A team of negotiators left Kabul on Friday to take part in the Afghan government's first direct negotiations with the Taliban to end after nearly 20 years of insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people.
"After continuous efforts of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to start direct talks with the Taliban, the peace negotiating team of the IRA left Kabul for Doha, the capital of Qatar, today," Nader Naderi, a member of the negotiating team, said on Twitter minutes before their plane took off.
"We are going to Doha to tell the Taliban that you cannot succeed by force," Abdul Hafiz Mansour, a member of Kabul's delegation, told reporters at the capital's airport.
"The time is ready for reconciliation now, we can resolve our problems by talking to each other."
The talks are set to begin on Saturday after months of delay caused by wrangling over a prisoner exchange between the government and insurgents.
The prisoner swap is part of a peace agreement the Taliban signed with the United States on February 29 after more than a year of negotiations in which the Kabul government was not involved.
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Washington on Thursday to attend the opening of the peace talks, which are expected to last for months. He told reporters travelling with him that the US expected the Taliban to uphold the terms of its agreement with Washington that would ultimately lead to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
“There are a series of commitments that the Taliban have made, we have every expectation that they will follow through on them. Our commitment to reduce our forces to zero is conditioned on them executing their obligations under the agreement,” Mr Pompeo said.
“It’s taken us longer than I wish that it had to get from February 29 to here but we expect Saturday morning, for the first time in almost two decades, to have the Afghans sitting at the table together prepared to have what will be contentious discussions about how to move their country forward to reduce violence and deliver what the Afghan people are demanding — a reconciled Afghanistan with a government that reflects a country that isn’t at war.”
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy who led Washington's negotiations with the Taliban, hailed the start of the intra-Afghan talks as a chance for peace in the country for the first times in four decades since the withdrawal Soviet forces. However, a willingness to compromise would be needed, he said.
"The contemporary history of Afghanistan shows that attempts to monopolise power and impose one's ideology on others by force, create conflicts and push the country into further interference," Mr Khalilzad wrote on Twitter on Friday.
"No significant achievement is ever easy. It is now the responsibility of Afghan leaders to seize this moment and put an end to this brutal and meaningless war."
The start of direct negotiations has raised hope among Afghans that the conflict might come to a halt.
"We are desperate for peace. The killing of Afghans should be stopped," said Kabul shopkeeper Abdullah, who lost a relative in a bomb attack that targeted Vice President Amrullah Saleh this week.
"I'm not very optimistic about the future, but peace talks is a good first step to at least reduce the violence," he told Agence France-Presse.
Afghan schoolteacher Aminullah, who lives in restive Kunduz province, insisted that the country should not gave up gains made since the 2011 the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban from power.
"As much as we want peace, we also want the achievements of the past years kept," he said.
"I don't want my school closed, but peace is the priority now."
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- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Opening fixtures
Friday, October 18
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