Aquino, heroine of Philippine people power, dies

Former President Corazon Aquino, Woman of the Year - Time Magazine.

MANILA (Reuters) – Former President Corazon Aquino, whose "people power" revolution swept dictator Ferdinand Marcos from power in the Philippines, died on Saturday after a 16-month battle against colon cancer, her family said. She was 76.

Aquino was diagnosed with the disease in March 2008 but kept up public appearances this year. A devout Catholic, she was a regular at weekend mass until shortly before being admitted to hospital in late June.

"Our mother peacefully passed away at 3:18 a.m. (1918 GMT Friday) of cardio-respiratory arrest," her son, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., told reporters in Manila.

Aquino, known as Cory to millions of Filipinos, was president from 1986 to 1992 and will be best remembered as the slim woman in yellow who deposed Marcos in 1986.

The tumultuous events of those weeks reached a crescendo when up to 1 million people waving rosaries and flowers stopped tanks advancing toward Aquino-backed army rebels.

When a bewildered Marcos and his wife Imelda fled the country, it set a precedent for dissidents from South Africa to South America and Pakistan. Aquino was hailed by many as a modern-day Joan of Arc.

"She would have wanted us to thank each and every one of you for all the prayers and your continuous love and support. It was her wish for all of us to pray for one another and for our country," Aquino Jr said.

Cory was a reluctant leader. She shed the housewife's apron only after her politician husband, opposition leader Benigno, was assassinated at Manila's international airport in 1983 on his return from exile in the United States.

Accusing Marcos of ordering the murder, Aquino led protest marches but hesitated when an election was called in 1986.

"What on earth do I know about being president?," she said before taking up the challenge to run against Marcos.

Inevitably, her presidency was less successful than the revolution, with a series of coup attempts by the military keeping the administration hamstrung.

Aquino was lauded for her courage but the spectre of army intervention haunted her entire rule. Natural disasters, including Mount Pinatubo's huge volcanic eruption in 1991, severely battered the economy.

TURNED TO FAITH

Aquino often turned to her faith to steer her through difficult times.

"There was never any moment that I doubted God would help ... If it was time to die, so be it," she said when rebel mortars pounded the presidential palace in 1987.

"I have not always won but ... I never shirked a fight," she said in 1992 before handing power over to her successor, former defence minister Fidel Ramos.

She oversaw the writing of a new constitution which limited a president's time in office to one six-year term.

Born on January 25, 1933, into one of the country's richest families, the Cojuangcos, Aquino grew up in a world of wealth and politics. The daughter of a congressman, she married Benigno, a politician with promise, and they had four daughters and a son before he was thrown into prison by Marcos and then forced into exile.

Aquino seemed frail in later years, but was still game for a fight when she thought it necessary. She brought half a million people on to the street in the 1990s when her Ramos flirted with the idea of trying to extend his term in office.

She was involved in the protests that brought an end to the presidency of Joseph Estrada in 2001, and had supported the campaign to remove current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Last year, just before Christmas, she publicly apologized for helping bring down Estrada.

"We all make mistakes, please forgive me," Aquino said.

Estrada, once an implacable foe, said of the apology: "It was the best Christmas gift I have ever received."

It mattered to him because it came from "the most trusted person in the country." (Reporting by Manny Mogato and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Robert Woodward / Reuters)



Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090731/ts_nm/us_philippines_aquino

Solar eclipse in Asia brings millions out into streets and onto rooftops

A combination picture shows the sequence of a total solar eclipse as observed in Central China. The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century began its flight on Wednesday across a narrow path of Asia. (Reuters / Daily Mail)

It was billed as the best place to see the eclipse and as this astonishing picture shows the tiny Indian village of Taregna in eastern India sure drew in the crowds.

Shoulder to shoulder the masses ranks of eclipse hunters gathered to witness the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century.

At 6.24 in the morning (0054 GMT) live TV pictures were beamed from the location, 300 miles north-west of Calcutta, where assorted scientists, including Nasa, had said it would be the best place to watch the eclipse.

The eclipse - caused when the moon moves directly between the sun and the earth, covering it completely to cast a shadow on earth - lasted almost 4 minutes in India. In some parts of Asia it lasted as long as 6 minutes and 39 seconds.

