Admiral Mike Mullen (R) speaks with Helmand Province Governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen (R) shakes hands with a local Afghan elder in Marjah
A map locating Kandahar in Afghanistan
The top US military commander on Tuesday visited Marjah, the frontline of US-led operations against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, where a battle for Kandahar is already ramping up.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in the battle zone a day after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan after a surprise visit, pledging to defeat the Taliban and "to get the job done".
Operations in the farming community of Marjah, set in poppy fields and desert in Helmand province, are the first test of Obama's counter-insurgency campaign aimed at ending an increasingly deadly war now into its ninth year.
Mullen met Helmand governor Gulab Mangal, with whom he discussed the progress of military operations, and pledged support for local security and development, provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP.
Mullen, who wore US Navy fatigues, and Mangal also met local leaders in a "shura" or community conference, where they heard concerns of Marjah residents including complaints that promised schools and clinics were not yet operating.
An Afghan journalist at the meeting said the Marjah elders complained that the road to provincial capital Lashkar Gah, less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) away, had not reopened since fighting began on February 13.
The United States and allies have boosted their troop numbers to 126,000, with the number set to peak at 150,000 by August as the fight expands into neighbouring Kandahar province, the heartland of the insurgency.
Obama has said he wants to start drawing down American troops from the middle of next year, putting pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to take over responsibility for security by then.
The US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, told Obama earlier this month that he would take on Taliban militants in Kandahar when enough reinforcements were in place.
Military and political efforts against the Taliban around Kandahar, Afghanistan's third biggest city and the Islamist militia's spiritual capital, have "been long under way," a senior NATO officer in Kabul confirmed.
"There's roughly today on the ground about 8,000 coalition troops and 12,000 Afghans in the Kandahar fight," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"In the last two months we've had a tremendous impact on the major approaches into Kandahar to try to squeeze the Taliban's access," he said, claiming that up to "70 significant mid- to high-level Taliban have been taken off the streets of Kandahar in the last several months".
A US Army brigade would boost the coalition force in Kandahar to 11,000 by June, he said. In the city of one million, he said, Afghan police would shoulder the main burden to evict the Taliban and keep them at bay.
"We have never had the force density in Kandahar to really own all the extreme approaches. With forces that have gone in there we have been able to really slice down on a lot of the traditional avenues into Kandahar itself," he said.
The arrival of additional forces would see current operations accelerate, with the aim of clearing the city and its surrounds of Taliban operatives by the religious fasting month of Ramadan, beginning in mid-August.
The campaign follows the launch of Operation Mushtarak in Marjah on February 13, where six weeks later troops are still coming under fire and being targeted by bomb attacks despite efforts to restore Afghan government control.
Upon his return to Washington from Afghanistan, Obama stressed the immediate need for progress in the country, torn by three decades of conflict and nearly a decade of US-led intervention.
He pressed Karzai, who won a new five-year term in fraud-tainted elections in August, to step up the fight against corruption and the drugs trade, and invited the Afghan leader to visit Washington on May 12.
Twelve people, including nine police officers, were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
Twelve people were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
Twelve people were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North
Twelve people, including nine police officers, were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
"In the blasts, 12 people have been killed, nine of them were police officers, including the Kizlyar police chief. Twenty-three others have been hospitalized, suffering with various injuries," Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Investigative Committee of Russian Prosecutor General's Office, told the Interfax news agency.
Dagestani authorities has launched a criminal investigation over the two explosions, he said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been informed of the terrorist attacks in Kizlyar.
"Medvedev has also spoken to Dagestan's President Magomedsalam Magomedov over the phone. The president ordered (Dagestani authorities) to provide all-round support for the families of the victims, as well as to provide all necessary assistance, including medical and financial, to the people injured," the press service told Russian media.
In the first explosion happened at 08:30 a.m. Moscow time (0430 GMT), a roadside car was denoted by a suicide bomber when a police car was passing by, killing three people including two police officer, the regional Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov told the Itar-Tass.
As investigators and residents gathering at the scene of the blast, a second bomber dressed as a policeman approached and set off explosives, killing the town's police chief among others, said Vyacheslav Gadzhiyev, another spokesman for the ministry.
After the explosions, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev ordered to tighten up security at public places in Dagestan.
Nurgaliyev added that Russia's response to the terrorist acts in Moscow on Monday morning when two suicide bombers killed 39 people on the city's subway would be tough and principled.
Rescuers, firefighters and policemen are working at the blast site.
The blast came two days after two female suicide bombers killed 39 in attacks at the Moscow metro which the authorities have linked to militants from the North Caucasus.
Mullen arrived in the battle zone a day after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan after a surprise visit
The United States and allies have boosted their troop numbers to 126,000
The top US military commander on Tuesday visited Marjah, the frontline of US-led operations against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan where a battle for Kandahar is already ramping up.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in the battle zone a day after President Barack Obama left Afghanistan after a surprise visit, pledging to defeat the Taliban and "to get the job done".
Operations in the farming community of Marjah, set in poppy fields and desert in Helmand province, are the first test of Obama's counter-insurgency campaign aimed at ending an increasingly deadly war now into its ninth year.
"Admiral Mullen is in Marjah," said Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Further details of his visit were not immediately released.
The United States and allies have boosted their troop numbers to 126,000, with the number set to peak at 150,000 by August as the fight expands into neighbouring Kandahar province, the heartland of the insurgency.
Obama has said he wants to start drawing down American troops from the middle of next year, putting pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to take over responsibility for security by then.
The US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, told Obama by video conference earlier this month that he would take on Taliban militants in Kandahar when enough reinforcements were in place.
Military and political efforts against the Taliban around Kandahar, Afghanistan's third biggest city and the Islamist militia's spiritual capital, have "been long under way," a senior NATO officer in Kabul confirmed.
"There's roughly today on the ground about 8,000 coalition troops and 12,000 Afghans in the Kandahar fight," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"In the last two months we've had a tremendous impact on the major approaches into Kandahar to try to squeeze the Taliban's access," he said, claiming that up to "70 significant mid- to high-level Taliban have been taken off the streets of Kandahar in the last several months".
A US Army brigade would boost the coalition force in Kandahar to 11,000 by June, he said. In the city of one million, he said, Afghan police would shoulder the main burden to evict the Taliban and keep them at bay.
"We have never had the force density in Kandahar to really own all the extreme approaches. With forces that have gone in there we have been able to really slice down on a lot of the traditional avenues into Kandahar itself," he said.
