Also: Supreme Court to decide on free speech rights at funerals.
Two Afghan army soldiers, who were wounded in an IED explosion, are carried into a U.S. Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter to be evacuated to Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Sunday, Oct. 3, 2010. Air Force pararescuemen and helicopter pilots from the 46th and 26th Expeditionary Rescue Squadrons are supporting ongoing military operations in southern Afghanistan. From The Washington Post:
Taliban representatives and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai have begun secret, high-level talks over a negotiated end to the war, according to Afghan and Arab sources.
The talks follow inconclusive meetings, hosted by Saudi Arabia, that ended more than a year ago. While emphasizing the preliminary nature of the current discussions, the sources said that for the first time they believe that Taliban representatives are fully authorized to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban organization based in Pakistan, and its leader, Mohammad Omar.
"They are very, very serious about finding a way out," one source close to the talks said of the Taliban.
» Read the full story: Taliban in talks with Karzai government [The Washington Post]
In other news:
» 2 Japanese, American share chemistry Nobel [The Associated Press]
» It will take one year to clean toxic spill in Hungary [BBC News]
» Supreme Court weighs extent of free speech rights at funerals [CNN]