6 female, 2 male SKorean hostages released by Taliban: official

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Six female and two male South Korean hostages were released by the Taliban and taken to the main U.S. base in Afghanistan's Ghazni province yesterday, a Western official said.

The hostage release came the same day Afghan police discovered the bullet-riddled body of a South Korean hostage in central Afghanistan.

The Western official who said the eight Koreans were released asked not to be identified because he wasn't authorized to share the information. The South Korean news agency Yonhap also reported eight were released.

Twenty-three South Korean hostages, including 18 women, were kidnapped last Thursday while riding a bus through Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, Afghanistan's main thoroughfare.