The arrival of additional forces would see current operations accelerate, with the aim of clearing the city and its surrounds of Taliban operatives by the religious fasting month of Ramadan, beginning in mid-August.
The campaign follows the launch of Operation Mushtarak in Marjah on February 13, where six weeks later troops are still coming under fire and being targeted by bomb attacks despite efforts to restore Afghan government control.
Upon his return to Washington from Afghanistan, Obama stressed the immediate need for progress in the country, torn by three decades of conflict and nearly a decade of US-led intervention.
"I think he is listening," Obama said of Karzai, who won a new five-year term in fraud-tainted elections in August.
"But I think that the progress is too slow, and what we've been trying to emphasize is the fierce urgency of now," Obama said in an interview with NBC television.
He pressed Karzai to step up the fight against corruption and the drugs trade, and invited the Afghan leader to visit Washington on May 12.
Security personel guard the entrance to a flooded mine shaft at Wangjialing coal mine
Coal miners wait for news of their colleagues at the entrance to a flooded mine shaft in China's Shanxi province
Rescuers raced Tuesday to find 153 workers trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern China, as workers angrily accused mine management of ignoring warning signs of the impending disaster.
Two days after water gushed into the vast Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province, China's coal-producing heartland, the fate of the workers still missing after Sunday's accident remained unclear.
But officials warned toxic gas was building up in the pit, posing a threat to both the men trapped inside and rescuers trying to drain the mine in the latest incident to strike the notoriously dangerous industry.
If the missing are not rescued, the accident in rugged Xiangning county will be the deadliest in China in more than two years. In August 2007, 172 workers died in a mine flood in the eastern province of Shandong.
Timeline: Major accidents in Chinese mines
Liu Dezheng, vice-director of the Shanxi Work Safety Administration, told reporters late Monday that 970 rescuers were involved in the rescue effort.
"The coal mine has a high concentration of gas. Rescuers have to face the danger of toxic gas, while fighting the water," he said. "We must guard against secondary disasters."
Co-workers of the missing angrily accused mine officials of ordering them back into the half-built pit, even after water was discovered leaking into the mine on Thursday -- three days before the accident.
"Water continued to seep in in the days afterwards and we reported it, but there was no order to evacuate. Why didn't they do something about that?" a mine construction worker who gave only his surname, Shi, told AFP.
After a one-day shutdown on Saturday, workers said they were ordered back in on Sunday -- the day of the accident.
"A lot of workers didn't want to go back in because of the water leaks. But when your shift goes in, you can't refuse. You have to go," a worker surnamed Jiang said.
Beijing has ordered local authorities to go all-out to find the workers at the massive mine, which belongs to the state-owned Huajin Coking Coal Company and covers an area of 180 square kilometres (70 square miles).
Investigations so far have shown that 261 workers, mainly migrant workers from other provinces, were in the mine as water started to gush in.
Officials said 108 were brought to safety.
The China Daily newspaper quoted workers saying they believed even more men could be in the flooded pit.
"Those trapped are my workmates. I just want to try my best to save them," said one 40-year-old worker surnamed Xu, who told Xinhua news agency he had worked through the night to help position drainage equipment.
However, some complained about the mine's lack of preparedness for the disaster.
State media reports have said some pumping has begun but was proceeding slowly after authorities had to rush in additional pumping and drainage equipment. The mine did not have such equipment as it was not yet open.
"Why are they not pumping the water? They have got to start pumping the water and find these people," said a woman who gave her surname as Zhang, and who said three of her relatives were missing.
A preliminary probe showed water that had accumulated in nearby abandoned mines burst into the new pit, flooding it with enough water to fill about 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"To survive down there around 1,000 metres underground would be very lucky," survivor Fan Leisheng told state television on Monday.
The colliery, presented as a first-class model of safety and efficiency on Huajin's website, was due to produce six million tonnes of coal a year.
Huajin itself is half-owned by China National Coal Group Corp, the country's second-largest coal producer and parent of Hong Kong-listed China Coal Energy.
Mines in the world's top coal-producing nation are among the most dangerous globally. More than 2,600 people were killed in the country's collieries last year, according to official figures.
Rescuers were searching for more than 120 coal miners trapped when a pit under construction in north China's Shanxi province flooded on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported
About 123 people were trapped in the pit of the Wangjialing coal mine after underground water gushed in, though 138 miners escaped, Xinhua said, quoting provincial work safety officials.
The mine, sitting astride Xiangning county and Hejin city, covers about 180 sq km, Xinhua said, adding that the mining zone holds more than 2.3 billion tons of coal reserves, including nearly 1.04 billion tons of proven reserves.
The mine, affiliated to the state-owned Huajin Coking Coal Co. Ltd., is expected to produce 6 million tons of coal annually once put into operation, the agency said. It is a key project approved by the provincial government.
Strong demand for energy and lax safety standards have made China's mines the most dangerous in the world, despite the government's drive to clamp down on tiny, unsafe operations where most accidents occur.
The number of people who have died in Chinese coal mines dropped to 2,631 in 2009, an average of seven a day, from 3,215 in 2008, according to official statistics.
A South Korean military diver searching for survivors from a navy ship that sank off North Korea has died.
The diver lost consciousness as he searched wreckage of the Cheonan warship which sank after an explosion on Friday, the military said.
Rescuers have been working to get inside the ship, split in two by the blast. Forty-six sailors are missing.
The cause of the explosion is not yet clear, but a senior official has said it could have been a North Korean mine.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited the scene of the wreck on Tuesday, flying in by helicopter to Baengnyeong island near the disputed inter-Korean border.
He also ordered the military onto alert, saying: "Since the sinking took place at the front line, the military should thoroughly prepare for any move by North Korea."
Dangerous waters
Fifty-eight crew members were rescued when the Cheonan went down late on Friday.
Officials say they believe that some of the 46 sailors still missing could have survived in water-tight cabins in the stern of the ship.
More than a dozen South Korean ships are involved in the rescue effort, plus a US vessel.
The diver who died was one of dozens brought in to try to gain access to the wreckage. The cause of death is not known.
Another diver was also been taken to hospital, military officials said.
A navy spokesman said the divers were working in "a very vicious environment" with swift currents and murky visibility.
"Our goal is to get into the ship and find any survivors but at the moment it is extremely hard to do so," the navy spokesman said.
On Monday, teams used a hose to inject oxygen into the stern via a crack, but divers who knocked on the hull received no response.
The cause of the blast that sank the ship remains unclear.
