Taliban on Korean officials

KANDAHAR – Face-to-face talks between the Taliban and South Korean officials over the fate of 21 hostages will not happen unless the officials travel to Taliban territory or the UN guarantees the militants’ safety elsewhere, a purported spokesman said.

No more bodies found * MINNEAPOLIS – Divers spent a third fruitless day searching for victims of a deadly bridge collapse, finding no bodies inside a crushed car pulled from the murky Mississippi River waters. US military kills bomber * BAGHDAD – US troops killed the al Qaeda mastermind of the June 13 bombing at the prized Askariya Shiite shrine.Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri was the al Qaeda in Iraq emir of Salahuddin province, and responsible for bombing of the mosque’s twin minarets, the US military says.In Baghdad, at least 13 people die in shelling, police say.Bush given wider wiretapping powers * WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives hands President George W Bush a victory, voting to expand the government’s abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States.Beware of tremors * BASEL – Tremors started cracking walls in this Swiss city in December, accidentally triggered by engineers drilling deep into the Earth’s crust to tap its inner heat in the world’s search for new sources of energy.Basel authorities told Geopower Basel to put its drilling project on hold.But the company hasn’t given up its race with a firm in Australia to be the first to generate power commercially by boiling water on the rocks three miles underground.Famed Zimbabwe book fair closes * HARARE – The once world-renowned Zimbabwe International Book Fair winds up with its only foreign exhibitor – the embassy of Iran – packing Islamic tracts and political brochures into cardboard boxes.Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1980 has left people struggling to get by and educational services are so short of supplies that as many as 10 children share a single textbook.237 die in South Asia floods * BARABANKI – Torrential overnight rains compounded the misery of 2 million marooned Indian villagers, as the death toll from floods across South Asia rises to at least 240.-Nampa-AP UN nuclear inspectors in Japan TOKYO – A team of UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Japan to assess the condition of a nuclear power plant severely damaged in the July 11 magnitude 6,8 quake northwestern Japan that killed 11 and injured more than 1 000.US military kills bomber * BAGHDAD – US troops killed the al Qaeda mastermind of the June 13 bombing at the prized Askariya Shiite shrine.Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri was the al Qaeda in Iraq emir of Salahuddin province, and responsible for bombing of the mosque’s twin minarets, the US military says.In Baghdad, at least 13 people die in shelling, police say. Bush given wider wiretapping powers * WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives hands President George W Bush a victory, voting to expand the government’s abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States. Beware of tremors * BASEL – Tremors started cracking walls in this Swiss city in December, accidentally triggered by engineers drilling deep into the Earth’s crust to tap its inner heat in the world’s search for new sources of energy.Basel authorities told Geopower Basel to put its drilling project on hold.But the company hasn’t given up its race with a firm in Australia to be the first to generate power commercially by boiling water on the rocks three miles underground. Famed Zimbabwe book fair closes * HARARE – The once world-renowned Zimbabwe International Book Fair winds up with its only foreign exhibitor – the embassy of Iran – packing Islamic tracts and political brochures into cardboard boxes.Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1980 has left people struggling to get by and educational services are so short of supplies that as many as 10 children share a single textbook. 237 die in South Asia floods * BARABANKI – Torrential overnight rains compounded the misery of 2 million marooned Indian villagers, as the death toll from floods across South Asia rises to at least 240.-Nampa-AP UN nuclear inspectors in Japan TOKYO – A team of UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Japan to assess the condition of a nuclear power plant severely damaged in the July 11 magnitude 6,8 quake northwestern Japan that killed 11 and injured more than 1 000.