Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said President Hamid Karzai will not hold any talks with Taliban representatives now in Qatar.

He will meet with Qatari officials on the sidelines of an annual conference on relations between the United States and the Muslim world.

"As we have already said, any official negotiations regarding peace with the Taliban can take place only between the high-ranking Taliban representatives and the High Peace Council of Afghanistan," Mosazai told reporters.

The indirect contacts come as NATO forces draw down in preparation for handing the lead for security to Afghan forces in the coming weeks ahead of a full pullout by the end of next year. That development has made both military and political developments crucial.

Karzai's office said senior ministers and advisers accompanied him to Qatar.

"During this visit, the President will meet with Qatari officials to discuss Afghanistan's peace process and bilateral relations between the two countries," his office said in a statement.

Both Afghanistan and the United States support the opening of a Taliban political office in Qatar as part of an effort to rekindle talks with the insurgent group, which has been waging war against the government and U.S.-led military coalition for nearly 12 years. But first the Taliban must renounce all ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups and accept Afghanistan's constitution.

Afghanistan insists all talks must be carried out by the peace council, a group formed by President Hamid Karzai to try and find ways to initiate negotiations with the insurgents.

The council has so far failed to start any form of negotiations with the Taliban since U.S.-initiated peace talks collapsed last year. It is made up of influential Afghans, former Taliban and tribal elders from all Afghan ethnic groups.

Taliban representatives have met officials from more than two dozen countries, participated in international forums in Tokyo and France, and recently visited Iran a traditional enemy. But they have steadfastly refused to talk to the peace council or Karzai's representatives, saying they represent a "puppet government."

Mosazai reiterated the Afghan government's support for the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar, but "only under the conditions and principles which would be acceptable for the Afghan people."

He would not comment on the recent trip to Iran by Taliban representatives.

"Unfortunately the Taliban have very good relations with foreign countries, but they have enmity with the Afghan people, they are killing Afghan people while they are carrying out terrorist attacks," Mosazai said.

In southern Kandahar, an insurgent roadside bomb killed two police officers and a child in the Arghasan district, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq.

Violence in parts of Kandahar has increased in recent weeks as Afghan forces battle the Taliban in their southern heartland.

Provincial spokesman Javed Faisal said eight Taliban were killed, two were wounded and eight others were arrested on Saturday during an operation in the Zhari and Maiwand districts.

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One of the(at least according to the people that created it) is that it is designed to intercept "foreign" communications that happen to get routed through the equipment of U.S. tech companies — even though, in practice, it collects everything and only allows analysts to search for foreign intelligence. But those searches are based on a 51-percent "confidence" level that data came from an outside source, which basically guarantees that they get just as much domestic intel as foreign. They aren't supposed to use the American info that accidentally gets sucked in, but it's apparently "" if they do.

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Except, well, the U.K. also has its own rules about gathering intelligence, and GCHQ can't just grab anything it wants from foreign sources. If one of their own investigations leads to say, a Gmail account based in America, they must make a lengthly formal request through the U.S. Justice Department to gain access from Google. (That's something they do a lot;last year.) However, according the Guardian, they can also go straight to PRISM, bypassing the normal legal procedures. GCHQ even has a special department set up just to process material from PRISM.

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The British agency reportedly created 197 intelligence reports based on the U.S. program in 2012, but has had access to system for more than three years. Those reports are also passed on to the British intelligence agencies, MI-5 and MI-6. So it seems lines between foreign and domestic and secrecy and privacy are even blurrier than you realized.

June 3 (Reuters) - International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidential hopeful Denis Oswald distanced himself from the body's current leadership on Monday, saying wrestling's 2020 Olympics exit could have been handled better and that more sports could join the Games.

The Swiss head of the international rowing federation, who as a long-time IOC Executive Board member was part of the decision-making process until 2012, said the IOC's February exclusion of wrestling from the 2020 Games was not well handled.

The ancient sport, part of all Games since 1896 apart from the 1900 Olympics, would no doubt win back its Games spot after make a three-sport shortlist for inclusion in 2020, Oswald said.

Baseball/softball and squash are the other two shortlisted sports and the IOC will elect one winning sport at its session in Buenos Aires in September. IOC President Rogge said last week the organisation had made no mistake in the controversial affair.

"I am no longer on the Executive Board...but I must say I was very surprised that wrestling was eliminated," Oswald, bidding against five other candidates for the presidency, told reporters on a telephone conference call from Lausanne.