Defence Minister Kim Tae-young has said it could have been caused by a mine laid by the North during the 1950-53 Korean War.
He said it could also have been a mine that the communist state intentionally sent floating towards the South Korean vessel.
But an internal malfunction has not been ruled out and military officials said establishing the cause of the blast might have to wait until the ship is salvaged.
Pyongyang has made no official comment on the incident.
It does not accept the maritime border, known as the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn unilaterally by the US-led United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War.
The area has been the scene of deadly clashes between the navies of the two Koreas in the past.
Russian PM Vladimir Putin says catching those who organised Monday's suicide bombings in Moscow should be a "matter of honour" for investigators.
He said the security services, who have been widely criticised in the media, should drag the bombing masterminds "from the bottom of the sewers".
Russians are observing a day of mourning for 39 people killed in the rush-hour attacks on two Metro trains.
Officials have blamed the bombings on militants from the North Caucasus.
Tension remains
Russian media reports are linking the attacks to the death of a rebel leader from Ingushetia - Alexander Tikhomirov, also called Said Buryatsky.
He was killed by Russian security forces this month after being blamed for an attack on a train last year in which 26 people died.
Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted investigation sources as saying they believed Tikhomirov had recruited 30 suicide attackers from Ingushetia and neighbouring Chechnya.
Police fear that two of the bombers he trained might have blown up the Moscow trains to avenge his death.
The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says the main concern for Russia is whether Monday's bombings were the start of a new wave of attacks by rebels.
Security has been stepped up in the capital, as police are reported to be searching for three people sighted with the bombers.
The Metro is back up and running, but commuters say the city was not yet back to normal.
"I feel the tension on the Metro. Nobody's smiling or laughing," university student Alina Tsaritova told the Associated Press news agency.
Paying respects
The authorities say two female suicide bombers detonated explosives packed with pieces of metal.
Russian newspapers have published pictures of two dead women, purported to be the suicide attackers.
In the early 2000s, Russian cities were hit by attacks by women from the Caucasus known as "black widows" because their husbands were believed to have been killed by Russian soldiers.
Russian media have also published a CCTV image they say is a man suspected by police of helping in the attacks.
In a meeting with senior officials, Mr Putin urged investigators to find the organisers.
"We know they're lying low, but it's a matter of honour for law enforcement bodies to scrape them from the bottom of the sewers and into the daylight," he said.
Much of Mr Putin's political reputation was built on his tough stance against rebels from Chechnya while he was president.
His successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev, said the government would consider revamping anti-terrorism laws to try to prevent further attacks.
Continuing insurgencies
Some of the families of the victims have been expressing anger at their loss.
The grandmother of Valya Yegeazaryan, 17, who died in a hospital after the explosion at Park Kultury station, questioned what the authorities were doing to tackle militants.
"I cannot get my child back. There have been so many terrorist attacks, and yet what what have [the authorities] done?" asked Valentina Yegeazaryan.
"Some time passes, and then the same thing happens again."
Mourners lit candles and laid flowers at the sites of the blasts - the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations.
As well as the 39 killed, some 70 people are reported to still be in hospital - some of whom are seriously hurt.
The co-ordinated attacks were the deadliest in Moscow since February 2004, when 40 people were killed by a bomb on a packed Metro train as it approached the Paveletskaya station.
Six months later, a suicide bomber blew herself up outside another station, killing 10 people. Both attacks were blamed on rebels from Chechnya.
The city's Metro is one of the busiest underground rail networks in the world, carrying about 5.5 million passengers a day.
Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov vowed last month to take the war to Russian cities.
More than 100,000 people have been killed in 15 years of conflict in Chechnya, and low-level insurgencies continue there and in the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Below are list of terrorist attack on Russian
March 2010: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up at Lubyanka station and Park Kultury station, killing 39 people
August 2004: Suicide bomber blows herself up outside Rizhskaya station, killing 10
February 2004: Suicide bombing on Zamoskvoretskaya line, linking main airports, kills 40
August 2000: Bomb in pedestrian tunnel leading to Tverskaya station kills 13
February 2000: Blast injures 20 inside Belorusskaya station
January 1998: Three injured by blast at Tretyakovskaya station
June 1996: Bomb on the Serpukhovskaya line kills four
The Pope is under pressure over abuse allegations in the Catholic Church
Protesters at Westminster Cathedral call for the Pope to step down
The Pope has spoken of the need not to be intimidated by critics, in a veiled reference to anger at the Catholic Church over past sex abuse scandals.
At a Mass in Rome's St Peter's Square, he said his faith would help give him the courage to deflect "petty gossip".
The Pope has been accused of failing to act over the case of a US priest alleged to have abused 200 deaf boys.
But the Archbishop of Westminster defended the Pope, saying he had introduced rules to protect children.
'Swamp of sin'
At the Palm Sunday service, Pope Benedict, 82, did not directly mention the wider scandal - involving the abuse of children by priests in several countries.
But he told the tens of thousands of people gathered to hear him that God helped lead "towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion".
He also said man sometimes fell to the "lowest, vulgar levels" and sank "into the swamp of sin and dishonesty".
The most senior Catholic in England and Wales, Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, said just one case of child abuse was enough to create "justifiable anger".
He said the "anger and dismay" over the alleged cover-up by some Catholic clergy was "proper".
However, he added allegations about the Pope's involvement were unfounded.
Vatican denial
He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "He [the Pope] pushed forward for example a fast-track to defrock priests who have committed abuse. He changed the statute of limitations in Church law.
"He changed the law so that sexual offences committed with anyone under the age of 18 would be a crime in Church law."
The Pope has been accused of failing to act over complaints during the 1990s about Fr Lawrence Murphy, who was alleged to have abused some 200 deaf boys in Milwaukee.
As head of the Vatican office dealing with sex abuses, the Pope - then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - allegedly did not respond to letters about the case from a archbishop concerned about the abuse.
The Pope's intervention, following a plea by the priest concerned, is also said to have resulted in the halting of a church trial.
The Vatican newspaper denied this, calling the claims a "smear" attempt.
Meanwhile on Sunday, members of Westminster Cathedral's congregation clashed with placard-carrying protesters calling for the Pope to resign.
The Protest the Pope coalition said he should go because he failed to ensure priests who abused young people were reported to police.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell alleged the pontiff ordered a cover-up in a 2001 edict to Catholic Bishops worldwide.
Mr Tatchell said: "The buck stops with him and he should resign."
