Philippines

MANILA, Philippines -- Eight years after the Philippine Senate ordered the U.S. military out of the country, the Philippine government appears likely to ratify a new agreement with the United States for increased military cooperation.Although a 1951 mutual defense pact has remained in effect, the forced closure of Clark Air Base, once the largest U.S. military facility outside the continental United States, and a naval base at Subic Bay led to strains in the Manila-Washington relationship that continue to this day. No U.S. military ships have called on the Philippines for two years.

CANDABA, Philippines -- This is the year the rains didn't come to Southeast Asia. Sun and heat conquered the land, and the paddies dried up, turned into a great expanse of cracked rust-red earth that yielded little but brown tufts of dying rice."

DIGOS, Philippines -- As a presidential race tainted by violence and chicanery draws to a close, Vice President Joseph "Erap" Estrada is the man of the people to beat Monday.From a field of 10 1/2 candidates -- former first lady Imelda Marcos was in the race, dropped out and now is half-heartedly back in -- Filipino voters seem ready to elect a controversial former B-movie actor to navigate their country through the Asian financial turmoil and into the 21st century.Estrada's detractors scorn the 61-year-old, who has a seemingly insurmountable lead in the polls.

MANILA, Philippines -- Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado has called for a return of American troops to the Philippines, six years after the country's Senate closed down all U.S. bases in a wave of nationalist fervor.Over the past year, legislators have been debating the wisdom of closing the bases in 1992 when their leases expired. Many felt a U.S. military presence in the Philippines was needed to deter Chinese expansion in the South China Sea.The issue has become more pressing recently after Chinese warships and cargo vessels transporting building materials were spotted around Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands.

Two weeks after returning from a visit to Cuba, Cardinal William H. Keeler will depart for the Philippines tomorrow as the pope's envoy at a gathering of 5,000 Roman Catholics.The National Congress of the Holy Spirit, a conference of Catholic laity, clergy and nuns from Thursday to Jan. 25 in Manila is the occasion for Keeler's visit halfway across the world. Because of it, Keeler canceled plans to return to Cuba next week during Pope John Paul II's visit there.As Keeler prepares to leave on his weeklong trip, he knows that much is expected of him on this official visit -- or "missum extraordinarium" (unusual mission)

New peace proposal would give Kosovo status of republicPRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Ethnic Albanian leaders released a peace proposal yesterday for Kosovo that would give the troubled province its own legislature and make it equal to Yugoslavia's two republics.The plan, published in the Kosovo daily Koha Ditore, was released amid reports that the government had launched a fresh offensive against a rebel stronghold in the southern Serbian province.Ferry's shifting cargo may have caused sinkingMANILA, PhilippinesMANILA, Philippines -- A ferry that sank Friday with 454 people on board was carrying heavy cargo that may have shifted in heavy waves, causing the ship to tilt and then sink, the chief investigator said Sunday.

HE LOOKS like the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time, but that's democracy. Vice President Joseph Estrada, elected to a six-year term as president of the Philippines, is the beneficiary of the achievements of the past two presidents.Corazon Aquino crusaded for democracy, won election and put it in place. Gen. Fidel Ramos sympathized with democracy campaigners and prevented a coup. As president, he jump-started the economy and accepted a one-term limit. Now, thanks to them, the people could choose Mr. Estrada.

AMERICAN MILITARY power in the southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia is rapidly descending to the level of farce. Nothing illustrates U.S. weakness in the region more than an unseemly dispute in the Philippines on an old theme -- U.S. intrusion on Philippine soil.Having refused to extend the leases on the American bases in the Philippines six years ago, Philippine politicians now are balking at diplomatic immunity for American military people during port visits and war games.The result: The Pentagon has canceled this year's joint exercises and won't let U.S. Navy ships call at Philippine ports.

MANILA, Philippines -- If Imelda Marcos is to be believed, her husband, the dictator, bricked up his family home with lead-covered gold bars.If the Philippine Central Bank is to be believed, the amount of gold the Marcos family allegedly hoarded would have required a convoy of trucks to move. Its size would have exceeded all the gold reserves ever kept in the bank's vaults.If a private investigator is to be believed, $7 billion worth of the Marcos gold held by Marcos-family front companies is navigating through Swiss accounts or has been laundered already.

Here richly, with ridiculous display,The Politician's corpse was laid away.While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged,I wept; for I had longed to see him hanged.-- Hillaire Belloc, ''Epitaph on the Politician Himself''BOULDER, Colo. -- Few would have believed that Ferdinand Marcos would be as interesting dead as alive. The few who did were right. The rest of us are simply surprised.Following Marcos' death, it will be recalled, there was an extended period during which neither his corpse nor his widow was permitted to return to the Philippines from Hawaii, the state to which they moved in 1986 after deciding the Philippines was no longer hospitable.