"The (wrestling) federation maybe did not make the effort but I think there were other ways to warn them because wrestling is a basic sport (of the Games) and I am convinced they will come back."

"We should consider that (the Olympic programme) with a more creative approach. We could have solved the problems if we had this more creative approach."

MORE SPORTS

Oswald said that despite an IOC cap of 28 sports he could see more sports joining in the future if existing ones reduced events that were not "universally" popular or the number of athletes.

The IOC started the process of revamping the Games to keep up with a younger audience but could now end up voting back in the same sport it excluded months ago and making no change to the Games programme from the 2020 Olympics onwards.

"What I propose is not to limit strictly at 28 sports but reduce the representation of some sports' disciplines. Even in major sports there are some disciplines that are not universal," he said without naming specific sports.

"A review in such a way can reduce events and athletes and make room for other sports," he said.

He rejected an idea for a united world championships of both Olympic and non-Olympic sports as announced by the new head of umbrella body SportAccord.

"I don't think these proposals are realistic or can be implemented. It is no danger to the Games but it lessens the significance of the Games and we have to defend the position of Games being unique and special."

Oswald said he did not believe violent demonstrations in Turkey were hampering Istanbul's bid to stage the 2020 Olympics, with Tokyo and Madrid also bidding.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Turkey's biggest cities over the weekend and clashed with riot police firing tear gas, leaving hundreds of people injured.

The unrest was sparked by protests against government plans to redevelop Istanbul's Taksim Square, long a rallying point for mass demonstrations, but widened into a broad show of defiance against the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

"It is a protest that can happen in any democratic country. We will see how it develops, how important it is. We are still three months away but for the time being I don't think it is a threat for the candidature," he said. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann)

The answer, according to economists surveyed by The Associated Press: No.

Three-quarters of the economists say stocks, which are at their lowest point in a month but are up 19 percent since November, aren't overvalued. Many point to strong corporate profits as justifying the surge in stock prices, which have more than doubled since bottoming in 2009.

The economists expect many consumers to respond to their increased stock wealth by spending more in coming months. Higher spending would help sustain and perhaps accelerate growth.

The economists think growth is slowing to around a 2 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter from a 2.4 percent rate last quarter. The key reasons: Federal spending cuts, higher taxes and economic weakness in Europe and elsewhere.

But they say U.S. economic growth should increase in the second half of this year and speed up next year. Besides the stock market gains, steady job growth and surging home prices will likely fuel more spending.

They forecast that growth will reach 2.8 percent in 2014 as hiring accelerates and consumer confidence now at a five-year high improves further. If they're accurate, that would be the fastest growth since 2005.

"A bubble is an extreme thing, when the market loses all contact with reality," says Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services. "I don't think we're near anything like that."

Most of the nearly three dozen economists surveyed by the AP say the Fed's policies have helped boost stock prices. The Fed has been buying $85 billion in bonds each month to try to keep loan costs at record lows and encourage borrowing and spending. The super-low rates have led some investors to shift money out of low-yielding bonds and savings accounts and into stocks, thereby boosting stock prices.

In recent weeks, stock and bond investors have been rattled by speculation that the Fed will start to scale back its bond purchases later this year. Once it does, interest rates would likely creep up. Some investors could sell stocks and buy higher-yielding bonds. Stock prices could fall.

For now, broad measures of stock prices remain in line with historic norms, given the strength of company profits, the economists say. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, relative to expected corporate earnings, is only about half its level of late 1999. That was a few months before the dot-com frenzy fizzled and punctured a stock-market bubble.

Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds, notes that in most bubbles, stocks or other assets are significantly overvalued. Investors typically invent reasons to explain that fact away.

In the late 1990s, for example, "We were talking about 'the new economy,' 'this is all different now' and so on."

But "people aren't saying that about stocks now," Webman says.

The AP survey collected the views of private, corporate and academic economists on a range of issues. Among their views:

Housing will deliver the biggest boost to the U.S. economy this year more than will higher stock prices or the Fed's low-rate policies. Higher home values and sales and increased construction have helped restore household wealth, generated jobs, boosted spending on home furnishings and other goods and services and strengthened banks as mortgage defaults have declined. It's also a big reason pickup truck sales have jumped: Busier contractors and landscapers buy more trucks.

