Today's item of good news, which was so little covered in America that I would have missed it had I not been at the BBC News web site for another purpose, is that the government of the Philippines has reached a tentative peace deal with the largest Muslim rebel group. This war, which has been simmering along for 40 years, breaking into the western press only when hostages were taken, has claimed about 120,000 lives. In the agreement the Moro Liberation Front and the Manila government have agreed to set up an autonomous region on the southern island of Mindanao and to hold local elections there.
Of course there is still much work to do, and the agreement could fall apart as many others have, but in a world of intractable ethnic and religious conflicts it is good to celebrate the occasional successes of the peacemakers.
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