FRESH from beating England's footballers in the World Cup,
Argentina will soon be sending another team that may tweak
British noses: on October 27th, Carlos Menem is due in London on
a six-day official visit, the first by an Argentine president
for 38 years. Most of his time will be spent in mutual goodwill,
which has improved vastly—the hand of Diego Maradona
notwithstanding—since the two countries went to war over the
Falkland Islands in 1982. But Mr Menem has sworn blind that he
will raise the issue of sovereignty over what he calls the Islas
Malvinas. And his hosts swear just as blind that, having kicked
out the 1982 invasion, and refused to negotiate about
sovereignty ever since, they won't even talk about it.  So far,
so smoothable over by any competent diplomat. But now oil and a
draft Argentine law are troubling the waters. The two countries
in 1995 agreed to co-operate in, and share royalties on, any oil
produced from one area midway between the Falklands and the
mainland. But this April an American