But if the charges stick he is likely to receive a lengthy jail sentence, and his arrest, without the possibility of bail, could come as early as the next few days.Ports and airports in the Philippines were on alert last night to prevent any attempt by the former president to flee. He has been charged with eight offences, relating to a total of 4.1bn billion pesos (£55m) of bribes and pay-offs that he is alleged to have received during his two and a half years in office. Corruption charges have also been brought against his son, Jinggoy, his wife, Luisa, and five of his associates.Mr Estrada is a former actor who became famous for his portayals of tough underdogs who fight their way back from impossible scrapes.Yesterday Mr Estradainsisted that he would never run away. "I was born here, I lived here, I'll die here," he said."I'm already convicted here through publicity. So how do you expect to get a fair trial under this administration?"The Philippines, Supreme Court rejected Mr Estrada's legal attempt to win back the presidency from his successor and former vice-president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

She took the presidency in January after three months of anti-Estrada protests, which began when corruption allegations led to him becoming the first Asian leader to face impeachment.When pro-Estrada senators forced the trial to be abandoned, hundreds of thousands of angry Filipinos protested on the streets of Manila and within four days were joined by Mr Estrada's own military commanders, forcing him out of the presidential palace.But he never signed a resignation letter and has insisted that he was stepping aside only temporarily. The Philippines' Supreme Court rejected that argument with a unanimous decision yesterday, stripping Mr Estrada of his presidential immunity from prosecution.. One of South Africa's most prominent carriers of the Aids virus, Judge Edwin Cameron, said last night denying drugs to HIV-positive people on the basis that African health services are poor, smacked of the apartheid-era view that blacks cannot handle democracy. One of South Africa's most prominent carriers of the Aids virus, Judge Edwin Cameron, said last night denying drugs to HIV-positive people on the basis that African health services are poor, smacked of the apartheid-era view that blacks cannot handle democracy. Judge Cameron, who has been a vociferous critic of President Thabo Mbeki's handling of the Aids crisis, was speaking as the South African government issued the long-delayed "interim report" of a presidential panel on Aids. It is understood that the panel ­ which, controversially, includes scientists who hold the unorthodox view that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not lead to Aids ­ did not reach a consensus conclusion.Judge Cameron, who is gay and has had Aids since 1997 but takes £250 worth of drug every month to stave off illness, said it was "demeaning, insulting and disempowering" of "proponents of First World privilege" to suggest that "in view of lack of infrastructure, lower prices [of pharmaceuticals] will, in any case, make no difference in Africa and the poor world." Speaking at a conference on Aids in Johannesburg, the appeal court judge said: "The general nature of the argument is not unfamiliar to us.

We were told, similarly, that we could not function under majority democratic rule."Though his anti-imperialist tone was, for the first time, broadly in line with that used by President Mbeki, his speech marked a thinly veiled attack on the South African government.African National Congress (ANC) ministers frequently say that, even if drugs become cheaper, the government cannot afford to distribute and administer them to all the country's 4.7 million carriers of the HIV virus. In a court case that resumes on 18 April, the government is being sued by the pharmaceutical industry for creating laws that challenge their patent rights and ability to charge vastly inflated prices.Last October the ANC announced that a committee would take over the handling of the issue Mr Mbeki has not spoken about Aids since.. Sudan's deputy defence minister and 13 other military officers were killed when their plane crashed on take-off in southern Sudan yesterday, state television reported. Sudan's deputy defence minister and 13 other military officers were killed when their plane crashed on take-off in southern Sudan yesterday, state television reported. The deputy minister, Colonel Ibrahim Shamsul-Din, had been touring a southern military area and was heading for Khartoum. Also killed were another colonel, a general, seven lieutenant-generals, three brigadiers, a lieutenant- colonel and a corporal.The accident took place in Adaril, an oil-rich area near the city of Malakal, 468 miles south of Khartoum. The television said the aircraft skidded off the runway before crashing.The blow to Sudan's military came as the regime was using new-found oil wealth to take the upper hand in the 18-year civil war against the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army.After a series of rebel attacks, UN and other relief agencies now obtain clearances from the SPLA and the army before flying to the region The risk of being shot down has halted most flights.(AP). A rebel faction is delaying disengagement of civil war forces in the Congo, the United Nations mission said yesterday as its first armed troops arrived in government-held territory.