ENVOYS IN TALKS TO FREE KOREANS !
Anti-war protesters in Seoul have called for the group's release. Intensive efforts are under way to negotiate the release of 23 South Korean hostages being held by Taleban rebels in Afghanistan.
Afghan troops have surrounded the area in central Ghazni province where the hostages are being held.
South Korean envoys are in Kabul and an Afghan minister in Ghazni says he is optimistic the captives will be freed.
Meanwhile police have found the body of a German man kidnapped a day earlier, but it is still not clear how he died.
Troop withdrawal
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kabul says delicate diplomacy, not military muscle, is at the forefront of efforts to get the South Koreans out safely.
Deputy Interior Minister Gen Munir Mangal told the BBC he was at the site along with elders, MPs and provincial council members.
He said that the local Pashtuns were hospitable people and he hoped the Taleban would respect their Korean guests.
An official in Ghazni said the local Taleban had reported the hostages in good health but the rebels have said they will kill their captives if there is any attempt to free them by force or if the government fails to release a number of Taleban prisoners soon.
The Taleban have also said they want South Korea's 200 troops to leave, although Seoul already plans to take its troops out by the end of the year.
The South Koreans were abducted from a bus travelling from Kandahar to Kabul on Thursday.
They are reportedly Christians on an evangelical and aid mission. At least 15 are said to be women.
An eight-strong South Korean delegation, including a presidential envoy, is in Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and negotiate for the hostages' release.
The seizure is the largest-scale abduction of foreigners since the fall of the Taleban regime in 2001.
German captives.
Meanwhile, police in Wardak province said they had found the body of one of two German hostages kidnapped last Wednesday.
We must assume that one of the kidnapped Germans died in captivity
Frank-Walter Steinmeier,German foreign minister
The Germans, whose identity has not been revealed, were seized with a number of Afghans in Wardak, where they had been working on a dam project.
A Taleban spokesman had said both men were killed on Saturday because Germany refused demands to withdraw its 3,000-strong force from the country.
But Berlin said it believed one hostage was still alive and the other died of a heart attack or stress.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We must assume that one of the kidnapped Germans died in captivity.
"Nothing points to murder, all signs tell us that he fell victim to the strain to which his kidnappers subjected him."
One Afghan provincial official said the German who died was a diabetic who had no access to insulin.
The fate of the Afghans captured with the Germans is unknown.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Afghan troops have surrounded the area in central Ghazni province where the hostages are being held.
South Korean envoys are in Kabul and an Afghan minister in Ghazni says he is optimistic the captives will be freed.
Meanwhile police have found the body of a German man kidnapped a day earlier, but it is still not clear how he died.
Troop withdrawal
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kabul says delicate diplomacy, not military muscle, is at the forefront of efforts to get the South Koreans out safely.
Deputy Interior Minister Gen Munir Mangal told the BBC he was at the site along with elders, MPs and provincial council members.
He said that the local Pashtuns were hospitable people and he hoped the Taleban would respect their Korean guests.
An official in Ghazni said the local Taleban had reported the hostages in good health but the rebels have said they will kill their captives if there is any attempt to free them by force or if the government fails to release a number of Taleban prisoners soon.
The Taleban have also said they want South Korea's 200 troops to leave, although Seoul already plans to take its troops out by the end of the year.
The South Koreans were abducted from a bus travelling from Kandahar to Kabul on Thursday.
They are reportedly Christians on an evangelical and aid mission. At least 15 are said to be women.
An eight-strong South Korean delegation, including a presidential envoy, is in Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and negotiate for the hostages' release.
The seizure is the largest-scale abduction of foreigners since the fall of the Taleban regime in 2001.
German captives.
Meanwhile, police in Wardak province said they had found the body of one of two German hostages kidnapped last Wednesday.
We must assume that one of the kidnapped Germans died in captivity
Frank-Walter Steinmeier,German foreign minister
The Germans, whose identity has not been revealed, were seized with a number of Afghans in Wardak, where they had been working on a dam project.
A Taleban spokesman had said both men were killed on Saturday because Germany refused demands to withdraw its 3,000-strong force from the country.
But Berlin said it believed one hostage was still alive and the other died of a heart attack or stress.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We must assume that one of the kidnapped Germans died in captivity.
"Nothing points to murder, all signs tell us that he fell victim to the strain to which his kidnappers subjected him."
One Afghan provincial official said the German who died was a diabetic who had no access to insulin.
The fate of the Afghans captured with the Germans is unknown.
posted by jackaranda at 5:45 pm
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