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REUTERS;HHR; ANPAi..u.. Aglance-RP-Imelda-return Imelda Marcos makes tearful return JP/11/J03 Imelda Marcos makes tearful return PHILIPPINES: Tearful, lame, but unbowed, Imelda Marcos said on Thursday that she loved her country and would never run away, as government lawyers tried to have the former first lady arrested for returning late from a foreign trip.

Marcos flew back to the Philippines from London on Wednesday, overshooting by 10 days a deadline set by a graft court that is trying her on corruption charges related to late dictator Ferdinand Marcos's two-decade rule.

The court had granted her a 30-day travel permit to visit the United States and Europe on medical and religious grounds, but some newspapers reported she had been spotted in Italy quaffing wine in restaurants and shopping for luxury goods.

Marcos, whose powers of persuasion are as legendary as her enormous shoe collection, said the last leg of her trip in Britain had been necessary because eye experts treating her are based there.

"This has been the most harassed and stressful trip of my life," she told reporters after limping out of court.

"They have taken everything from the Marcoses," she said. "They want conviction for life imprisonment, now they want conviction for my eyesight." -- Reuters