"Why Do They Hate Us?"

1. The two conducted what Old called a 'peaceful demonstration' with little fanfare as eight journalists looked on.

2. A group of eminent American public policy practitioners, former officials and academics, have urged the Obama administration to accelerate the military withdrawal and focus on a more political resolution to the protracted Afghan conflict.

3. “In Logar, there is a mixture of Taliban motivating people to do this demonstration and people not being happy with the current administration. This regime is based on bribery. You cannot do anything unless you pay a bribe to the government. People are jobless. People are fed up with the current government. Needy people cannot get anything at all, so that is why people are resorting to demonstrations to show their anger in any way possible.”

4. Most of the 250,000 government employees in Afghanistan receive their salaries via electronic transfer to Kabul Bank, the country's largest private bank, which is reported to be on the verge of collapse. Blame has been cast on the biggest borrower – a man named Abdul Hasin, who was given $100m for a variety of projects which he has not repaid. Hasin happens to be the half-brother of the vice president of the country, Mohammed Qasim Fahim.

5. "The current approach is not tenable. What will we get out of it? We'll arrest a few mid-level Afghans, but we'll lose our ability to operate there and achieve our principal goals."

6. United States President Barack Obama has pledged to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011, and as a part of the initial outlines of this exit strategy the Taliban are for the first time in serious negotiations with the US.