Argentina

In his new documentary "South of the Border," Oliver Stone is shown warmly embracing Hugo Chávez, nibbling coca leaves with Evo Morales and gently teasing Cristina Elizabeth Fernández de Kirchner about how many pairs of shoes she owns. These amiable, off-the-cuff snapshots of the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina, respectively, contrast with the way these left-leaning leaders often are depicted in U.S. political and mass media circles. That's especially true of Chávez, the former military officer turned democratically elected socialist leader, who has become the ideological heir apparent to Fidel Castro and the bête noire of Bush administration foreign policy officials.

Hector Febres was the man who knew too much. And, like a character in a spy novel damned with an excess of secrets, Febres met an untimely and grisly end: He was poisoned last month in his cell. That is the conclusion of Argentine officials investigating the death of the former coast guard officer, who was awaiting a verdict on charges of torture. The case arose from Febres' service under a military dictatorship decades earlier at the country's most notorious clandestine detention center.

Argentina's national soccer team, minus Barcelona wunderkind Lionel Messi, will be on display when it takes on Guatemala at the Coliseum tonight at 7:30. Messi, 20, is still not fully recovered from a left thigh injury. But his absence doesn't mean Argentina brought its "B" squad to face Guatemala -- even if it is primarily fielding the under-23 team that will participate this summer at the Bejing Olympics.

Argentina's soccer team showed Wednesday night why it is the favorite to take home the Olympic gold medal in Beijing this summer. The Albicelestes (Argentina's nickname, which means white and light blue) don't come to Los Angeles often, but when they do, they make an impression. Argentina, playing in L.A. for the third time in nine years, defeated Guatemala, 5-0, at the Coliseum in front of an estimated 35,000. And the game wasn't even as close as the score would indicate.

She went from night-shift airport cop to pinup girl. From chilly anonymity to red-hot notoriety. Next up: The "suitcase girl" is in line for a TV ice-skating gig. "I never imagined anything like this would happen," Maria del Lujan Telpuk told the Argentine edition of Playboy in an interview that accompanies her appearance on the cover this month. "And all for a suitcase that somehow put me into the middle of a rivalry of nations."

A curtain of smoke from burning rural fields settled over this Argentine capital Thursday, delaying flights, shutting roads and leaving residents coughing. The influx of smoke blown toward the capital by prevailing winds also reignited hard feelings between the government and the nation's powerful farming industry, which recently suspended a three-week strike against new taxes on grain exports.

An atmosphere of crisis and tumbling confidence has enveloped Argentina after five years of political stability and robust economic growth. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is facing a rancorous farm revolt in one of the world's major grain- and beef-producing nations. Growers on Saturday ended their fourth strike this year, but the battle rages on more than 100 days after it erupted when the government imposed new tariffs on farmers selling grain abroad.

It was June 1978, the worst of times for a nation in the vise of dictatorship. And the best of times for soccer-obsessed Argentines. Argentina won its first championship 30 years ago this month, in the only World Cup tournament to be played here. The victory caused a torrent of nationalist pride in a country beaten down by repression.

The farm crisis that has divided the agricultural powerhouse of Argentina for months took a dramatic turn Thursday, when the Senate voted against the government's incendiary new tax on grain exports. The decisive vote was cast by the government's own vice president after an 18-hour Senate debate, stunning observers and igniting a political crisis. The higher grain levies have been in effect via presidential edict, despite questions about their constitutionality.

The government rescinded Friday a controversial tax increase on grain exports that had sparked months of protests and bared deep divisions in one of the world's major food-producing nations. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner pulled back the tax without comment a day after a stunning rejection by the Senate made possible by a crucial "no" vote by her own vice president.