Argentina

BERLIN -- It's a soccer lesson that has been hammered home time and time again over the decades: never, ever, under any circumstance, at any time, anywhere, give Germany a second chance. Argentina must not have been listening. World Cup Today: England vs. Portugal, 11 a.m., chs. 2, 7; Brazil vs. France, 3 p.m., ESPN

HAMBURG, Germany -- Somewhere among the four World Cup quarterfinal matches, a great moment surely awaits. But it is the Argentina-Germany quarterfinal clash in Berlin today that has everyone talking. World Cup Today: Argentina vs. Germany, 10:55 a.m., ESPN; Italy vs. Ukraine, 2:55 p.m, ESPN2

ON APPEARANCES, Argentina has repudiated its free market reforms of the past decade in nostalgia for pure Peronism. This may endear the regime to the workers initially, but not for long after it alienates world lenders and investors. Eduardo Duhalde, failed candidate for president in 1999, is the fifth president in two weeks, thanks to his fellow Peronists in Congress and his own pledge not to seek election in 2003. Mr. Duhalde is an unreconstructed adherent of the economics of Juan and Eva Peron from the 1940s on. As governor of Buenos Aires in the 1990s, he distributed housing and food and nearly doubled public employment while going $2.2 billion in the red. His first act as president, yesterday, was to dismiss the reforms brought in by former President Carlos Menem for bankrupting and destroying Argentina.

RUSTENBURG, South Africa — The talk around Mexico's World Cup camp last week was as much about respect as it was about Argentina star Lionel Messi. And for good reason. The Argentines rolled through group play unbeaten while Mexico struggled, losing to Uruguay and tying South Africa. Argentina has won two World Cups; Mexico never has made it past the quarterfinals — and hasn't made it that far in 24 years. Plus Argentina has Messi, the world's best player.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - After 18 months of uncertainty and political drama, Argentina bore witness to something refreshing yesterday - an elected president, taking the oath of office amid great pomp and ceremony before an assembly of international leaders. Unlike the four men who preceded him, Nestor Kirchner did not become president in the middle of the night, or as part of a national emergency, or with chunks of this cosmopolitan city occupied by riot police. "Our past is full of failures, pain, confrontations, [and]

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Eduardo Duhalde, a populist who opposes U.S.-backed free market reforms, was chosen yesterday as this insolvent country's fifth president in less than two weeks. After marathon closed-door negotiations, Duhalde was elected in an emergency session of Congress to serve the final two years of the term of Fernando de la Rua, who resigned Dec. 20 after violent protests against his government. Three interim presidents followed before most major political parties threw their support to Duhalde, who had lost to de la Rua in the 1999 presidential election.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Using Spain as a go-between Argentina has handed over most of the components of a secret ballistic missile project known as the Condor II to the United States for destruction, government officials here say.The delivery in late January brought the Argentine government close to fulfilling a promise made two years ago by President Carlos Saul Menem to dismantle the missile project, which was financed mostly by Iraq.Had the program been completed, the medium-range missiles could have eventually been used to deliver biological, chemical and nuclear warheads within a 500-mile range.

PARIS -- Argentina and England played a World Cup match yesterday, which meant that emotions were not in short supply.It's long been this way between these teams, whether in 1966 when England's coach called the opponents "animals" after a near-brawl of a game, or in 1986 when Diego Maradona's infamous "Hand of God" goal lifted the Argentinians.These are memories for a lifetime, but they can be painful.England suffered again yesterday, losing in excruciating fashion penalty kicks after the teams played to a 2-2 tie that extended through 30 minutes of overtime.

Santa Fe, Argentina.-- I try to return often to this town where I lived when I first came to Latin America nearly 30 years ago, for the perspective: It encourages me to re-examine some of the elements of my point of view.There is a small plaza in Santa Fe with an aviary called the park of the pigeons. The park has benches, a statue of a mother and child, a garden in the shade of an immense tree. Now and then pigeons rise out of the aviary, circle the plaza then reascend. The sound of their wings is metronomic.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Here's a dilemma. Which team does a self-respecting Englishman want to see knocked out of the World Cup first, Argentina or Germany? On the one hand, if the Germans give the Argentines a hiding (much like they gave the English) and send them packing back to Buenos Aires on Saturday in the quarterfinals, we would be rid of Diego Armando Maradona, which is always a good thing. On the other hand, it would also deprive the tournament of its most captivating player, Lionel Messi, and that's a bad thing.