The Pope has apologised to victims of abuse before and recently said sorry to them in a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics.
He said he acknowledged the sense of betrayal in the Church felt by victims and their families.
The party of Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi decided Monday to boycott the military-ruled country's first election in two decades after the Nobel laureate blasted new electoral rules as "undemocratic."
The main opposition National League for Democracy's refusal to participate would undermine the polls' credibility in the eyes of foreign governments, which have urged the diplomatically isolated junta to ensure all groups take part in the elections.
The military, which has run Myanmar since 1962, has touted this year's elections as part of a "roadmap to democracy," but a number of rules would prevent Suu Kyi herself from participating. The pro-democracy icon has spent 14 of the last 20 years in jail or under house arrest.
Suu Kyi's party won the last election held in Myanmar in 1990 by a landslide but was barred by the military from taking power.
On Monday, her party's spokesman, Nyan Win, announced after a daylong meeting that all 113 delegates present had agreed that the party should not register for the elections.
Cheering could be heard from the delegates as they concluded their meeting.
Nyan Win said the central committee members decided not to register because — as noted in a message sent to them by Suu Kyi — the electoral laws enacted by the junta "are unfair and unjust."
Her message also called stipulations in the law "undemocratic."
Nyan Win did not elaborate, but the party had previously objected to a provision of the party registration law that requires parties to expel members who have criminal convictions, or face deregistration.
Because Suu Kyi was convicted last year of allowing an unregistered guest to stay at her home, the provision would appear not to allow her to be a member of the National League for Democracy, which she helped found.
Suu Kyi is still general-secretary of the party and its most dominant figure.
The new election laws require political parties to register before the first week in May. Parties that do not register will not be able to participate in this year's election and will cease to exist, under rules enacted this month by the military government that also bar Suu Kyi from participating in the polls.
No date has been set for the polls, which critics deride as a sham designed to cement the power of the military.
Even before the official decision, party spokesman Nyan Win indicated the party would decide not to register. Asked if that would marginalize the party, he said, "We will continue to exist politically by not registering. If we register, we will only have a name void of all political essence."
"We will survive as long as we have public support," Nyan Win said.
Security was heightened, with plainclothes police and pro-government security guards stationed around the party's compound as the delegates met Monday in Yangon.
"This meeting is a life-or-death issue. If we don't register, we will not have a party and we will be without legs and limbs," said Win Tin, a veteran party member and one of Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoners, having spent 19 years behind bars before his release in 2008.
He said the journey ahead would be difficult if the party chooses to opt out of elections but that its members could still maintain their democratic principles and spirit.
Last week, Suu Kyi was quoted by her lawyer as saying she opposed registering her party. But she stressed she would let the party decide for itself.
Suu Kyi is under house arrest and the new election laws effectively bar her both from running and voting.
Myanmar's biggest opposition party said on Monday it would not register for this year's election, meaning Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party will have no role in the military-led political process.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won the last election in 1990 by a landslide but was never allowed to rule, said the entire party leadership had agreed not to run.
"After a unanimous vote of the central executive committee, the NLD party has decided not to register as a political party because the election laws ... are unfair and unjust," the party said in a statement.
The election has been widely dismissed as a sham after nearly five decades of iron-fisted army rule in the former Burma, a strategically situated but isolated country rich with resources like natural gas, timber and gems and a Southeast Asian port.
Senior party members made the decision six days after Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention, said she "would not dream" of entering if the decision was hers.
The comment was widely interpreted as a veiled instruction to party members as they prepared for a ballot on whether to run.
In comments relayed from her lawyer, Suu Kyi said the NLD was not ruined and vowed to keep up her fight for democracy.
"Registering the party under the unjust and one-sidedly drawn-up laws cannot be accepted," she was quoted as saying.
"I would like to tell the people that I will continue working for the emergence of democracy."
A senior party official had earlier told Reuters some members in favor of running in the election had been urged to vote otherwise to show the party was united.
UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Divisions had emerged in the party between advocates of a boycott and modernizers who believe the NLD would be a spent force if it did not run. However, senior NLD member Win Tin said the party would live on.
"The party will not die," he told Reuters. "We will be among the people, our activities will not stop."
The party faces dissolution if it refuses to register.
After the announcement, party members were in high spirits and chanted slogans to show their support for Suu Kyi, wearing T-shirts bearing her picture.
The NLD is most angered by the military junta's restrictive election laws, which bar current and former prisoners from taking part. Many NLD members are among the 2,100 political detainees in Myanmar, the most famous of whom is Suu Kyi.
After the last election, the junta promised to hand over power to the NLD after a constitution was drafted and a probe launched into the polls. Neither happened and the NLD was never allowed to rule.
Some in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, disagreed with the NLD's decision and said the country's best hope for democratic change had played into the hands of the generals.
"I think the NLD has made another major policy blunder," said a retired civil servant, who asked not to be identified.
"They've walked into a trap. They could have pressed on without Suu Kyi and got something out of the election."
Experts say the junta has learned from the botched 1990 election and has drafted a constitution that ensures it will effectively remain in charge, without the need to rig the polls.
The United States and United Nations have not publicly questioned the constitution but have said the election would not be credible if political prisoners could not take part.
--------------
South Korea's defense minister says North Korea may have intentionally floated a mine to damage a naval ship that exploded and sank this week.
Forty-six crew members are missing and believed trapped within the wreckage of the ship, which went down Friday. Fifty-eight were rescued
While the cause of the explosion is unknown, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told lawmakers in Seoul on Monday that rival North Korea may have floated a mine toward the ship. He also said the explosion could have been caused by a mine placed during the Korean War.
South Korean officials had earlier said they did not believe the North was behind the explosion.
The two nations remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BAENGNYEONG ISLAND, South Korea (AP) — Divers finally reached the wreckage of a naval ship that sank nearly three days ago and rapped with hammers on the stern where 46 crew members are believed trapped, but got no response, military officials said Monday.
Military officials said time was running out for any navy crewmen who might still be alive and trapped inside watertight cabins aboard the Cheonan, which sank after an explosion late Friday split the 1,200-ton vessel apart. Fifty-eight others, including the captain, were rescued, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The ship has dozens of waterproof cabins, and authorities initially said that if crew members shut the doors quickly enough, some may have survived in the sunken vessel. However, the supply of oxygen in the cabins was estimated to last up to 69 hours — a deadline that passed Monday night.
The exact cause of the explosion — one of South Korea's worst naval disasters — remained unclear, and officials said it could take weeks to determine.
