"The" Philippines

[Damien Hall]

On 7 April 2005 an MSN webpage talking about the then-forthcoming annular
eclipse of the Sun talked about it being visible from 'the Panama' (though I
suppose that might have been hasty writing where 'Canal' had been deleted but
not the definite article).  This morning (the 8th), of course, the page is no
longer there because the eclipse has happened, and two references to the same
country on the page that now exists are both to just plain 'Panama'.

It would be very difficult to Google for, but has anyone ever come across
references to 'the Panama' for the country?  I hadn't.

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania