Colombia, rebels reach agreement on key peace issue

Colombia's government and the FARC guerrilla group reached agreement Wednesday on the rebels' participation in politics once they end their near 50-year insurgency, the two sides announced. "We have reached fundamental agreement on the second point of the agenda," they said in a joint statement read out in Havana by a Cuban diplomat, Rodolfo Benitez. The rebels' return to politics was one of five agenda points under negotiation in year-long peace talks between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. "This new democratic opening will clear the way for peace to definitely take root, once the conflict ends," said Humberto de la Calle, a former vice president who is the lead government negotiator.