Philippines' democracy icon dies

She swept away a dictator and then fought off seven attempted coups, but former president of the Phillippines, Corazon Aquino, finally lost a battle against cancer on Saturday.

Aquino will be remembered most as the woman who led a people's revolt in 1986 against Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos had run the Philippines with an iron hand for 20 years until then.

An unlikely entrant to politics, Aquino was catapulted into the limelight when her husband and Opposition leader Benigno Aquino junior was assassinated as he returned from exile to challenge Marcos. She won the presidential elections in 1986 to become Asia's first female president.

As president, Aquino struggled to bring together a country divided by years of martial law and communist insurgency and her term was punctuated by repeated coup attempts.

But she stayed a beloved figure for ordinary Filipinos. In her trademark yellow dress, she was their 'Tita Cory' or Aunt Cory.