U.S. consumers will step up spending once the job market returns to full health, though not as much as before the Great Recession. In the 10 years through 2007, consumer spending, adjusted for inflation, grew at an average annual rate of 3.6 percent. Since the recession ended in 2009, it's grown at an average rate of just 2 percent. The job market would be considered healthy when unemployment falls between 5 percent and 6 percent. It's now 7.5 percent. On Friday, the government will issue the May jobs report. Employers are expected to have added 170,000 jobs. No change is expected in the unemployment rate.

The world's biggest economic obstacle is deep spending cuts and shrinking economies among the 17 European countries that use the euro currency. Unemployment across the euro alliance hit a record 12.2 percent in April. The number of unemployed is on track to reach 20 million by year's end.

The biggest threat to Americans retiring over the next 25 years is too little savings. This is a more significant factor than the likelihood of reduced Social Security benefits, high out-of-pocket costs for Medicare recipients or nursing home expenses.

The stock market's gains, along with higher home prices, have helped create a "wealth effect." That's when people's rising wealth emboldens them to spend more. Their increased spending benefits the economy because consumers drive about 70 percent of U.S. economic growth.

Such spending may be helping to prevent any drag from a Social Security tax increase that took effect Jan. 1. The tax increase has left someone earning $50,000 a year with about $1,000 less to spend this year. A household with two highly paid workers has up to $4,500 less.

Americans as a whole have kept spending despite the higher Social Security tax. Instead, they've saved less. Spending grew at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, the fastest pace in more than two years. The national savings rate fell to 2.3 percent from 4.1 percent last year.

"Consumers show no basic cultural change, in contrast to the wave of frugality embraced following the Depression of the 1930s," says Lynn Reaser, an economist at Point Loma Nazarene University in California.

Average pay has trailed inflation since the recession officially ended four years ago. Yet as long as job growth remains steady, more people will have income. And Americans will spend much of that money, economists say.

With their confidence at its highest point since 2008, Webman says consumers aren't likely to cut back.

"If people feel better, the national pastime is shopping," Webman says.

___

Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

The Insee agency said that unemployment rose from 10.5 percent at the end of 2012. It had originally reported unemployment was 10.6 percent in the fourth quarter.

French President Francois Hollande has promised to reverse the rise in unemployment by the end of this year, but that is looking increasingly unlikely. Some economists say it won't peak until at least next year.

According to Eurostat, the European statistics agency, which calculates the figure differently, unemployment is already at 11 percent in France.

Joblessness has been rising in the country since mid-2011, but France has not seen the astronomically high unemployment rates of its neighbors, like Spain. And it has been slower than other European countries to cut spending and reform its labor market and benefits system.

There are concerns that the worst is yet to come for France. Its economy is now officially in recession again, after gross domestic product shrank 0.2 percent in the first quarter.

Insee is the in process of slightly changing its questionnaire and method of data collection, so it cautioned that the figures for the first quarter are preliminary, and it could not give the usual breakdown of unemployment by sex and age.

Hare investors try to sprint to the finish line of a comfortable retirement without girding their portfolios against the perils of frequent ups and downs in asset value. So they tend to lag far behind tortoise investors, who take these precautions, which I'll explain in a moment.

Volatility reflects uncertainty, and markets tend to punish uncertainty with lower prices. Yet just because an investment is volatile doesn't mean it has no place in your portfolio. Because they may be less likely to go down with other assets in the portfolio, volatile investments may add highly beneficial variety, known as .

Let's say you own tech stocks like Apple and IBM. Adding more tech stocks to your portfolio doesn't decrease overall risk, so you add a gold-mining stock instead. Though highly volatile in itself, the gold-mining stock is less likely to go up or down with tech stocks, so it increases the portfolio's diversification.

Because there's little correlation between gold-mining stocks' price movements with those of tech stocks, these categories are said to have a low correlation.That sounds complicated, but you can easily look up theto see whether they're correlated, and if so, how closely.

Aware of the downsides of volatility, tortoises avoid it by assembling highly diversified portfolios. That means traditional investments such as U.S. stocks and bonds, mixed with a dash ofThese may include emerging market stocks, Treasury bonds and real estate securities.The price movements of these investments have a history of not being highly correlated with U.S. stocks or bonds.

Tortoises are like a savvy retailer on a tropical resort island who wisely sells umbrellas as well as sunscreen to help cover losses during rainy periods. Every once in while, the rain falls on everything -- which is what happened in late 2008, much to the dismay of investors. In the financial meltdown, stocks, bonds and real estate both in the US and abroad swooned, leaving little quarter for investors.

