Soldiers surrender after shopping centre 'coup'

Hundreds of troops who stormed a downtown shopping and apartment complex today demanding the government resign later ended a 19-hour stand-off and returned to barracks without a shot fired.

Booby trap explosives were defused at the scene in the Philippine capital’s Makati financial district as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced the surrender following hours of negotiations and repeated threats that she would crush the uprising with loyalist troops backed with tanks, armour and sharpshooters.