The offer follows this week’s official opening of a Taliban political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar.

The only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war is U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan.

In an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Doha office, Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail said on Thursday that Bergdahl “is, as far as I know, in good condition.”

Suhail did not elaborate on Bergdahl’s current whereabouts. Among the five prisoners the Taliban have consistently requested are Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mullah Mohammed Fazl, a former top Taliban military commander, both of whom have been held for more than a decade.

Bergdahl’s parents earlier this month received a letter from their son who turned 27 on March 28 through the International Committee of the Red Cross. They did not release details of the letter but renewed their plea for his release. The soldier’s captivity has been marked by only sporadic releases of videos and information about his whereabouts.

The prisoner exchange is the first item on the Taliban’s agenda before even opening peace talks, saidn Suhail, who is a top Taliban figure and served as first secretary at the Afghan Embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad before the Taliban government’s ouster in 2001.

“First has to be the release of detainees,” Suhail said when asked about Bergdahl. “Yes. It would be an exchange. Then step by step, we want to build bridges of confidence to go forward.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was expected in Doha ahead of Saturday’s conference on the Syrian civil war.

While in Qatar, Kerry is also expected to meet with the Taliban but timing was unclear. On Wednesday in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. had “never confirmed” any specific meeting schedule with Taliban representatives in Doha.

Prospective peace talks are also still in question, especially after Afghan President Hamid Karzai became infuriated by the Taliban’s move to cast their new office in Doha as a rival embassy.

The Taliban held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday in which they hoisted their flag and a banner with the name they used while in power more than a decade ago: “Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.” Later, the Taliban replaced the sign to read simply: Political office of the Taliban.

At the ceremony, the Taliban welcomed dialogue with Washington but said their fighters would not stop fighting. Hours later, the group claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Bagram Air Base outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, that killed four American service members.

Karzai on Wednesday announced his government is out of the peace talks, apparently angered by the way Kabul had been sidelined in the U.S.-Taliban bid for rapprochement.

The Afghan president also suspended negotiations with the United States on a bilateral security agreement that would cover American troops who will remain behind after the final withdrawal of NATO combat troops at the end of 2014.

Suhail said the Taliban are insistent that they want their first interlocutors to be the United States. “First we talk to the Americans about those issues concerning the Americans and us (because) for those issues implementation is only in the hands of the Americans,” he said.

“We want foreign troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan,” he added. “If there are troops in Afghanistan then there will be a continuation of the war.”

Suhail indicated the Taliban could approve of American trainers and advisers for the Afghan troops, saying that “of course, there is co-operation between countries in other things. We need that co-operation.”

He said that once the Taliban concluded talks with the United States, they would participate in all-inclusive Afghan talks.

Suhail ruled out exclusive talks with Karzai’s High Peace Council, which has been a condition of the Afghan president who previously said he wanted talks in Doha to be restricted to his representatives and the Taliban. Instead, the Taliban would talk to all Afghan groups, Suhail said.

“After we finish the phase of talking to the Americans, then we would start the internal phase … that would include all Afghans,” he said. “Having all groups involved will guarantee peace and stability.”

On Thursday, Karzai’s government appeared to throw another spanner into the mix, demanding that Pakistan release imprisoned Afghan Taliban leaders.

“It is a good time to release these Taliban leaders jailed in Pakistan, and then the Afghan High Peace Council together with them will begin talks with the Taliban inside Afghanistan or in Qatar,” a statement from the foreign ministry in Kabul said.

It wasn’t clear, however, whether the Taliban in Pakistani custody would be willing to participate in peace talks as members of Karzai’s council. Pakistan last year and earlier this year released dozens of Taliban prisoners, most of whom returned to the ranks of the Taliban.

The Afghan government has repeatedly sought the release of the Taliban’s former No. 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, picked up by Pakistan in 2010 on a CIA tip.

