Kabul, 1 August(AKI) - The Taliban have killed four local magistrates who were kidnapped ten days ago in the province of Ghaniz, a Taliban spokesman mullah Tariq has said. The news comes as the Taliban issued a new ultimatum Wednesday for the South Korean hostages who were kidnapped in the same area; saying it would kill all the remaining aid workers if its demands were not met .

Police in the Andar district said early Wednesday morning that they had found the bodies of the four judges.

A spokesman from the interior ministry later confirmed that the four judges had been seized ten days ago in Sultan Bagh, the same province where the 23 South Korean aid workers were seized the following day.

Two of the South Koreans have since been killed and the Taliban Wednesday issued a new deadline, saying if their demands for the release of Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails were not met they would kill the remaining captives.