Buenos Aires  - Talented midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme's decision to refuse to play for Argentina in the future has strengthened Diego Maradona's control over the national team and his position in the face of internal conflicts.

Riquelme announced his decision late Tuesday, but it hardly upset many fans in the football-crazy South American country. A few people backed the player at the Boca Juniors training session Wednesday, but an online poll in the Argentine daily Clarin said that 62.5 per cent of those who replied were in favour of Riquelme's exit.

Buenos Aires  - Tango is often associated with macho culture in Buenos Aires, but times are clearly changing, and as society undergoes modifications so does the melancholy and sensual dance.

Buenos Aires  - The cruise ship Ocean Nova managed to get out of trouble at high tide in the early hours of Thursday, two days after running aground near an Argentine military base in Antarctica.

Quark Expeditions, the US-based company that operates the ship, said its hull suffered no damage, according to Spanish divers who inspected the 73-metre-long Ocean Nova. There were also no fuel leaks.

Buenos Aires - Argentine Justice officials on Thursday raided Siemens offices in Buenos Aires, the latest in a series of actions against the firm in a widespread international bribery case.

The action - ordered by Judge Ariel Lijo - sought to seize a memorandum in which Siemens allegedly admitted the payment of bribes in Argentina, as the German-based company did in other countries, Argentine news agency DyN reported.

Buenos Aires  - The cruise ship Ocean Nova managed to get out of trouble at high tide in the early hours of Thursday, two days after running aground near an Argentine military base in Antarctica.

Quark Expeditions, the US-based company that operates the ship, said its hull suffered no damage, according to Spanish divers who inspected the 73-metre-long Ocean Nova. There were also no fuel leaks.

The 65 passengers had been evacuated Wednesday to the ship Clipper Adventurer, also operated by Quark Expeditions, and were sailing to the southernmost Argentine town, Ushuaia. The crew of 41 remained on the Ocean Nova.

Buenos Aires - The cruise ship Ocean Nova, with 106 people on board, was to attempt again Wednesday to free itself after running aground a day earlier near an Argentine military base in Antarctica.

Amid strong winds, the ship awaited the arrival of another cruise ship to which its passengers might be evacuated.

Passengers were in good condition and out of danger, Patrick Shaw, chairman of the company Quark Expeditions which operates the Ocean Nova, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.