A corporal in South Korea's marine corps went on shooting rampage today, killing four fellow soldiers and wounding another on a Yellow Sea island base near the country's tense border with North Korea, officials said.

THE Pentagon has confirmed that an American soldier who went missing from his base in Afghanistan has been captured and identified him as a private from Idaho serving with an Alaska-based infantry regiment.

A jury of five Army officers was expected to hear closing arguments and begin deliberating today whether Pfc. Lynndie England is guilty of abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003.

Defence lawyers are hoping a plea deal by Pfc. Lynndie England will be accepted by an Army judge as the reservist whose image became synonymous with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal heads to court.

It was the biggest of holiday surprises. The troops were getting irritable, 300 sitting for more than an hour, waiting – for no good reason, it seemed – to get in the chow line at the Bob Hope Dining Hall at Baghdad International Airport, ready for their turkey dinners.