In Taregna, thousands had gathered a day in advance but thick clouds and overnight rains provided no spectacle, just a cloudy darkness.

'It was still a unique experience with morning turning into night for more than three minutes," said Amitabh Pande, a scientist with India's Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators, who was there.
Still, the rain was welcomed by many in this agricultural area which has seen scant rainfall this monsoon season.

'It would have been nice to see the solar eclipse but the rain is far more important for us,' said Ram Naresh Yadav, a farmer.

Casting two billion people into total or partial darkness in China and India, the world's two most populous countries, this will have been the most witnessed eclipse in history, Nasa scientists said.

Thick cloud cover over India obscured the sun when the eclipse began at dawn. However, the clouds parted in many areas a few minutes before the total eclipse took place.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, eclipse watchers came out in droves.
'It's a rare moment - I never thought I would see this in my life,' said Abdullah Sayeed, a college student who travelled to Panchagarh town from the capital Dhaka to view it.

He said cars in the town needed to use headlights as 'night darkness has fallen suddenly'. People hugged each other and some blew whistles when the eclipse began, he said.

It is the longest since July 11, 1991, when a total eclipse lasting six minutes, 53 seconds was visible from Hawaii to South America. There will not be a longer eclipse than today's until 2132.

For astronomers, today was a chance for a prolonged view of the sun's corona, a spectacular blaze of plasma extending far into space.

One Indian travel agent scheduled a charter flight to watch the eclipse by air, with seats facing the sun selling at a premium.

The eclipse first appeared at dawn in India's Gulf of Khambhat, just north of Mumbai, and then moved eastward at 15 times the speed of sound across India, Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China before reaching the Pacific.

It was last seen from land at Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. Elsewhere, a partial eclipse was visible in much of Asia.

In China the eclipse was the longest since 1814 and will not be overtaken by a longer one until 2309.

'We'll have to wait a few hundred years for another opportunity to observe a solar eclipse that lasts this long, so it's a very special opportunity,' said Shao Zhenyi, an astronomer at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory.

Western backpackers joined the hundred of millions of Chinese who watched the event.

Briton Shelagh Lester Smith, who had travelled specially to Shanghai for the eclipse, said even the pouring rain did not ruin the experience as inky darkness fell. 'It felt like the end of the world had come,' she said.

Thousands of Hindus bathed in the Ganges in the Indian town of Varanasi to cleanse their sins as the moon threw the area into darkness for three minutes, 48 seconds.

Millions of the more superstitious in India stayed indoors, fearful of the phenomenon. One Hindu fable says an eclipse is caused when a dragon-demon swallows the sun.

Predicted outbreaks of civil unrest do not appear to have happened.

Some families have advised pregnant relatives to confine themselves to curtained rooms, following long-held fears that the invisible rays would harm the feotus and the baby born with disfigurations, birthmarks or a congenital defect.

Krati Jain, 24, a New Delhi software professional expecting her first child, said: 'My mother and aunts have called and told me stay in a darkened room with the curtains closed, lie in bed and chant prayers.'

In the northern Indian state of Punjab, authorities ordered schools to begin an hour late to prevent children from venturing out and gazing at the sun. (Daily Mail)


Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1201312/Solar-eclipse-Asia-brings-millions-streets-rooftops.html;jsessionid=141F589180E4870A9C0637423E523414

Disappearances, abuse rise in Central Mindanao

DATU PIANG, Philippines - Sahid Makmud was waiting for a Red Cross truck, which delivered food for hundreds of displaced families in the southern Philippines, when armed men in military uniform took him and two others away.

For almost a week, his pregnant wife and younger brother searched for him without success at army bases in Maguindanao province on the southern island of Mindanao. The army denied any knowledge about Makmud's disappearance.

Makmud's body was eventually found on the edge of marshlands not far from his home.
Residents said his killing, and the likely death of the other two men, are part of a growing pattern of human rights abuses in the region. They blame the army for the wrongdoings.
"There were signs that he (Makmud) was tortured to death," said his brother, Saudi.

