High level Taliban officials and members of the Afghan government have begun what are being described as preliminary talks aimed at creating peace among the two warring factions. U.S. military and NATO officials have confirmed the activity, saying only that NATO troops provided the Taliban officials with protection on their journey to Kabul for the talks, a place they would never otherwise be able to venture safely. The extent and outcome of the discussions and who exactly was present is still unknown. We speak with Julian Barnes, Pentagon correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.

The search for American David Hartley's body is expected to be suspended today following the death of a Mexican investigator who had been working on the case. Tiffany and David Hartley decided to jet ski across Falcon Lake, which is divided by the Mexican-U.S. border, to photograph a historic church. They were on their way home when pirates opened fire and killed Hartley, according to his wife. Now, lead investigator Rolando Armando Flores Villegas has turned up dead, the victim of a beheading.  Just days before his death, he gave a Texas television station documents naming two drug cartel members as suspects in the Hartley case. We speak with Farrah Fazal, the reporter from KRGV-TV in Texas who received the documents.

The BBC's Paul Moss reports on safety issues in the global mining industry following the rescue of 33 miners in Chile.

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