Philippine Army

The U.S. Army on Thursday gave hundreds of weapons, including sniper rifles, mortars and grenade launchers, to the Philippine military for use against a Muslim extremist group linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. The arms are part of a military assistance package promised by President Bush when Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited Washington last month. "Our troops need this very badly," Philippine army spokesman Lt. Col. Jose Mabanta Jr. said.

Somewhere in the dense jungle a few miles from here, American missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham are spending their seventh month as captives of the rebel group Abu Sayyaf. Martin Burnham is handcuffed and kept on a leash whenever his captors are forced to move. Elite Philippine troops trained by U.S. Special Forces stalk the group, hoping for a chance to rescue the couple. The battle on Basilan island started long before Sept.

Police arrested a renegade Philippine governor and six supporters when they tried to slip into the country by boat early Saturday, Malaysia's police chief said. Nur Misuari, governor of the southern Muslim region in the Philippines, and his supporters will be turned over to the Philippine government "as soon as possible," the Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted Police Chief Norian Mai as saying.

Philippine soldiers said Saturday that they rescued three Filipino hostages who had been held for two months by a gang of Muslim rebels that has beheaded at least a dozen of its other victims. Troops attacked the rebels on the island of Basilan and freed the three men a day after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered an investigation into charges that senior military commanders were collaborating with the kidnappers.

Saying he had faith in God and his own innocence, a humbled President Joseph Estrada went on trial in the Philippine Senate on Thursday on charges of bribery and corruption. If found guilty, the former movie star, who has a stable of mistresses and a penchant for partying, would be stripped of the presidency. The army was on alert, and streets around the waterfront Senate chamber were filled with thousands of the president's loyalists and critics.

Suspected Muslim rebels shot dead 21 Christians, including a pregnant woman, in a mosque in the southern Philippines, the army said Monday. It said the dead were among 29 people seized Sunday by 100 armed men and taken to a mosque in the town of Bumbaran in Lanao del Sur province on the island of Mindanao. The captives were tied up for 14 hours and later shot. Eight captives, including a local councilor, survived the attack, an army report said.

The Philippine army carried its biggest offensive against Muslim separatists in years to the perimeter of the rebels' last stronghold Wednesday, pounding the camp with aerial bombardments and mortars. Commanders told Philippine reporters that they could capture the sprawling, 25,000-acre Camp Abu Bakr on the southern island of Mindanao within days if they push forward with an all-out attack. "They're out to pulverize us," said rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu.

Somebody who doesn't know any better might be inclined to throw it away, just set it out one morning with the trash. Here, take this old thing too. That somebody just does not understand, so you explain: It has been with you all these years, right by your side, it was a gift from someone dear, it reminds you of a time that once was, of things that ought to be remembered. No matter that the doll is old and broken down, the teddy bear barely distinguishable from a dirty mop.

With anxiety already high among Southeast Asian nations about a perceived threat of Chinese expansionism, China warned the Philippines on Tuesday that it could face "serious consequences" over a disputed South China Sea island. The warning followed a weekend confrontation at sea in which Chinese fishing trawlers intercepted a Philippine naval vessel carrying journalists to see Chinese construction on Mischief Reef, 150 miles west of the Philippine island of Palawan.

Salvador P. Lopez, a former Philippine ambassador to France and the United States, a representative to the United Nations and president of the University of the Philippines, has died. He was 82. Lopez died Tuesday of a heart attack, his family said. As president of the University of the Philippines from 1969 to 1975, Lopez struggled to uphold academic freedom during a period of student unrest against the late Ferdinand Marcos.