Rough waves and high winds over the weekend prevented military divers from gaining access the wreckage lying under water near Baengnyeong Island in the west.
With time running out, divers plunged back into the waters Monday, reaching the ship's front and rear segments. Most of the rescued crew members were in the front of the ship, while those missing were in the rear.
The divers knocked on the ship with hammers but there were no response, Rear Adm. Lee Ki-sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters. Cameras were also lowered to the site.
Divers were next preparing to make their way into the ship, Lee said.
The Cheonan was on a routine patrol Friday night when an explosion split the ship in a matter minutes, according to Capt. Choi Won-il.
There were initial concerns it was an attack from North Korea because the area has been the site of three bloody skirmishes in the past. The two Koreas remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
However, North Korea did not appear to be involved, and the communist country's official news agency has made no mention of the ship. The North Korean military's first comments since the ship went down warned the U.S. and South Korea on Monday against engaging in "psychological warfare" by letting journalists into the Demilitarized Zone.
Still, the North Korean military was keeping a close watch on the search operation, the Joint Chiefs of Staffs said in a defense committee report cited by the Yonhap news agency.
President Lee Myung-bak said rescuers "should not give up hope," according to a statement from the presidential Blue House after Lee met with a security ministers Monday.
No bodies have been retrieved from the ship, feeding families' hopes that their sons and husbands might still be alive, the navy said. However, sonar devices used to locate the ship have captured no sounds coming from within, naval officials said.
Four U.S. Navy ships and 16 divers joined the search Monday after getting a request from Seoul for assistance, said Lt. Anthony Falvo, a spokesman for the U.S. 7th Fleet, based just south of Tokyo.
Grief-stricken relatives boarded a boat Sunday to see the spot where the ship went down.
"My son said he would defend the nation, but instead he ended up like this," one cried out as she clutched a framed photo of her son.
After dining with Mr Karzai, Mr Obama donned a leather bomber jacket and addressed troops at Bagram.
United States president Barack Obama has urged Afghan president Hamid Karzai to clean up corruption and rallied troops to defeat the Taliban during a surprise visit to Afghanistan.
Mr Obama flew into Afghanistan under the cover of darkness aboard Air Force One and left before dawn after his first visit to the country since taking office more than a year ago.
He pressed Mr Karzai to step up the fight against corruption and the drugs trade and invited the Afghan leader to visit Washington on May 12.
Mr Karzai has pledged action against corruption, which infects every aspect of life in Afghanistan, as well as good governance and rule of law.
Mr Obama, whose relationship with Mr Karzai has been strained, urged his Afghan counterpart to "continue to make progress" on all fronts.
Afghan analysts say the visit sent a clear message to Mr Karzai that the US expects him to act on promises to eradicate graft before visiting Washington.
"Obama has set some homework for Karzai, reminding him that the anti-corruption issue must be taken more seriously and that not enough has been done so far," analyst Waheed Mujda said.
Haroun Mir, director of Afghanistan's Centre for Research and Policy Studies, says Mr Obama's visit sent a "strong message" to Mr Karzai.
"It was a strong message to president Karzai and his administration that the US cannot remain indifferent to the internal politics in Afghanistan," he said.
"I am sure before [Mr Karzai] goes to Washington in May he will have to take some proper measures to show that he has the intention and the political will to create some changes."
The visit, which included briefings with US General Stanley McChrystal and US ambassador Karl Eikenberry, gave the president the chance to assess the progress of his new war strategy.
After dining with Mr Karzai at the presidential palace in Kabul, Mr Obama donned a leather bomber jacket to tell cheering troops at Bagram he was confident they would stop the Taliban from regaining power and halt Al Qaeda.
"Our strategy includes a military effort that takes the fight to the Taliban while creating the conditions for greater security and a transition to the Afghans," he told US and NATO troops.
"But also a civilian effort that improves the daily lives of the Afghan people and combats corruption, and a partnership with Pakistan and its people, because we can't uproot extremists and advance security and opportunity unless we succeed on both sides of the border."
Bagram, the biggest US base in Afghanistan, came under mortar fire after the president's departure, a NATO spokesman said, adding there were no casualties.
Mr Obama's visit coincided with a Washington Post poll that said 53 per cent of Americans approve of how he is handling the situation in Afghanistan.
The war against the Taliban, now in its ninth year, is claiming record fatalities among the 121,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, where Mr Obama is deploying reinforcements in an effort to bring the war to an end.
Around 136 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year, compared to 78 in the first three months of 2009.
But Mr Obama remains confident the Taliban can be defeated.
"We're going to deny Al Qaeda safe haven," Mr Obama said.
Detectives and scenes of crime officers examine the aftermath of the blast at Park Kultury metro station
At the site of the other attack, the city's Lubyanka station officials examine the scene. The station lies beneath the headquarters of the Federal Security Service
Desolate: A wounded woman covered in dust with her left eye blackened outside Park Kultury metro station
A hospital helicopter lands at Zubovsky Boulevard to evacuate the victims from the Park Kultury metro station
Splattered with blood, a wounded man makes a phone call on his mobile outside the Park Kultury metro station shortly after a female suicide bomber blew herself up
In this image from Russia Today television an injured man is treated in an ambulance
Passengers try to make their way out of Prospekt Mira subway station. The attacks happened at the height of the morning rush hour
Desperate: Dead bodies are scattered in the walkway at one of the stations
Massacre: A bloodied passenger is treated on the side of the road
Firefighters carry a body from Lubyanka metro station in Moscow after a female suicide bomber blew herself up during rush hour this morning
A woman breaks down outside Lubyanka station after at least 37 people were killed in two separate suicide bombings in the city
MAP BLAST
* Two bombs, 40mins apart, detonated during morning rush hour
* At least 37 people dead, 65 injured
* No group claims responsibility so far. Rouble falls
Police in Moscow were tonight searching for female accomplices of two women suicide bombers who killed at least 37 people and injured 65 by targeting two packed tube trains during the busy rush hour.
Analysis of CCTV footage inside the Red Arrow underground trains of the two suicide bombers has revealed they were accompanied by two other women.
Their faces were not destroyed in the explosion, increasing the chance of successfully identifying them, and video from other cameras in Moscow Metro stations has also helped identify the faces of the two women who accompanied them and a man.
President Dmitry Medvedev declared Russia would act 'without compromise' to root out terrorists as he ordered airports to be put on alert and security to be stepped up throughout the country.