The Philippine military has been regularly accused of human rights abuses and disappearances, including in a report by the U.N. special rapporteur on political killings.

The country's independent human rights body has said the situation improved this year, but residents in the south say not in central Mindanao, the battleground between rogue Muslim rebels and the largely Christian-dominated military.

Immediately after Makmud's body was found, dozens of families from his village in Maguindanao province fled to shelters. Tales of similar disappearances, murders and other human rights abuses across the oil and gas-rich wetlands in the region have triggered similar waves of displacement.

More than 1,500 families are camped out at a coconut plantation in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, making it the largest shelter for internal refugees in the province, said Nurhassim Abas, head of a local disaster agency.

"They feel much safer here because our community was further away from the conflict zone," Abas told Reuters. "Soldiers seldom patrol this area and it is more accessible to humanitarian and aid agencies delivery food, medicines and other relief goods."

Rebel factions seeking peace talks with the government say the military was forcing people to flee to a controlled area to deny Muslim guerrillas access to their support bases.

"That's hamletting," Mohaqher Iqbal, a senior leader in the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), told Reuters. He was referring to a military term that means the forced grouping of villagers in an effort to deny the enemy access to food, cash and other support.

"That's clearly a human rights violation."

Rogue MILF

Muslim rights groups have noted that some army units now based in the south were transferred from provinces where communist rebels are active. Many of the abuse cases documented in previous years have related to the crackdown on leftists.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the army division operating in Maguindanao, dismissed reports of rising cases of rights violations as propaganda by the MILF.

"Our soldiers strictly respect human rights and observe the laws of armed conflict," he said. "We are not trying to force the people to flee from their homes. In fact, we have been helping rebuild communities in areas where we restored peace and order."

Ponce said the latest wave of displacement in Maguindanao was caused by rogue MILF rebels who have started to attack villages in search for food and other supplies. (Manny Mogato / Reuters)

Court jails killer of slain Filipino journalist

MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) - A Philippine court found an unemployed man guilty on Wednesday for the 2006 killing of a radio commentator on the southern island of Mindanao, sending him to jail for 17 years.

It was only the sixth conviction among more than 100 cases of murders of Filipino journalists since 1986, a local media group said.

"We are thankful to the government prosecutors for making sure justice would be served," Maximo Solis, an official of the local broadcasters' association, told reporters. "But we want to know why our colleague was killed and who wanted him dead."

Radio broadcaster Armando Pace, known for his critical commentaries on local politicians, was shot in the head and chest as he was riding home from work in July 2006 in southern Digos City.

One of the two gunmen linked to the crime, Joy Anticamara, was caught and brought to trial but denied he was near the crime scene. The court threw out his alibi after a neighbour identified him as one of the gunmen.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has listed the Philippines as among the world's most dangerous places for journalists due to many unresolved murders since 1998.

About 24 killings of Filipino journalists have remained unresolved in the last 10 years, said a CPJ report in March 2009, calling on the government to prosecute and punish those behind the murders.

The government said four people had been convicted in the last eight years and 26 others were facing charges for the murder of at least 31 Filipino journalists since 2001. But local media groups said about 78 to 100 of more than 130 journalists have been killed since 1986 and only five of those cases led to convictions. (Reuters)

Roadside Washers Threatened With Jail: Reuters

ROME - Illegal immigrants in Italy earning a few coins by washing windscreens at traffic lights could face up to three months in jail after Florence launched a crackdown and other cities said they might follow suit.

Many cities are already taking action against what is seen as "imported" behaviour such as tourists taking off their shirts or eating hamburgers in the piazza in Venice, or getting drunk in public in Rome -- something image-conscious Italians avoid.

Foreigners are also blamed for much of the street crime in a relatively safe country. Most people wielding sponges on street corners are Romanian gypsies, often young women and children.

But word got round quickly in historic Florence that city hall had introduced new rules enabling police to bring charges against window-washers, confiscate their equipment and start prosecutions that could end in fines and a prison sentence.

Florence police chief Alessandro Bartolini personally led the first patrol which resulted in 15 people being charged.

"There are no more on the streets. Word has got around, apparently," Bartolini said.

