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Military authorities have surrounded South Korean soldier who killed 5 comrades
• SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean military authorities have surrounded a soldier who fled his border outpost after killing five comrades the day before and were trying to persuade him to surrender, a defense official said Sunday.
• One platoon leader was wounded when the runaway soldier, identified only by his surname Yim, fired on the military personnel closing in on him, according to a defense ministry official who asked not to be named, citing department rules. It wasn't clear how officers were communicating with Yim.
• Yim had opened fire Saturday night with his standard issue K2 assault rifle at an outpost near the North Korean border in Gangwon province, east of Seoul, killing five fellow soldiers and wounding seven others.
• Villagers in a nearby area have been warned not to leave their houses. The village head, Jang Seok-kwon, told YTN news channel that he heard guns fire about 10 times.
• Yim, who was scheduled to be discharged from the military in September, fled with his weapon, but it wasn't clear how much live ammunition he had.
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Putin backs Ukraine cease-fire, warns it will fail without peace talks; rebels call truce fake
• KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support Saturday for Ukraine's unilateral cease-fire in its battle against pro-Russian separatists and appealed to both sides to halt all military operations.
• But he warned that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's blueprint for peace would not be viable without action to start peace negotiations.
• The qualified Russian backing for Poroshenko's effort to halt the conflict was another in a series of shifting Kremlin moves and statements that leave unclear the level of Moscow's commitment to de-escalating the conflict.
• Putin's conciliatory words came on the same day he ordered large-scale military exercises that NATO criticized as likely to raise tensions. U.S. officials also accused Russian troops of moving back into positions near the border with Ukraine's troubled east.
• The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin "calls on the opposing sides to halt (Continued on page 19)
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