Tearful Imelda arrives home late

TEARFUL, lame, but unbowed, Imelda Marcos said yesterday that she loved her country and would never run away, as government lawyers tried to have the former first lady arrested for returning late from a foreign trip.

Marcos flew back to the Philippines from London on Wednesday, overshooting by 10 days a deadline set by a graft court that is trying her on corruption charges related to late dictator Ferdinand Marcos's two-decade rule.

The court had granted her a 30-day travel permit to visit the US and Europe on medical and religious grounds, but some newspapers reported she had been spotted in Italy quaffing wine in restaurants and shopping for luxury goods.