A good day for the Taleban, the South Korean hostages and their families, and a bad day for just about anyone else.
Taliban militants on Thursday released the final seven South Korean captives they had been holding, bringing an end to a six-week hostage drama, witnesses said.
The captives were handed over to Reto Stocker, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Afghanistan, in two stages on a road in Ghazni province in central part of the country, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.
Two men and two women were released first. Hours later, two women and one man who were covered in dust walked out of the desert, accompanied by three armed men, and also were turned over to waiting ICRC officials a few miles from the earlier site.
Two of the men taken hostages by the Taleban were earlier murdered.
South Korea has agreed to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan, and also to ban Christian missionaries to operate in the country. All in all, a total victory for the Taleban, and South Korea has told all the world's terrorists and rogue states what to do to make them comply.
Meanwhile, it appears the Pakistani troops have their butts handed to them in the independent Talebanistan.
Scores of Pakistani soldiers have gone missing near the Afghanistan border, amid claims from pro-Taleban militants that they have kidnapped the troops.
More than 100 army personnel are unaccounted for, according to officials in the South Waziristan region.
A Muslim militant group said they had taken the troops because the government was not honouring a recent peace deal.
If the Taleban and associated tribal fighters have captured a hundred Pakistani soldiers, it says a lot about the quality, morale and leadership of its armed forces.
Update: The soldiers, who actually were paramilitaries, are found safe.
The approximately 100 Pakistani paramilitary forces who were reported missing Thursday in the region of South Waziristan have been found and are safe, an army spokesman said.
Heavy rains had led them to seek shelter with local tribes, the spokesman said.
No radio communication, huh? Impressive logistics.
8:00:43 PM 
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