Two months after Manila and the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), agreed during mediated talks in Malaysia to a final settlement of their armed dispute, new complications have emerged that threaten to derail the deal. Government officials and Muslim leaders have expressed optimism that the decades-old rebellion in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, which has claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people on both sides of the conflict, would come to a final and peaceful conclusion through a proposed new autonomy deal. Full Story