MANILA, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency today, saying she had quashed a coup plot, and the military confined troops to their camps to keep them from joining growing protests against her rule.

Clashes erupted as riot police used water cannons to disperse about 5,000 protesters defying a ban on rallying at a shrine to the 1986 uprising that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Police used truncheons and shields to roust a stone-throwing group trying to gather for a second protest. Several people were arrested; others were bloodied.

Former President Corazon Aquino and about 5,000 people were later allowed to march peacefully to a memorial to her late husband Benigno, whose assassination in 1983 sparked massive protests that led to the revolt against Marcos.

Riot police later moved in to clear out marchers who had lingered after dark and ignored a deadline to disperse.

BEIJING — A man who was jailed for throwing paint on Mao Zedong's portrait in Beijing's Tiananmen Square during pro-democracy protests in 1989 has been released after nearly 17 years in prison, his family said Thursday.Yu Dongyue's release early Wednesday came ahead of a U.S. visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao in April. It did not appear to be meant as a gesture to Washington: Yu served his full sentence, unlike other prisoners who have released early in connection with diplomatic trips."This has absolutely nothing to do with Hu Jintao's visit," said John Kamm, director of the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation, which studies Chinese prisons.There are at least 70, and possibly as many as 300, prisoners still serving sentences for convictions stemming from the 1989 protests, Kamm said.Yu, 38, returned to his family home in Shegang, a city in the southern province of Hunan, his brother and father said."His health is OK, but mentally he is traumatized," his brother, Yu Xiyue, said by phone from Shegang.

WOLONG RESERVE, China — The latest weapons in the tussle between China and Taiwan are cuddly and adorable and do little all day but chew bamboo and frolic.China has offered two giant pandas to Taiwan as a goodwill gesture. It has named the two pandas Tuantuan and Yuanyuan, a play on the Chinese word "tuanyuan," which means "reunion."Taiwan's leaders are squirming, looking for a way to postpone or reject the offer without annoying the Taiwanese public. Opinion polls indicate many Taiwanese want the pandas. A decision by Taipei is expected on April 3.The two giant pandas might seem a simple token, but a history of diplomatic skirmishes between Beijing and Taipei has turned them into anything but a black-and-white matter. Anyone who doubts their symbolic power needs only to observe the armed guards offering 24-hour protection to the two pandas at this reserve in the Sichuan province highlands.Caretakers at the Wolong Giant Panda Research Center say they worry that a supporter of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian might try to harm the pandas."He might send someone to do something to the bears," said ChenFrom wire sources