Tortoise-style investors add a touch of alternative investments, knowing this may cut their overall returns some years, but they'll sleep more peacefully with the knowledge that it can counter-balance heavy losses in traditional investments.

Hares aren't focused on this balanced approach. Instead, they assemble highly aggressive portfolios of assets that tend to rise or fall in lockstep. They're not concerned with cutting their losses because, compelled by greed, they're not planning to have any losses ior they believe they can defy gravity.This was not unlike the employees who loaded up on their company's shares before the recession, only to see their investment go south along with their job.

Like the Aesop's hare, hare investors are overconfident and turn a blind eye to the ravages of volatility, which take a long time to recover from.Tortoises, having sustained less damage, continue their slow but steady progress.

The math of recovering from hits may astonish you. Let's say your portfolio loses 33 percent of its value, leaving you with two thirds of what you had. Many believe they'd be back where they started if they gain 33 percent. But this gain wouldn't restore their losses. They would actually need to make a 50 percent gain to get back to where they started. The reason is that the gain is based on a lower value than what you started with.

Heavy gains followed by just a large losses from volatile investments is comparable to the hare in Aesop's fable sprinting for periods and then, winded, lying down to take a nap. Like the tortoise, investors with adequately diversified portfolios don't tend to need as much recovery time.

Such losses are even more damaging than they appear at first blush. Not only do hare portfolios lose time that could be used to make progress toward the goal, but they also miss out on the . Though tortoises' gains may be far lower than those made by hares during their sprints, they're more likely to enjoy the benefits of compounding.

These awkward reptiles plod steadily toward the finish line while the halting progress of hares leaves them far behind.

Ted Schwartz, a Certified Financial Planner, is president and chief investment officer of Capstone Investment Financial Group http://capstoneinvest.net. He advises individual investors and endowments, and serves as the advisor to CIFG Funds. Because Schwartz has a background in psychology and counseling, he brings insights into personal motivation when advising clients on achieving their wealth management goals. Schwartz holds a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. from Oregon State University. He can be reached at ted@capstoneinvest.com.

The announcement came less than a week after Kerry urged Israel to avoid "provocative" actions during a visit to the region. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman described the move as "counterproductive."

Palestinian officials immediately accused Israel of undermining the U.S. mediation efforts.

The issue of Jewish settlements has been at the heart of a nearly five-year impasse in peace efforts. Negotiations broke down in late 2008 and have remained stalled since then.

The Palestinians say they will not return to negotiations until Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas they claim for a future state. Israel, which captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war, says talks should resume without any conditions.

Israel has tried to differentiate between settlements in the West Bank, which is not part of Israel, and east Jerusalem, which it annexed and claims as part of its capital. But the international community, including the U.S., does not recognize the annexation and considers both territories to be occupied.

Housing Ministry spokesman Ariel Rosenberg said the latest construction, in the Ramot area of east Jerusalem, was approved by the government long ago but in recent days, the ministry accepted a bid by a company to build the 300 housing units. He said the ministry had solicited the bids last year. Construction is expected to begin within a few months.

Ramot is a sprawling development that lies mostly in territory Israel seized in 1967. Israel considers it a neighborhood of its capital.

More than 500,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians say continued construction is a sign of bad faith and makes it increasingly difficult to partition the land between Israel and a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat described the construction plans as "systematic destruction" of Kerry's efforts by Israeli hardliners. The Housing Ministry is headed by the "Jewish Home," a hardline party with close ties to the Jewish settler movement.

"They are settlers, working for settlers," Erekat said.

Government spokesman Ofir Gendelman accused Palestinians of making excuses to avoid peace talks.

"It is a tactic to avoid negotiations," Gendelman said. "We are calling on Palestinians to return to direct negotiations immediately in order to discuss all outstanding issues," he said.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki chided Israel for the move.

"Israelis must recognize that continued construction in East Jerusalem is counterproductive to the cause of peace and that an independent Palestine must be viable, with real borders that have to be drawn," she said.

"We're at a pivotal time," Psaki told reporters. "We need to focus on each side making tough choices in order to move a process or the possibility of negotiations forward. And that's what our focus is on."

Aides to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas say Kerry hopes to present a formal plan to resume long-stalled negotiations in coming weeks.

During his visit last week, Kerry said it was impossible to expect Israel to halt all settlement construction. But he urged restraint and called on both sides to avoid any moves that could undermine his efforts.

