Argentina's Kirchner in first public speech after illness

Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner appeared in public following a nearly month-long absence due to illness, reigniting the offensive against hedge funds and vowing she wants a resolution to the debt crisis. The 61-year-old appeared in good health after she was hospitalized for a gastrointestinal inflammation that forced her to miss a G20 meeting in Australia earlier this month. She resumed her fight against funds that are pursuing her country for payment on Argentine bonds they hold. "It is very important to find an agreement with 100 percent of our creditors, in a way that is legal, balanced and just, and without extortion or blackmail," Kirchner said in Buenos Aires, her first public address since October 30. Argentina is still struggling with the aftermath of a default on nearly $100 billion in debt in 2001, with the two hedge funds it has called vultures battling the country in US courts. Her government fell into default on its borrowings at the end of July this year due to a US court ruling supporting the funds' complaint. Argentina has been locked out of international financial markets since the 2001 default. More than 92 percent of its creditors agreed to take losses of up to 70 percent on the face value of their bonds in 2005 and 2010 to get the struggling country's debt repayments back on track. The center-left Kirchner was first elected in 2007, and again for a second term in 2011. She succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner who died while in office. This is the third time in less than a year that Cristina Kirchner, Argentina's first elected woman president, who is in her last year in office, has been sidelined by health issues. She was sidelined for several days in October by pharyngitis, an inflammation at the back of the throat. In July, Kirchner was for several days by laryngitis, forcing her to cancel a trip to Paraguay. A little over a year ago, she underwent surgery for an intracranial hematoma, or bleeding in the brain, forcing her to stop working for six weeks. In early 2012, she underwent surgery to remove her thyroid after being misdiagnosed with cancer.