The two bombs are the worst attack on the Russian capital for six years and no group has yet claimed responsibility.
But suspicion has fallen on Muslim militants from the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency spreading from Chechnya to neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia.
Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service, said the terrorists were likely to have been 'black widows', Muslim women radicalised by the situation in the North Caucasus.
'Body parts belonging to two female suicide bombers were found and, according to initial data, these persons are linked to the north Caucasus,' he said.Analysts said the involvement of women was similar to the 'black widows' in Checnya - women who had lost brothers or husbands to Russian forces in the Chechen conflict.
News reports have linked the women, also known as Shahidka, to embattled northern Caucuses and the Shahidka movement that first emerged in 2000.
The term is a feminine derivative of shahid, Arabic for 'witness' or 'martyr'.
They are generally young, often teenagers, and are dressed from head to toe in black mourning clothes.
Police are tonight expected to publish CCTV images of the suicide bombers, along with two women of 'Slav appearance' who accompanied them.
Witnesses spoke of panic at the two underground stations this morning after the blasts as people fell over each other in dense smoke and dust, trying to escape.
In scenes that will have been chillingly familiar to Londoners after the July 7 bombings in 2005, bloodied and injured passengers emerged onto the streets looking bewildered.
The first explosion tore through the second carriage of a metro train just before 8am as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service FSB. It killed at least 23 people.
About 40 minutes later, another blast in the second carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 to 14 more people.
Both bombers wore explosive belts packed with bolts and iron rods to maximise casualties.
'It was very scary. I saw a dead body,' said Valentin Popov, a 19-year-old student travelling on a train to the Park Kultury station.
'Everyone was screaming. There was a stampede at the doors. I saw one woman holding a child and pleading with people to let her through, but it was impossible.'
A commuter said: 'I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body.'
The female suicide bombers are believed to have boarded the train at Yugo-Zapadnaya station in southwest Moscow.
One passenger told the RIA news agency: 'I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body.
'People were yelling like hell. There was a lot of smoke and in about two minutes everything was covered in smoke.'
Another called Alexei added: 'I was moving up on the escalator when I heard a loud bang, a blast. A door near the passage way arched, was ripped out and a cloud of dust came down on the escalator.
'People started running, panicking, falling on each other,' he said.
Some of the injured were airlifted to emergency hospitals in helicopters. Dozens of commuters were helped from each station to waiting ambulances.
Surveillance camera footage posted on the internet showed several motionless bodies lying on the floor or slumped against the wall in Lubyanka station lobby and emergency workers crouched over victims, trying to treat them.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters that female suicide bombers had carried out the attacks.
Prosecutors said they had opened a 'terrorism investigation' after forensic experts found the remains of a female bomber.
The Russian rouble fell to 34.25 from 34.13 against the central bank's euro-dollar basket, on concern the blasts could indicate the start of a bombing campaign against Russian cities.
Russian equity markets were little changed, with the rouble denominated MICEX index up 0.04 percent.
Medvedev ordered officials to fight terrorism 'without hesitation, to the end'.
In a nod to accusations of Russian troops acting with brutality against civilians in Chechnya, he said human rights must be respected during police operations.
The President will make a statement to the nation later today, according to a Kremlin source.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cut short a visit to Siberia and vowed that everything would be done to catch the killers.
He said: 'A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed.
'I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed.'
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the bombings as did European Union leaders.
'The American people stand united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism and heinous terrorist attacks that demonstrate such disregard for human life, and we condemn these outrageous acts,' Obama said.
Gordon Brown was 'appalled' by the attacks and has sent a message of 'condolence and support' to Medvedev, Downing Street said.
The current death toll makes it the worst attack on Moscow since February 2004, when a suicide bombing killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 100 on a metro train.
Chechen separatists were blamed for that attack and suspicions are likely to focus on the North Caucasus where rebel leader Doku Umarov, who is fighting for an Islamic emirate embracing the whole region, vowed on Feb 15 to take the war to Russian cities.
'Blood will no longer be limited to our (Caucasus) cities and towns. The war is coming to their cities,' the Chechen rebel leader said in an interview on the unofficial Islamist website.
The Chechen rebellion began in the 1990s as a largely ethnic nationalist movement, fired by a sense of injustice over the transportation of Chechens to Central Asia, with enormous loss of life, by dictator Josef Stalin.
In recent years, Russian officials say Islamic militants from outside Russia have joined the campaign lending it a new intensity.
Russian leaders had declared victory in their battle with Chechen separatists who fought two wars with Moscow.
But while violence subsided in Chechnya, it has spread and intensified in neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia, where clan rivalries overlap with criminal gangs and Islamist militants.
Vladimir Putin cemented his power in 1999 in launching an ultimately successful war to overthrow a separatist government lodged in the Chechen capital Grozny.
Russian leaders fear the loss of this region endangering energy transit routes could destabilise other areas in a country spanning 11 time zones.
The Moscow subway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around seven million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.
The blasts practically paralysed movement on the city centre's main roads, as emergency vehicles sped to the stations.
Helicopters hovered overhead the Park Kultury station area, which is next to the city's renowned Gorky Park.
Passengers, many of them in tears, streamed out of the station, one man exclaiming over and over: 'This is how we live!'
ALL EYES ON CHECHNYA
Although no group has so far claimed responsibility, suspicion will fall on Chechen rebels and other separatist groups in the North Caucasus.
The last confirmed terrorist attack in Moscow was in 2004, when a Chechen suicide bomber blew herself up outside a city subway station, killing 10 people.
Chechnya lies to the south of Russia close to the border withe Georgia.
In February, the Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov warned on a website that 'the zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia ... the war is coming to their cities'.
Russia has been involved in two bitter conflicts in the region in the past 20 years.
Prime Minister Putin has claimed the region is at risk from Islamic terrorism and that giving in to Chechen independence would cause further chaos on Russia's border in the region
New York police doubled patrols of the subway system and sent a battery of police cars to transit hubs as a precaution on Monday following the Moscow subway bombings.
In Washington, police sent bomb-sniffing dogs to random Metro stations and rail yards as part of heightened security associated with the Moscow attacks, in which two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people on packed metro trains during rush hour on Monday.
Though the Moscow bombings appear related to the conflict in the North Caucasus and New York's greatest threat is seen as coming from al Qaeda, police enacted the same security detail that they roll out after any attack elsewhere in the world.
This time it closely follows one man's admission he was plotting a suicide bombing of New York subways with al Qaeda training.
