarily affect minority groups, but they are fundamental, President Cristina Fernandez has said, for a democratic society still shaking off the human-rights violations of the 1976-1983 dictatorship and the paternalism of the Roman Catholic Church.

Eduardo Luis Duhalde, Argentina's human-rights secretary and a prominent voice in denouncing abuses during the country's military dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s, died Tuesday in Buenos Aires. He had undergone surgery in February for an aortic aneurysm, and in recent days had suffered complications. Mr. Duhalde had been the country's human-rights secretary since 2003, when he was appointed by the late President Nestor Kirchner. At the start of the military dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983, Argentina's authorities ordered Mr. Duhalde's capture and he went into exile in Spain.

Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood set up a high-stakes showdown in the semifinals of the Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz. Westwood erased an early deficit to beat Martin Laird, 3 and 2. McIlroy never trailed in beating Bae Sang-moon of South Korea by the same margin Saturday. They play each other in the semifinals Sunday morning, each with a shot at No. 1 in the world if they go on to win this World Golf Championship. ROWING: The Schuylkill Navy honored the following at the annual awards banquet: coach of the year, Mike Brown , Merion Mercy Academy; masters of the year, Theresa Savard , Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club, and Ted Trocky , Malta Boat Club; and athletes of the year, Megan Walsh and Catherine Reddick , Vesper Boat Club, and Joe Spencer and Steve Kasprzyk , Penn Athletic Club, and Jason Read , Temple University and Penn Athletic Club.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Princess Cruises said Monday that it is surprised and disappointed that the Falkland Islands government turned away its Star Princess ship because a small number of people on board have stomach flu. The decision came as Argentina and Britain engage in a diplomatic row over the islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas. Brazil, Chile and Uruguay have agreed to support Argentina by turning away any ship flying the Falklands flag. Hundreds of citizens of these countries are among the 3,562 passengers and crew on board.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez took the oath of office for the second time Saturday, the only female leader in Latin America ever to have been reelected, in an inauguration marked by a tearful tribute to her late husband and political partner. Fernandez, 58, held back tears as she pledged before Congress and a gathering of foreign dignitaries to honor the constitution and the memory of President Nestor Kirchner. "I swear to God, the country, and the blessed saints to carry out the office of the president and to honor . . . the Argentine Constitution," said Fernandez, who wore a black dress with a wide belt and sleeves of transparent lace - mourning garb of the kind she has worn since Kirchner's death in October 2010.

In Seville, Rafael Nadal rallied to top Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro , 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-6 (0) on Sunday to give Spain its fifth Davis Cup title and third in four years. "To win a final this way is very special," said Nadal, a 10-time major champion who won the title for the third time of his career. Nadal stretched his record on clay to 16-0 with a 20th straight Davis Cup victory as Argentina remained the only nation to play in four finals and never win one. SOCCER: Stanford's Teresa Noyola scored from point-blank range in the 53d minute and the top-ranked Cardinal beat No. 3 Duke, 1-0, to win the women's College Cup in Kennesaw, Ga. Brazil great Socrates , the clever playmaking midfielder who captained his country's 1982 World Cup, died of septic shock in Sao Paulo.

Tunisian warrant for Arafat widow TUNIS, Tunisia - Tunisia has issued a warrant summoning the widow of deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over a corruption scandal, the state news agency reported Monday. The warrant was issued last week over Suha Arafat's role in a scandal involving former Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, his family, and other high government officials, said a spokesman for the Justice Ministry. She was being investigated over the International School of Carthage, which she founded in 2006 with Ben Ali's wife, Leila Trabelsi, the agency reported.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez was reelected in a landslide Sunday, winning with the widest victory margin in the country's history as voters were mobilized by popular programs that spread the wealth of a booming economy. Fernandez had 53 percent of the votes after 24 percent of polling stations had been tallied nationwide, while her nearest challenger got just 17 percent. Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo predicted the president's vote share would rise, saying few of the ballots in her party's stronghold of Buenos Aires province, the country's largest, had been counted.

MADRID - Spanish energy company Repsol YPF SA said Thursday that second quarter profit fell 7.3 percent, less than analysts had expected, as production was hurt by Libya's civil war and strikes in Argentina. Net income for the April-June period was (euro) 485 million ($700 million), down from (euro) 523 million for the second quarter a year earlier but above market forecasts for (euro) 424 million. Earnings per share fell to (euro) 0.47 each from (euro) 0.53. Revenue rose to (euro)

New Zealand women vs. England Noon Friday (ESPN) After being held to a draw by Mexico, England must win to have a chance of advancing from the group stage of the Women's World Cup. Argentina vs. Bolivia 8:30 p.m. Friday (Telefutura) The pressure is on as Lionel Messi leads a star-laden Argentina squad for the host nation in the opening game of the 2011 Copa America. United States women vs. Colombia 11:30 a.m. Saturday (ESPN/Galavision)