Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo met her detained predecessor Joseph Estrada on Thursday just three days after security forces stopped his supporters storming the presidential palace. Ethnic Albanian rebels killed two Macedonian soldiers on Thursday, hours after President Bush gave his backing to a search for a political solution in the troubled Balkan country. The United States has suspended all military relations with China as Beijing continues to hold a damaged U.S. reconnaissance plane involved in an April 1 collision with a Chinese fighter jet, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Key opposition figures are arrested as president alleges coup plot. Experts will weigh means of returning spy craft involved in collision.
Envoy ends stint, heads home.
China warned Wednesday of a possible arms race if the United States goes ahead with its controversial missile defense plan but Russia said it was ready for talks on new defense ideas. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Wednesday widened a crackdown against political opponents she accuses of trying to take advantage of the kind of populist uprising which brought her to power. Britain said on Tuesday it supported a commitment by President Bush to cut nuclear weapons and welcomed his contacts with Russia to explain controversial plans to replace an existing arms treaty. The authorities in the Philippines have ordered the arrest of several opposition leaders, after thousands of protesters tried to storm the presidential palace in Manila.