Colombia to sign peace with Marxist rebels, ending 52-year war


A policeman stands guard in the Old City in Cartagena, Colombia, September 25,2016. REUTERS/John Vizcaino

CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombia's centre-right government and the Marxist FARC rebel group signed a peace deal on Monday to end a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and once took the Andean country to the brink of collapse.

After four years of peace talks in Cuba, President Juan Manuel Santos, 65, and rebel leader Timochenko - the nom de guerre for 57-year-old Rodrigo Londono - warmly shook hands on Colombian soil for the first time and signed the accord with a pen made from a bullet casing.

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