Taliban ‘kills S Korean hostage’
Taliban kills a South Korean hostage after negotiations break down, spokesman says.

Taliban set a “final deadline” of 20:30 GMT on Wednesday for their demands for a prisoner swap to be met.
The hostages were to be moved to a safe zone and then flown back to South Korea after a medical check-up, according to South Korea‘s Yonhap news agency.
The Taliban meanwhile freed a German journalist, the third German to be kidnapped in a week in war-torn Afghanistan, and his Afghan translator hours after abducting them in the east of the country, officials said.
The fresh hostage crisis for Germany was defused after a few hours in eastern Afghanistan‘s Kunar province bordering Pakistan.
The pair were abducted from a house in the far-off district of Watapour where a NATO-led air strike killed several Afghan civilians two weeks ago, Shalizai Didar, the provincial governor, said.
“They were both freed with the mediation of tribal elders and other influential people. They are safe and sound,” Didar told AFP.
The Taliban had earlier claimed responsibility for kidnapping the German journalist.
The two other Germans were kidnapped last week in the southern province of Wardak.
The bullet-riddled body of one was dumped by a road on Sunday while the Taliban said the other was very sick and slipping in and out of consciousness due to diabetes.