"We don't have any information suggesting that it's related (to al Qaeda) but as a precaution we are increasing coverage," police spokesman and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
The city's fleet of "critical response vehicles" that guard sensitive locations were sent to mass transit hubs such as Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station, Browne said.
Officers patrolling the subways overnight were kept on duty as the morning shift reported, practically doubling the number of officers.
The city may also send a detective to Moscow, as it often does following similar attacks around the world, Browne said.
The New York Police Department has detectives in 11 foreign cities working to prevent foreign extremists from hitting New York, which has been attacked twice -- on September 11, 2001, and in a 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center.
The New York subway system security came under intense scrutiny after the transit attacks on Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.
On February 22, Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bomb attack on New York City subways with al Qaeda training for what would have been the worst attack on the United States since 2001.
"Whether they are related or not our standard operating procedure is to take precautions until more is known," Browne said.
Coincidentally on Monday, Washington's Metro was holding a planned drill simulating a bus explosion in the parking lot of a sports stadium. That coincided with the sweeps of train stations, the locations of which were not being announced in advance.
"When we opened the Metro system this morning, we did so with heightened security," Metro Transit Police Acting Chief Jeri Lee said in a statement. "We remain an open system and we do what we can to be as secure as possible."
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has reiterated that fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program are possible, but "not optimal," the Kremlin press service said on Saturday.
In his message to the annual summit of the 22-nation Arab League, which kicked off in Libya earlier in the day, Medvedev said that "the settlement of Iran's nuclear problem should be implemented solely by politic-diplomatic means in strict accordance with the Charter of the United Nations."
"[We are] certain that the path of sanctions is not an optimal one. At the same time the possibility that events may develop along this scenario cannot be ruled out," he said.
"One must clearly understand that the sanctions should be well-considered and not aimed at Iran's civilian population," he added.
Iran's recent move to begin enriching uranium to 20% sparked a wave of international criticism, with the U.S. leading calls for new harsher sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Western powers suspect that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at making weapons, while Tehran claims it is pursuing nuclear technology for its civilian energy needs.
In his message, Medvedev reiterated that Russia views the Arab League as an important partner, with which to build up cooperation on a wide range of international issues, from combating the repercussions of the global economic crisis to the energy sphere.
"We regard the signing in December 2009 of a memorandum on establishing a Russian-Arab cooperation forum as a significant landmark on this path. I am confident that its activities will enrich and expand our multidimensional relations. [We are] intend to continue participating in collective action to resolve regional problems in the Middle East and North Africa."
The Vatican has vigorously defended Pope Benedict's record in office.No pope has resigned as head of the Catholic Church in modern times
The possibility has been raised that Pope Benedict XVI should resign over the snowballing paedophile priest scandal in the Catholic Church. The BBC's Vatican correspondent, David Willey, examines the question.
In theory, there is nothing to stop Pope Benedict taking a piece of paper out of his writing desk and drafting a letter of resignation to hand to the College of Cardinals, the supreme electoral body of the Catholic Church.
Under Canon Law, the only conditions for the validity of such a resignation are that it be made freely and be properly published.
But no pope has done this in modern times.
There has, however, been persistent speculation by historians that during World War II, Pope Pius XII drew up a document stating that if he were to be kidnapped by the Nazis he was to be considered to have resigned, and a successor should be chosen.
As the Vatican has delayed the full release of its archives relating to Pius's pontificate, because of a dispute over his reaction to the Nazi Holocaust, there is no means of verifying whether this is true.
Rival claimants
Going back further in time, the last case of a pope resigning dates back a further five centuries. Pope Gregory XII - who reigned from 1406 to 1415 - did so to end what was called the Western Schism.
There were three rival claimants to the papal throne at that time, the Roman Pope Gregory XII, the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, and the Antipope John XXIII. Before resigning, Gregory formally convened a Church Council and authorised it to elect his successor.
The only other significant example of a papal resignation dates back even further in time.
In 1294, Pope Celestine V, only five months after his election, issued a solemn decree declaring it permissible for a pope to resign and then did so.
He lived for two further years as a hermit, and was later declared a saint. The decree that he issued ended any doubt among canon lawyers about the validity of a papal resignation.
Having said all this, the likelihood of Pope Benedict voluntarily laying down his high office remains slim.
The Vatican is for the moment vigorously defending the record of his five-year papacy, and Benedict's previous conduct during the period when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Munich and subsequently head of the CDF, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the watchdog Vatican department responsible for disciplining priests guilty of bad conduct.
Ghoulish: The extraordinary photocall took place in the basement of Marcos's mansion in the town of Batac
Campaign trail: Marcos (right) speaks to Batac residents from her battle bus after announcing her candidacy
Entourage: The former first lady (rught, under umbrella) held a rally at the Paoay Church in Paoay, Ilocos Norte province
Clan: Marcos's daughter Imee (right) is also running for office and aims to become governor of Ilocos Norte province
Elegant at 80: Marcos outside the family mansion in Batac last night
Symbol: Some of the 3,400 pairs of shoes belonging to Imelda Marcos found after her husband was ousted from office in 1986
Notorious: Imelda and her husband Ferdinand Marcos lived a life of excess while their people struggled to survive
Electioneering: Imelda Marcos leans forward to kiss the casket of her dead husband Ferdinand after announcing she would be standing for the Filipino parliament
Eyes closed and lips pursed, Imelda Marcos leans forward to plant a ghoulish kiss on the glass coffin containing her husband's embalmed corpse.
Many believed the former Filipino first lady, still elegant at 80, had cloistered herself away to spend her remaining days in anonymous ignominy.
They were wrong. At the last possible moment - and with her trademark taste for the theatrical - Marcos has exploded back into political life.
She announced today she will stand for her husband Ferdinand Marcos's former seat in national elections to be held on May 10.
Nor has age dulled her ambition. She is leading her brood into battle with daughter Imee running for governor of Ilocos Norte province and son Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Junior seeking a senate seat.
Marcos's decision to stand for parliament was a closely-guarded secret until now, in line with the Phillipines strict election laws.
The shamelessly political photocall held at the mausoleum in the basement of her own home, in the town of Batac, was her inimitable way of announcing she was back.
After posing with her husband's waxy body, resplendent in white jacket, ceremonial sash and polished medals, she moved upstairs to hold a press conference.
Typically, Marcos used the occasion to praise her controversial husband who was ousted by a 'people power' revolution in 1986.
'He was our best ever president,' she said, immaculate in tangerine blouse and matching trousers.
