“At 6 a.m. in Johannesburg, Imtiaz Sooliman, the director of the aid group that had led the long effort, sent a text message to Mrs. Korkie: ‘The waiting is almost over.’ At 8:03 a.m. his phone rang with incomprehensible news: Mr. Korkie was dead.” The NYT on the two hostages killed by Al Qaeda guards during a U.S. raid to free them. One of them, South African Pierre Korkie, was scheduled to be released a few hours later.

+ The U.S. says it was unaware of the South African hostage talks.