Manila

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo faced criticism from prominent Filipinos on Saturday for declaring a state of emergency to quash a coup plot, with a former president and military commander saying the move will hurt the Philippines unless it is rescinded soon. Meanwhile, police raided the offices of a newspaper critical of Arroyo.

A loud explosion rocked the grounds of the Philippine presidential palace on Monday, causing no casualties or damage, as a group of self-proclaimed military rebels vowed an ”explosive protest” against President Gloria Arroyo. A second explosive device went off in Manila’s financial district of Makati, wounding a boy.

The organisers of the Philippines game show where 74 people were killed in a stampede were guilty of security lapses and could now face criminal charges, an official said on Monday. Interior undersecretary Marius Corpus said it would be up to judiciary officials to determine if the organisers of the <i>Wow-wow-wee</i> show should be held criminally liable.

Threats to destabilise the Philippine government of President Gloria Arroyo still remain despite the arrest of a renegade military officer, a military spokesperson said on Monday. Although he would not give details, Lieutenant Colonel Tristan Kison said a shadowy group had been trying to recruit junior officers.

A 2m-long python caused a commotion at a Manila police station on Tuesday, with rattled police officers used to battling tough criminals forced to destroy an officer’s desk where the snake slithered in to hide, officials said. The incident started before dawn when a bystander saw the python near a fast-food restaurant in a nearby district.

Tens of thousands of Filipinos marched through the financial district of Manila on Wednesday demanding that President Gloria Arroyo resign over allegations that she tried to rig last year’s presidential election. One of the protest organisers, Wilson Fortaleza, described the march as ”a preview for a bigger storm”.

The United States on Friday expressed its ”unequivocal” support for embattled Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and said there appears to be no real danger of a coup despite rumours. Arroyo has placed military and police forces on full alert as rumours swirl of a plot against her, fuelled by allegations she rigged last year’s election.

A number of teachers from government-run schools in the Philippines are being given crash courses ahead of the new school year because they lack proper training in certain subjects they teach. The remedial classes are being given for those who have to teach science, mathematics, chemistry, biology, as well as in English.

Twenty-three people, including three top leaders of Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda-linked Islamic group, were killed on Tuesday when Philippine police stormed a maximum-security prison to end a day-old revolt, officials said. The Philippine military has said it is preparing for possible retaliatory attacks by Abu Sayyaf.

Twenty-five primary-school children died on Wednesday from apparent food poisoning in the central Philippine province of Bohol, officials said. The students from the San Jose Elementary School in the town of Mabini had eaten snacks made from cassava roots in their mid-morning break before falling ill, officials said.

The Abu Sayyaf, the Muslim militant group that claimed responsibility for a series of Valentine’s Day bombings in the Philippines, has been blamed for the country’s worst terrorist attacks. The group was founded in the early 1990s with seed money from Saudi-born September 11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

A new Hollywood war movie due for worldwide release in August may offend Japanese audiences because of its graphic depiction of brutalities committed by Japan’s Imperial Army during World War II, movie executives said on Monday. The -million movie, entitled The Great Raid, stars Hollywood actor Benjamin Bratt.

Philippines police have been ordered to take English grammar lessons and lose weight to improve their crime-fighting abilities, the national police chief said on Wednesday. Police will also be made to undergo leadership and stress-management courses, Interior Undersecretary Margarita Cojuangco said.

The survival of four people who were trapped for 11 days in the rubble of a building demolished by storms in the northern Philippines is amazing but not unprecedented, doctors said on Thursday. An emergency specialist with an international agency said: ”To survive for 11 days in those conditions is amazing but not impossible.”

Philippine rescuers searched for 40 people missing on Sunday after Tropical Storm Muifa cut through the country, sinking boats, causing landslides and blackouts and killing at least five, officials said. Twenty-five small fishing boats and their crew remained missing around Mindoro island, south of Manila, the Office of Civil Defence said.

Stinky and dingy toilets in the Philippines’ premier international airport will soon get a facelift under a massive renovation programme, officials said on Thursday. A total of 42 restrooms at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International airport will be renovated under the project, according to the Manila International Airport Authority.

Annoyed by a stream of unwanted kisses, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned overzealous male fans and supporters on Wednesday that to avoid embarrassment they should not pucker up in her direction. ”I do not want to be kissed by any man but my husband,” she told a meeting in Laguna province.

An eight-storey building collapsed on Friday in a busy fleamarket area in the Philippine capital, but no one was hurt in the accident, officials said. The five-year-old commercial and residential building in the district of Divisoria in downtown Manila first tilted on its side before crashing to the ground hours later.

Supporters of a Filipino hostage in Iraq cheered Manila’s life-saving decision to withdraw troops from the war-torn nation, but the move was criticised by Washington and its allies, who said the United States-led coalition will suffer. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was ”extremely disappointed”.

With the life of a kidnapped Filipino on the line, the Philippines sent out ambiguous and contradictory signals on Tuesday on the hostage takers’ key demand for an early withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis went on an Arabic television station on Monday to appeal for the life of father-of-eight Angelo de la Cruz.

The death toll from Typhoom Mindulle’s rampage through the Philippines rose to 16 with 17 other people still missing and feared dead, civil defence officials said on Thursday. The typhoon has displaced nearly 180 000 people from 48 towns and three cities and destroyed or damaged more than 6 000 houses.

Philippines rescuers rushed on Wednesday to save five people clinging to parts of a ferry that sank three days ago in a series of weather-related disasters that left about 300 people dead or missing. Efforts continued to reach villages isolated by weekend mudslides and floods in the central and southern regions of the country.