Philippines Court halts government, separatist territorial deal
Updated
There's been a clash in the southern Philippines just hours after the Supreme Court stopped a deal that would have ended 10 years of negotiations on Muslim autonomy in Mindanao.
Muslim separatists fired mortars on soldiers stationed near Midsayap town for about half an hour.
The military says the attack is the work of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The attack came after the Supreme Court in Manila stopped the government from signing a deal with the Front that would have given Muslims administrative and economic power over a large semi-autonomous area in southern Mindanao island.
The deal was to have been signed today in Malaysia, which has been brokering peace talks between the two sides.
The agreement was meant to pave the way for a final political settlement to end the MILF's 30-year fight for an independent Islamic state in the southern third of this largely Roman Catholic nation.
