Philippines: Child hostages released unharmed

A man who took a busload of children and teachers hostage from his day-care center in Manila on Wednesday freed them after a 10-hour standoff that he used to denounce corruption and demand better lives for impoverished children. Clutching dolls and backpacks, the children began filing off the bus shortly after 7 p.m. (1100 GMT), as Jun Ducat had promised in a rambling message delivered via a loudspeaker hours earlier. Ducat, a 56-year-old civil engineer who has staged other attention-grabbing stunts in the past, then put the pin back in a grenade, handed it to a provincial governor and surrendered.