A gunman on a motorcycle shot dead a Philippine newspaper columnist in Manila on Monday night, the first journalist killed this year in the Southeast Asian nation, police said on Tuesday. The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world to work as a journalist. Since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001, 56 reporters have been killed. Benefredo Acabal was walking close to a friend's house on Monday night when a man on a motorcycle shot him five times in the head and the body, police officer Lardy Ignacio said. The local newspaper columnist died on the way to hospital. __
