Taliban: US-Afghan hostage talks had 'no result'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A purported Taliban spokesman on Tuesday said a meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W. Bush had "no result," and that gunmen's demands must be met if 21 South Korean hostages are to be safely released. South Korean officials and Taliban members will determine late Tuesday a location for their first face-to-face talks over the hostages' fate, said Gov. Marajudin Pathan, the leader in Ghazni province, where the Koreans were kidnapped. The Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Bush and Karzai must accept Taliban demands that security prisoners be released in exchange for the lives of South Korean hostages or there will be a "bad result." The group kidnapped 23 Korean aid workers traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19. Two male hostages have been executed.