30,000 US troops are likely to be withdrawn from Afghanistan….

President Obama is expected to outline his plans for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. According to reports, 30,000 US troops are likely to be withdrawn.

 President Obama has been under pressure from Pentagon that he should announce withdrawal only 5,000 troops from Afghanistan this year.

Karzai conforms “peace talks with the Taliban have been started”….

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that peace talks with the Taliban have been started.

 This is the first time that Afghan president admitted to contacts between U.S. government and Taliban militants in Afghanistan
 "Peace talks are going on with the Taliban.

United Nations splits Taliban and Al Qaeda on sanctions list…..

The United States wants to bring Taliban to negotiation table at the end of this year.

 The UN Security Council has split the UN sanctions list for Taliban and Al Qaeda figures into two to bring the former to negotiation table.

Afghan district captured by Taliban....

The defense ministry said that Afghan commandos had reclaimed the district.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked and briefly seized parts of a district in Afghanistan s remote and mountainous northeast on Wednesday, provincial officials said, with gunfights raging for hours between insurgents and Afghan troops.

Jamuladdin Badr, the governor of Nuristan province near the border with Pakistan, told Reuters the Duab district center had "fallen into the hands of insurgents," but most of it was recaptured within hours by Afghan troops.

United States has stepped up direct talks with the Afghan Taliban....

The United States has stepped up direct talks with the Afghan Taliban for a political settlement. A US newspaper reported that the Obama administration was directly engaged in negotiating with Taliban and discarded the option of Pakistan’s mediation by calling it “unnecessary.” A US representative attended three meetings in Qatar and Germany, with a Taliban official considered close to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the report said.

            It said that Washington was hoping to make progress in these talks before July, when President BarackObama announces the first troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, part of a process of handing over responsibilities to Afghan forces by 2014.