Corazon Cory Aquino dies

Corazon "Cory" Aquino 1933-2009, the former president of the Philippines, has died. She was 76. Aquino, a self-styled housewife and mother, became an international symbol for nonviolent political resistance when she took over as the first female president of the Philippines in 1986. That came three years after her husband, an opposition leader, was assassinated.

Her famous nickname was Cory and was popular for the Philippine People Power's movement.

The Philippines is still a raucous political hothouse. And every now and then it seems to return to the brink. But the dire days of deadly coup plots are over. Corazon Aquino died a revered figure, after an excruciating struggle with colon cancer, in a hospital in the Philippines.

Corazon Cojuangco was born into one of the wealthiest families in the islands. Fated to be married off in one dynastic match or the other, she was courted by and fell in love with Benigno Aquino Jr., a brilliant and ambitious journalist turned politician whose own family was as illustrious though not quite as wealthy as her baronial clan. The marriage would help propel Benigno's career even as "Cory" was a cipher at his side, the high-born wife whose social ministrations at smoke-filled political sessions flattered her husband's supporters. Benigno's popularity soon challenged Ferdinand Marcos, who had been elected President in 1965. And so, when Marcos assumed dictatorial power in 1972, he threw his rival into jail. Corazon then became her husband's instrument, smuggling messages out of prison and raising funds for the opposition. But as long as he lived, she was merely an extension of Benigno Aquino.

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