Rome's Mayor Walter Veltroni, who has taken action against illegal gypsy camps and now vows to clean up rowdy nightlife and public drug-taking and drinking in popular neighbourhoods like Trastevere, said window-washers are so pushy "that people are virtually ravaged at every traffic light and street corner".

"People must realise that behind the window-washers there is exploitation of minors, which is a crime. Like prostitution this is a racket that must be smashed," Veltroni told reporters.

In Verona, Mayor Flavio Tosi, who has previously taken action against people eating sandwiches in public, said he would monitor the experiment in Florence: "If the new regulation manages to deter the window-washers, we will adopt it too".

Some civic groups in Florence applauded the rules which city officials said acted on complaints of window-washers "becoming more aggressive, especially to women alone in their cars".

The city's public safety officer Graziano Cioni stressed that the aim was "not to punish beggars or poor people" but to combat "arrogant and violent" behaviour against motorists.

However, leftist groups in the city called the new measure excessive and regional Communist party chief Niccolo Pecorini termed it "unworthy of Florence's hospitable traditions". (Reuters)

Taliban Kill 5 Western Soldiers In Afghanistan: Reuters

KABUL, Afghanistan - Five Western soldiers, including three Americans, were killed in a string of Taliban attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.

The Americans were killed along with two Afghan soldiers in a Taliban ambush on Monday in Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, the district police chief told reporters.

NATO officials in Kabul said earlier that two soldiers had been killed while on patrol Sunday, one in an attack in eastern Afghanistan and the other in the south.

NATO did not identify the victims.

However, the Netherlands' military said a Dutch soldier had been killed overnight by a bomb in southern Afghanistan.

It said the 30-year-old sergeant was in a unit searching for explosives in the province of Uruzgan when an improvised device exploded, Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn told a televised news conference. A 23-year-old corporal was wounded, Berlijn said.

The Netherlands has about 1,700 troops in Afghanistan.

Violence has surged in the past 19 months in Afghanistan where more than 100 Western troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. military have been killed this year while fighting a renewed Taliban-led insurgency.(Reuters)

Afghan, U.S. Forces Assault Al-Qaeda In Tora Bora: Reuters

KABUL, Afghanistan - United States and Afghan air and ground forces pounded al-Qaeda militants for a second day on Thursday in the Tora Bora mountains close to the Pakistan border where Osama bin Laden once fled in the wake of the 2001 invasion.

The steep slopes of the mountains are riddled with cave and tunnel complexes built by Afghan and Arab fighters during the 1980s struggle against the Soviet occupation and provide an ideal hideout for guerrilla fighters.

"It is a joint operation conducted by Afghan and U.S. forces, divided by ground and air assets," said Captain Vanessa Bowman, spokeswoman for U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

"Afghan and U.S. forces engaged al Qaeda and other violent extremist fighters in the eastern Afghanistan region in Tora Bora," she said, adding that the operation began on Wednesday.

Pakistan has deployed a "limited number" of regular army troops in Kurram tribal region in its side of the Tora Bora range, a security official said.

"It has been done over the past three days and it was done in coordination with allied forces in Afghanistan," he said. "We have made all arrangements to block any infiltration of militants from the other side. So far there has been no attempt of any infiltration."

Afghan media quoted local government officials as saying some 50 militants had been killed in the fighting so far and up to 100 families had fled the region.

"I personally don't have any casualty reports at this time, but we do know that there have been substantial casualties," Bowman said.

Aid organizations had suspended projects in the Tora Bora region, said a Western security official in the city of Jalalabad, some 50 km (30 miles) north of the mountains.

"We see a lot of air activity going towards that region, it looks like its quite intense today," he said.

Three coalition soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the Khogiani district near Tora Bora on Sunday and a U.S. base in the area also came under rocket attack in the last few days.

U.S. soldiers and Afghan militia forces launched a major assault on Tora Bora in late 2001 in pursuit of al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, who was thought to be hiding in the mountain range after the toppling of the Taliban government.

But U.S. military leaders allowed the Afghan militiamen to spearhead the assault and bin Laden managed to escape.

Al Qaeda forces and their Taliban allies use the rugged and semi-lawless border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan to plan, train and launch attacks in both countries.(Reuters)