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ByNataliyaVasilyeva The Associated Press MINSK, BELARUS A cease- fire took hold Friday night in eastern Ukraine after the president's represen- tative signed a deal with Russian-backed separat- ists in an effort to bring an end to nearly five months of fighting. President Petro Porosh- enko said he ordered gov- ernment forces to stop hostilities at 6 p.m. local time following a protocol signed by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the reb- els and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at talks in Minsk, the Belarusian capital. "Human life is of the highest value. And we need to do everything that is pos- sible and impossible to stop the bloodshed and end peo- ple's suffering," Poroshenko said in a statement. The Donetsk separatists said on Twitter that they also have ceased fire. After announcing the cease-fire, negotiators met for two more hours and agreed upon the withdrawal of all heavy weaponry, the release of all prisoners and the delivery of humanitar- ian aid to devastated cities in eastern Ukraine, Heidi Tagliavini of the OSCE told reporters in Minsk. Mikhail Zurabov, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine who also signed the deal, described the ex- change of lists of more than 1,000 prisoners from each side as a "breakthrough." Poroshenko said a pris- oner exchange could begin as early as Saturday and in- ternational monitors from the OSCE would keep watch over the cease-fire. With this deal, Russian President Vladimir Putin may hope to avert a new round of Western sanctions. U.S. President Barack Obama said he was hope- ful the cease-fire would hold, but skeptical that the rebels would follow through and that Russia would stop violating Ukraine's sover- eignty and territorial in- tegrity. "It has to be tested," Obama said at the close of a two-day NATO summit in Wales. Noting that the U.S. and Europe were finalizing even tougher sanctions on Mos- cow, Obama said the most effective way to ensure the cease-fire's success was to move ahead with those sanctions to keep up the pressure on Russia. Since mid-April, Moscow- backed separatists have been fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine in a conflict the U.N. es- timates has killed nearly 2,600 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. "The cease-fire will al- low us to save not only ci- vilians lives, but also the lives of the people who took up arms in order to defend their land and ideals," said Alexander Zakharchenko, the rebel leader from the Donetsk region. EASTERN EUROPE Cease-firetakesholdinUkraine SERGEIGRITS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Soldiers of the Ukrainian army ride on a tank in the port city of Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine, on Friday. The Ukrainian government and pro-Russia rebels have signed a truce deal to end almost five months of fighting. By John-Thor Dahlburg The Associated Press NEWPORT,WALES NATO's creation of a rapid-reac- tion "spearhead" force to protect Eastern Europe from Russian bullying re- flects a cool-eyed calcu- lation that Vladimir Pu- tin and his generals won't risk head-to-head confron- tation with the U.S. and its nuclear-capable Western European allies. The new force will be small, with just a few thou- sand troops, but it's a pow- erful message from major powers that they're willing to follow through on NA- TO's eastward expansion with their own metal — and blood. "Why would this be enough?" said Gen. Sir Adrian Bradshaw, NATO's deputy supreme European commander. "Well, pre- cisely because in becom- ing embroiled in a conflict with capable combat forces from across the alliance, a potential aggressor recog- nizes that they are taking on the whole of NATO and all that implies." "I don't think that any- one believes that Russia wants a strategic conflict with NATO," the British army general said. "Any- body would be insane to wish that." The force was ordered into life Friday by Presi- dent Barack Obama and other NATO leaders at a summit meeting in Wales to deter Putin and make NATO's most vulnerable members, such as Poland, Romania and the Baltic republics, feel safer from Russia's million-strong armed forces in light of Moscow's military involve- ment in Ukraine. Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine earlier this year, and all signs indicate the Kremlin has been funnel- ing troops, tanks and ar- tillery to the pro-Moscow separatists who have been fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine over the past five months. Ukraine is not a NATO member and not directly under its defense um- brella, but three other for- mer Soviet republics have joined the alliance since the end of the Cold War, as well as the former So- viet satellite states of Po- land, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (for- merly one country), Roma- nia and Bulgaria. Obama said the United States and other NATO counties are living up to their obligations under the 1949 treaty that gave birth to NATO. "Article 5 enshrines our solemn duty to each other," he said. "An armed attack against one shall be con- sidered an attack against them all. This is a bind- ing treaty obligation. It is non-negotiable. And here in Wales, we've left abso- lutely no doubt. We will de- fend every ally." Asked by The Associ- ated Press what the U.S. contribution of troops and equipment would be, Obama didn't give specif- ics but said a "sizable por- tion" of the $1 billion in se- curity aid for Eastern Eu- rope he had announced in June will help finance the NATO Readiness Action Plan, of which the new force is a part. WORLD NA TO c re at es 'spearhead' to det er R us si a By Sabina Niksic The Associated Press ZENICA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOV- INA Exhausted, dusty but happy to be alive, 29 min- ers were pulled out one by one Friday from a trouble- plagued coal mine that col- lapsed a day earlier in cen- tral Bosnia. They left be- hind five men, presumed dead under rubble deep un- derground and beyond the reach of rescuers. Emergency workers had dug through more than 100 meters (330 feet) of col- lapsed mine tunnels 500 meters below the surface to reach the trapped men. Families of those who were left behind broke down in tears as authori- ties closed the pit entrance. "We could not reach that group of people," said res- cue worker Amir Arnaut. "We could only reach the first group." Officials said that an in- vestigation will be launched to determine the cause of the accident, but they sug- gested it was linked to a 3.5 magnitude earthquake which hit the town of Ze- nica on Thursday after- noon, according to Bosnia's seismologists. The tremor caused a pressure burst and a gas blast which collapsed the mine, officials said. It was the third incident at the Zenica pits this year, underscoring the vulnera- bility of the mines in Bosnia and elsewhere in the Bal- kans, which are generally poorly secured and where miners work with outdated equipment. BALKANS Bosnian mine accident: 29 rescued, 5 miners buried A&R Meats Alsco, Inc. 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