Taliban want removal from U.N. blacklist before peace talks

Pakistan hosted the first formal talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in July 2015 but a second round was cancelled after it emerged that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Mullah, who sanctioned the talks, had been dead for two years. Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have since deteriorated amid an upswing in fighting between the Taliban and Afghan forces.     On Saturday morning, activists, former Afghan officials and Taliban representatives arrived at a hot