'During his time we had territorial integrity, freedom, justice and human rights. Whatever else people may say those were the best times ever for the Philippines.'
She insisted age was no issue. 'It is true that I am 80 years old, but I can also be a grandmother for our country,' she said.
Marcos astounded political observers when she registered at the last possible moment to run for election.
She stressed that her motivation was redemption for her husband, who is accused of stealing billions of dollars from state coffers during his 20-year rule.
I did this to ensure and uphold political integrity and the truth,' she said before outlining her ambitions for the country.
'What I really want is to be a mother to each and every village so it will be a village fit for human beings,' she said.
'I will not stop until each and every village becomes a human settlement and also a paradise, because it is doable, because it is possible to make human settlements a paradise.'
The former first lady is no political novice. She was housing minister and governor of the Manila capital region during her husband's rule and also ran an unsuccessful campaign for presidential office in 1992.
But it is her eccentricities, extravagance and corruption that most remember - as well as her collection of 3,400 pairs of shoes, many never worn.
They were discovered in her palatial apartments after the bloodless coup and immediately became a symbol of the couple's excess. While the Marcoses lived in splendour, millions of their people suffered abject poverty.
In the wake of the coup, they fled to Hawaii, where the one-time president was to spend the last years of his life.
He died from kidney and heart failure in 1989 and was never brought to account for what is believed to have been the world's biggest theft.
His wife, however, was put before a New York court in 1990, accused of stealing $220million.
This amounted to only a fraction of their jointly acquired wealth. Estimates stood at a staggering $50billion.
She was acquitted but faced 901 separate lawsuits whens she finally returned to the Philippines from exile in 1991. A handful are still outstanding.
The Marcos estate has also been successfully sued for $2billion damages by 10,000-exiled Filipinos. But the irrepressible Imelda has never been convicted of a criminal offence.
She has run two unsuccessful presidential campaigns but her most high-profile venture in recent years was a clothing and jewellery chain.
The rallies mounted by supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra have been met with a heavy security deploymentz`
The "Red Shirts" are pushing for fresh elections
The "Red Shirts" have won headlines with stunts like donating their own blood to splash on the prime minister's home
Thailand upgraded security measures Thursday after two more blasts hit government buildings, the latest in a string of minor attacks since anti-government protests erupted this month.
The rallies mounted by red-shirted supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra have been met with a heavy security deployment, including a lockdown on parliament that has triggered an opposition boycott.
Authorities said that the new blasts, which hit a provincial hall on Bangkok's northern outskirts and a government building west of the capital on Wednesday, had hit weak spots in the operation involving 50,000 personnel.
"We have to adjust our operation to curtail the attacks," Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban told reporters.
"Intelligence reports say they want to create unrest to show that the government cannot control the situation, but I want to reassure the Thai people that the government is in control," he said.
The blasts, which follow eight other minor explosions since the protests began on March 14 to push for fresh elections, caused minor damage but no injuries.
Most of the incidents have involved grenades, but police investigating the provincial hall explosion, which left a small crater 20 centimetres (eight inches) deep, said they believed it was a bomb fuelled by TNT.
Metropolitan police commander Santhan Chayanont ordered police to increase the number of checkpoints and patrols, particularly on main roads and at key government facilities, and enforce searches for weapons and explosives.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday extended a tough security law enacted for the demonstrations, applying it to Bangkok and nearby districts for an additional week as the "Red Shirts" vowed fresh action.
Opposition Puea Thai lawmakers boycotted parliament for a second day Thursday to protest tight measures including concrete and razor-wire barricades surrounding the building and thousands of soldiers and police on duty.
The president of the upper house, Prasobsuk Boondej, also criticised the military deployment as an over-reaction and said some senators had problems entering the building.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon assured protesters spooked by the heavy presence that the military would not use force to end nearly two weeks of demonstrations, but said he was concerned over the blasts.
"They must talk to each other, this is all about politics," he told reporters, adding that the security at parliament would be scaled back after the session ended Thursday.
The Red Shirts are planning a mass rally in Bangkok on Saturday, which they say will "shut down" the capital and exceed in size a street parade last weekend that drew 65,000 people.
The Thaksin loyalists, who have won headlines with stunts including donating their own blood to splash on Abhisit's home and offices, on Thursday shaved the heads of dozens of volunteers in a gesture of defiance.
Thousands of Thai protesters surrounded the office of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Saturday, raising fears of a confrontation after repeated threats to expel troops guarding Bangkok's old city.
Red-shirted demonstrators seeking new elections pulled down barricades and threatened to force their way into the heavily guarded Government House compound. Neither Abhisit nor his government were present.
After negotiations with security chiefs, the protesters returned to their encampment, fearing Abhisit would declare a state of emergency that would allow security forces to break up their mass rally.
"We don't want them to use this as a reason to impose an emergency decree," Nattawut Saikua, a protest leader, said. He had earlier said the demonstrators had reached "breaking point."
The "red shirts" back twice-elected former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and have taken aim at the military and so-called bureaucratic elites they say are meddling in politics and conspired to overthrow Thaksin in 2006.
Their fiery rhetoric represents a more confrontational approach and a level of brinkmanship not seen in the two weeks of peaceful rallies, which analysts say have won the protesters support but brought them no closer to toppling the government.
The lack of violence combined with Abhisit's steadfast military backing has encouraged foreign investors lured by cheap shares with high dividend yields to pour into Thailand's stock market in recent weeks.
On Friday, foreigners bought Thai stocks for a 24th straight session, spending a net 1.01 billion baht ($31.2 million). They have purchased about 47 billion baht ($1.5 billion) since February 22 as hot money continues to flow into regional bourses.
Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said on Friday capital inflows into the Thai bourse should continue for the foreseeable future, although any escalation in political tension could trigger outflows.
Anupon Sriard, an analyst at BFIT Securities said on Saturday the increased tensions were not likely to affect Thailand's financial markets when then reopen next week.
"As long as it is peaceful enough, everything should already be priced in, unless of course, we see some violence," he said.
BANGKOK ON EDGE
Analysts say protest leaders are facing a dilemma: either maintain their non-violent approach and fail to rattle the government, or up the ante and risk sparking clashes that could cost them their gains in support and credibility.
The threat of unrest has left the city of 15 million people on edge, compounded by a slew of mysterious blasts and grenade attacks causing only minor damage. The latest came on Saturday evening when a bomb exploded near the army-run Channel 5 television, injuring two soldiers and two civilians.
