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Talks on release of captives continue

By TIMES WIRES
Published August 15, 2007

AFGHANISTAN 

Taliban leaders and South Korean officials continued negotiations by telephone over the fate of the remaining 19 hostages Tuesday, but no new face-to-face talks were planned, the international Red Cross said.

Two Korean women kidnapped by the Taliban in mid July were freed Monday on a desert road outside Ghazni into Red Cross custody, the first significant breakthrough in the hostage drama. Two men among the Korean captives were executed in late July.

The South Korean Embassy said that the two women were transferred from the U.S. base at Ghazni to a safe place in "our care."

Franz Rauchenstein, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that officials were ready to host more talks at the office of the Afghan Red Crescent in Ghazni but that the two sides were talking by telephone for now. Two Taliban leaders and South Korean officials met at the office for direct talks Friday and Saturday.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the hard-line militants released the women as a show of goodwill because negotiations were going well. He reiterated the militants' demand that Taliban prisoners be released in exchange for the remaining 19 hostages.

PAKISTAN

Nation celebrates its independence

Pakistanis celebrated the 60th anniversary of independence Tuesday with gunfire and colorful displays of national pride, pushing the recent political turmoil and surging militant violence into the background for a day.

Embattled President Pervez Musharraf, a close U.S. ally, appealed for Pakistanis to reject extremism at coming elections.

Tens of thousands rallied throughout the world's second most populous Muslim nation, waving Pakistan's olive-green flag with a white crescent. Others held prayer gatherings at home.

On Aug. 14, 1947, British colonial rulers granted independence and the subcontinent was split into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-dominated India. India celebrates independence today.

SOUTH KOREA

American defector alive, director says

The last U.S. defector in North Korea is still alive but is ailing, the director of a documentary on the former American soldier said Tuesday.

James Dresnok's life in the North was revealed for the first time since his 1962 defection in the film Crossing the Line, which opens for wider release this month in the United States and South Korea. The movie opened last year at the Busan International Film Festival and has been shown at other events.

The documentary shows Dresnok, in his mid 60s, to be suffering a variety of ailments from a life of hard drinking and smoking. British director Daniel Gordon said in Seoul that he initially had been unsure Dresnok would live to see the completed film.

CHINA

Four pandas born in captivity on same day

Four pandas were born in captivity in China on the same day, a rare occurrence after 34 were born in all of last year, state media reported Tuesday.

Xinhua News Agency earlier reported that three pandas had been born, but later said that Eryatou, who had delivered a female baby on Monday evening at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center in Sichuan province, later gave birth to a second female baby.

Earlier on Monday, Jiaozi gave birth to a male and a female at the same center.

Chinese panda breeding centers now have reported 14 cubs born so far this year, with nine at the Chengdu center and the others at the Wolong Giant Panda Nature Reserve, Xinhua said.

Elsewhere

CANADA: Prime Minister Stephen Harper replaced his embattled defense minister Tuesday in a major Cabinet overhaul apparently aimed at re-energizing his minority government.

SOMALIA: Fighting in Mogadishu has killed 31 civilians in the past 24 hours, a local human rights group said Tuesday.

THAILAND: A judge issued arrest warrants Tuesday for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife for failing to appear at their trial on corruption-related charges.

TUNISIA: The widow of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been stripped of Tunisian citizenship, officials said Tuesday. Suha Arafat, 44, was born in Jerusalem and became a naturalized Tunisian last year. No explanation was provided.

[Last modified August 15, 2007, 01:44:52]