FWIW: I don't think we need to manage the news entries in the NEWS
file. Instead, we could simply add a field to the bug tracker
called "news entry" and populate that as necessary.

During release, this information can then be used to create a
NEWS file per release. This file would not be touched by anyone
other then the release manager.

As a result, there would not longer be any merge conflicts, and
the news entries can still be changed before the release
if necessary, and, of course, the generated NEWS file can also
be edited as the release manager sees fit.

Tickets which do not need a news entry simply leave the news entry
field blank.

We really don't need a file system database for these things.

(PS: eGenix has been using such a system internally for several
years and it works great.)