SANTA BARBARA, Philippines - -Looking down the main drag of this farm town, Police Chief Eric Noble marvels at the modern conveniences - byproducts of the fierce ties binding Philippine families. Sturdy houses with concrete foundations now replace the thatched huts of a generation ago. There are new cars, washing machines, children attending private schools and former sharecroppers who have purchased the farms where they once worked as lowly laborers. Such economic progress has come from remittances, the staggering $1 billion sent to families nationwide each month by Filipinos working overseas in an attempt to overcome extreme poverty and joblessness in their native land.

Marialou Anobas doesn't use the word "lucky" to describe herself because, as she sees it, surviving a hotel bombing and winning the lottery in the same lifetime requires more than just good fortune. Instead, the registered nurse will simply say somebody has a plan for her life, and the winding road that led her from her native Philippines, to Saudi Arabia, to Kuwait, to the United States, to winning $250,000 in Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing becomes more fulfilling every day. Anobas was one number away from claiming the $60 million jackpot.

Baltimore County police and federal immigration agents raided a Fells Point bar July 8 searching for four high-powered handguns that authorities said had been purchased by the club owner with the help of a foreign national visiting from the Philippines, according to reports filed Friday with the city's liquor board. The guns, which each cost about $1,200, are described in the reports as FN 5.7 mm pistols manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium that fire military-style rounds at high velocity, capable of piercing ballistic body armor.

Attorney general leaning toward torture inquiry WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric H. Holder is leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, setting the stage for a conflict with Obama administration officials who would prefer that the issues remain in the past, according to sources familiar with his thinking. Naming a prosecutor to probe alleged abuses during the Bush era would run counter to President Barack Obama's oft-repeated desire to be "looking forward, not backward."

Murray J. Adams, Jr., well known vintage car collector and a respected contributor/member of the Catonsville Community for the last 50 plus years, was married to Ms. Gloria Nuestro Uy in a civil ceremony in Towson, MD on 12/23/08, followed by a Dinner Reception. Murray is a graduate of St. Paul's School, Calvert Hall College, University of Baltimore, and New York Institute of Finance. Murray is a former Financial Controller of Baker Watts & Co., and CEO of his firm, American Senior Financial Services, now retired living in the High Fields section of Catonsville.

Taylor Hubbard's interesting background called for an equally interesting and unique place to call home. The son of American diplomats, he grew up in several parts of the world and spent a long time in the Philippines, where his father served as ambassador. Hubbard's collection of Asian furniture, arts and artifacts would travel with him from a Washington rental property to his first home in Baltimore. In February 2007, Hubbard, a freelance writer and editor, purchased a quaint, circa 1790 two-story brick rowhouse with a third-floor garret on Tyson Street in the city's Mount Vernon neighborhood.

War messes with soldiers' minds. On Nov. 25, 1906, The Sun reported that a Warrenton, Va., man pleaded with a judge in Washington for leniency for his son, claiming that he was a victim of his three years' service in the Army fighting insurgents in the Philippines. On his return to the U.S., Harry Pattie had been sent to an "asylum" for three months; a week after his release, he was in court, charged with theft from a saloon on Pennsylvania Avenue. His father said the Philippine climate had affected his son's brain - and it's not hard to suppose that it was the climate of fear and brutality surrounding the guerrilla war there, rather than the climate of heat and humidity, that he was talking about.

Bobby Fischer, the iconoclastic genius who was one of the greatest chess players the world has ever seen, has died, a close family friend, Gardar Sverrisson, confirmed yesterday. He was 64 and died Thursday in a hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fischer died of kidney failure after a long illness, Sverrisson told the Associated Press. Mr. Sverrisson, who lived in the same apartment building in Reykjavik as Mr. Fischer, said: "He was a close family friend, and we all miss him very much." Mr. Fischer, the most powerful American player in history, had moved to Iceland in 2005.

Even as a teenager, breaking swimming records at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, Joey Curreri was leaving a mark as deep as his churning wake in the water. "He was, hands down, the most motivated individual I've ever encountered," said Brad Schertle, a fellow swimmer and longtime friend. "Joey was Michael Phelps before Michael Phelps was." The Pentagon announced yesterday that Staff Sgt. Joseph F. Curreri, a 27-year-old Green Beret in the Army's Special Forces, drowned last week while serving in the Philippines.

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- A militant leader linked to al-Qaida and wanted in the beheading of a tourist from California has been killed in a jungle battle, the Philippine army announced yesterday. The military first reported that it had wounded Jainal Antel Sali Jr., also known as Abu Solaiman, on Tuesday when special forces raided an Abu Sayyaf militant group hide-out on Jolo Island, about 600 miles south of Manila. But Sali, also wanted in the kidnapping of two American missionaries, was later confirmed dead at a news conference in Manila at which the chief of the armed forces, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, showed photographs of the corpse.