Since taking office early this year, Kerry has devoted significant efforts to restarting peace talks. He has visited the region four times, most recently last week, in search of a formula acceptable to both sides.

Abbas' aides said the president was under pressure to accept some construction in Jewish settlements in blocs, particularly in those expected to lie on the Israeli side of a future border.

___

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

I have no idea how to approach him, or if I even should. I wouldn't know how to begin the conversation with him because I have no solid proof. I always considered him to be a decent individual, but in the back of my mind now I'm thinking, "He's cheating on his wife!" What makes me uneasy is that it's all based on my hunch. I'm usually pretty good with my hunches, though.

Any words of wisdom would be welcome. -- NICK IN NEW ENGLAND

DEAR NICK: What are you doing going through your friend's cellphone day planner and reading his texts? He doesn't have to account to you for his time. For all you know the man may be in a 12-step program or a therapy group. If he wanted you to know what he's doing, he would tell you. Right now the "friendliest" thing you can do is mind your own business.

DEAR ABBY: I have worked at my job almost 10 years. Most of the owners are nice, and the staff is great. I like my job most days.

I had a really bad week recently. I felt like I couldn't do anything right. The week ended with a really angry text from my boss. He was right. I was in the wrong, and I apologized. He sent me another text, still angry, and my whole weekend was ruined by it. I kept thinking how mad he was, and how in a few days, I'd start my week in the doghouse.

I can't figure out how not to take work home with me. Also, I can't help but think he was wrong using a text as a means of discussing the issue. I don't want to make him angrier. How do I confront this issue? -- STILL UPSET IN OREGON

DEAR STILL UPSET: It would have been much better management if your boss had talked with you face to face about what was wrong with your performance. By now, your boss should have cooled off, and I suggest that you have a private chat with him and say that if he has a bone to pick with you, you would prefer to hear it from his lips rather than have it communicated in a text, which was hurtful.

DEAR ABBY: After my best friend of more than 20 years, I'll call him Tim, told me his wife had cheated on him, I confessed that I am in love with him. His response floored me. Tim announced that he has been in love with me all this time and can imagine growing old with only me.

A friend told me I'm committing adultery with Tim because he is now in the process of leaving his cheating wife for me. Am I? We haven't been intimate, nor do we plan to sleep with each other until the divorce is final.

I have loved Tim far longer than she has been in the picture, and I feel this is a chance for happiness that fate has offered us and we are meant to grow old together. Are we wrong to pursue a relationship? -- CONFLICTED IN CALIFORNIA

DEAR CONFLICTED: If Tim has been in love with you all these years, he couldn't have had much of a marriage. His wife's infidelity was his "get out of jail" ticket and he took it. I don't know what your "friend's" definition of adultery is, but according to Webster's dictionary, you're not committing it.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To order "How to Write Letters for All Occasions," send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

Remember that scene from Jurassic Park when the two paleontologists see the herds of living, breathing dinosaurs for the first time? Their eyes widen in disbelief, mouths agape, unable to speak at first.

That's the reaction I had over 30 years ago when I first stepped out of the dense tropical rain forest of Central African Republic's Dzanga-Sangha region into a 30-acre clearing with mineral rich soils known as the "Village of the Elephants." Instantly I was transported into prehistory, with forest elephants of every size, shape and color sucking the mineral salts out of the soil, chasing one another, rolling around in mud-pits and fighting for the best mate or mineral pool. Elsewhere in the clearing, known as the Dzanga Bai, I was awed by bongo, buffalo, sitatunga and hundreds of birds.

This elephant Eden, now a crown jewel in the three-nation , is under attack. Its remote location, combined with effective anti-poaching efforts, have until recently helped it stay out of the severe upswing in poaching across Central Africa. But that isolation is no more: 17 men armed with Kalashnikov rifles recently entered the park and four of them calves collecting as much ivory as possible before disappearing to most likely begin preparing their next attack.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told lawmakers Wednesday, "Nobody knows for whom the top leader votes."

It's the third time in recent weeks that Khamenei has insisted that he is neutral. He is apparently responding the reports that he favors one of the candidates.

He called the rumors "unreal" in remarks broadcast on Iran's state TV.

All eight candidates are seen insiders and loyalists to Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters. Other candidates, including reformers and centrists, were disqualified. The election is set for June 14.

Ahead of every presidential campaign in past years, political activists have tried to spread rumors about Khamenei's favorite to drum up support for their candidates.