President Cristina Fernandez spoke publicly for the first time in more than 40 days yesterday, ending a long silence that had Argentines speculating about her health following head surgery.

Doctors have begun operating on Argentina president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s skull to siphon out blood that is pressuring her brain two months after she suffered an unexplained head injury.

Uruguay’s president Jose Mujica was left red-faced after disparaging remarks apparently aimed at Argentine counterpart Cristina Kirchner and her late husband were picked up by an open microphone.

Pope Francis’s diplomatic skills were put to the test yesterday as he met with Argentine president Cristina Kirchner, with whom he has clashed over her socially liberal policies and what he has called the government’s strident displays of power.

Pope Francis’ diplomatic skills are being tested in his first audience with a visiting head of state - Argentine president Cristina Kirchner, with whom he clashed over her socially liberal policies.

The sharp knives of politics have prepared the new pope well, say Joshua Goodman and Juan Pablo Spinetto.

Pope Francis is the first ever from the Americas, an austere Jesuit intellectual who modernised Argentina’s conservative Catholic church.

Brian Murphy and Michael Warren profile the man formally known as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio

The first South American, the first non-European in more than a millennium and the first Jesuit, a new era in the Catholic Church was ushered in as Argentinian cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was last night elected Pope Francis I.

Thousands of people flooded the streets of Argentina's capital in one of the country's biggest anti-government protests in more than a decade.

In a bold move to gain control of Argentina’s energy reserves, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner pushed forward a bill to renationalise the country’s largest oil company despite fierce criticism from abroad and the risk of a major rift with Spain.

Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez’s campaign to force Britain to hand over the Falkland Islands may have reached its high point with the 30th anniversary of her country’s failed occupation of the remote South Atlantic archipelago.

Argentina’s president was recovering tonight after an operation to remove her cancerous thyroid gland.

President Cristina Fernandez was re-elected in a landslide, winning with the widest victory margin in Argentina’s history after her government spread the wealth of a booming economy.

Thousands of shocked Argentines gathered early today to pay tribute to former president Nestor Kirchner, who died suddenly of a heart attack.

FORMER Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, the current president’s husband and a contender to succeed her in next year’s election, died from a heart attack yesterday.

Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner died today after suffering heart attacks, state television said.

Members of Argentina’s armed forces will be tried by civil courts rather than military tribunals under a new rule that took effect, part of a government effort to increase control over the forces.

Cristina Fernandez was being sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female president today, completing a rare husband-wife transfer of power that the nation hopes will ensure continued recovery from an economic meltdown.

Venezuela rejected Mexico’s demand for an apology today in a spat between President Hugo Chavez and Mexican leader Vicente Fox, calling it an unjustified ultimatum and saying Venezuela was recalling its ambassador.

A CROWD of 10,000 protesters chanting “Get out Bush!” swarmed the streets of the Argentine resort of Mar Del Plata yesterday, hours before the hemisphere’s leaders sat down to debate free trade, immigration and job creation.

The world is about to face an energy crisis because the demand for oil keeps growing even though production is already at its maximum, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said yesterday.

Fallen football legend Diego Maradona has returned to Cuba to resume treatment for cocaine addiction after a relapse confined him to a psychiatric hospital in his native Argentina and sparked unsuccessful attempts by his family to keep him at home.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed a petition condemning anti-Semitism and its resurgence and calling for the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution denouncing anti-Jewish acts.

ARGENTINA’S Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to scrap a pair of amnesty laws dating to the 1980s that had ended trials for human rights abuses committed during the country’s military dictatorship.

Former President Carlos Menem has quit Argentina’s presidential race, clearing the way for Nestor Kirchner to become the country’s next president.

FROM the icy reaches of Patagonia to tropical jungles in the north, Argentines began voting yesterday for a new president to rescue Latin America’s number three economy from a crisis that plunged millions of middleclass Argentines into poverty.

The Argentinian presidential election on Sunday will be one of the closest in decades, according to opinion polls today.