Brian

International – Today, Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan released the final South Korean hostages they have been holding for the past six weeks. Previously they had executed two of the twenty-three hostages and released two ailing women as a “gesture of goodwill”. The Taliban’s only demands were that South Korea withdraw their non-combative troops doing engineering and medical work in Afghanistan as well as all South Korean Christian missionary workers (which is what the hostages were). These demands have been agreed to. Wednesday twelve of the hostages were released and today the remaining seven were handed over to the Red Cross.

Opinion – Normally I wouldn’t pay too much attention to news like this because it seems that terrorist groups take a lot of hostages in order to get demands met. However, because of the many South Korean exchange students at our school and my grandfather’s participation in the Korean War, this article caught my eye and I’m actually quite glad the hostages were released. It’s upsetting that the South Korean missionaries are being kicked out of the country though. It seems the troops and missionaries were only there to help. I didn’t quite realize the Taliban is still thriving in Afghanistan.

here is a news report from between the time the first and second hostages were killed:



International – Manfred Sedlazek, a German man from the village of Karlshoefen says he’s, “living in a time bomb.” Sedlazek’s self-built two-story house that he shares with his wife was run into by a 40 ton truck earlier this week. This may not seem unusual except that it’s the 10th time it’s been smashed into by automobiles! Manfred is reluctant to leave, but is afraid to stay in the damaged house he put so much work into.

Opinion – Where did he build this thing?! It must be in the middle of the autobahn or have a super-magnet in the basement. I would have moved after the first two times my house was run into. It may just be one of those things, but do you really believe in coincidence? No, do you believe in 10 Coincidences?