GHAZNI, Afghanistan — Taliban militants were expected to release seven remaining South Korean hostages today, bringing to an end a six-week drama that saw two captives killed by the kidnappers, a South Korean official said.

On Wednesday, the Taliban released 12 of 19 South Koreans held, as part of a deal with Seoul that one Afghan minister warned would embolden the insurgents.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans as they traveled by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19. In late July, the militants killed two male hostages, and they released two women earlier this month as gesture of goodwill.

PARIS — Pierre Messmer, a member of the French Resistance who was the country's prime minister from 1972 to 1974, has died at age 91, former President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday.Messmer died Wednesday afternoon at Val-de-Grace hospital in Paris.Messmer entered the French Resistance in 1940, fleeing Nazi-occupied France for England on a cargo ship. He then participated in major campaigns in North Africa and elsewhere and stormed the beaches of Normandy in June 1944.After the war, he entered politics and was appointed prime minister in July 1972 by then-President Georges Pompidou.