Pakistan has so far refused, and two senior U.S. officials told the AP that the U.S. has asked Pakistan not to release Baradar or if he is released, to give them advance notice so they could monitor his movements. The two officials, both knowledgeable of the process, spoke earlier this year, on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

The reconciliation process with the Taliban has been a long and bumpy one that began nearly two years ago when the U.S. opened secret talks that were later scuttled by Karzai when he learned of them.

It was then that the U.S. and Taliban discussed prisoner exchanges and for a brief time it appeared that the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners would be released and sent to Doha to help further the peace process. But Karzai stepped in again and demanded they be returned to Afghanistan over Taliban objections.

Since then, the U.S. has been trying to jumpstart peace talks and the Taliban have made small gestures including an offer to share power. The Taliban have also attended several international conferences and held meetings with representatives of about 30 countries.

If the Taliban hold talks with Kerry in the next few days, they will be the first U.S.-Taliban talks in nearly 1 1/2 years.

____

Associated Press writers Kay Johnson in Kabul and Brian Murphy in Dubai contributed to this report.

____

Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan and can be reached at www.twitter.com/kathygannon

Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai was speaking to a Tokyo hall packed with thousands of investors for an annual general shareholders’ meeting, where the proposal from Third Point hedge fund, led by activist investor and billionaire Daniel Loeb, was high on people’s minds. It was the first question from the floor.

Hirai reiterated his position that Sony takes the proposal seriously, and it will be discussed by the company board. But he ruled out a quick decision.

“This is an important proposal that will influence the future of Sony,” he said. “This will take time, and we are not going to come to a conclusion for the sake of coming to a conclusion.”

Loeb has proposed selling up to a 20 per cent stake in Sony’s relatively healthy movie, TV and music business.

Third Point, one of Sony’s top shareholders, said this week it has raised its stake to 6.9 per cent from the 6.5 per cent Loeb had said the fund owned, when it first made the proposal last month.

Loeb is best known for instigating a mass shake-up at Yahoo Inc.

He is proposing the money raised from selling a part of Sony’s entertainment division be used to strengthen its troubled electronics operations.

His proposal was not up for a vote at the nearly two-hour shareholders’ meeting, which approved new board members and a proposal on stock options. Sony said more than 10,000 people took part in the meeting.

Some analysts have been advocating changes at Sony, similar to what Loeb has suggested.

Takao Miyake, a retired shareholder who had attended the meeting, agreed.

“I think Sony is caught up in their own ways,” he said. “Working with the hedge fund is the only way to survive.”

Others were unsure. Takeshi Kawamata, 56, a businessman who owns 100 Sony shares, hadn’t heard about the hedge fund proposal before.

“How should we know if we can trust the hedge fund or not?” he said.

Hiroshi Sakai, chief analyst at SMBC Friend Research Center, said that Sony will likely need some time to get used to the idea of letting go of part of its entertainment business.

“I think Third Point understands that as well,” said Sakai. “They are just trying to put pressure on Sony.”

Tokyo-based Sony has run into hard times in recent years despite a glorious nearly seven-decade history of having pioneered products, such as the Walkman portable player.

Sony, which also makes the PlayStation 3 game machine and Bravia flat-panel TVs, has fallen behind rivals such as Apple Inc. of the U.S. and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co.

It was also battered by natural disasters in Japan in 2011, as well as an unfavourable currency rate, although that disadvantage has lessened with the yen cheapening in recent months.

The company barely turned a profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, its first in five years.

Hirai, who took office last year, promised a revival at Sony, focusing on smartphones, digital imaging and games, as well as turning around its money-losing TV operations. Sony is also trying to move into new fields such as medical equipment, having set up a joint venture with Olympus Corp.

He said Sony has undergone drastic restructuring under his helm over the last year, an effort that he called unprecedented in company history. He said he was talking frequently with Sony engineers to prevent any brain drain and boost morale. He said he was determined to make sure all products were “fitting of putting S-O-N-Y on them.”

“We want people to say that a world without Sony would be no fun at all,” he said.

Sony shares, which momentarily rose 1.7 per cent, ended virtually unchanged at 2,013 yen in Tokyo trading, down 0.10 per cent.

___

Azusa Uchikura contributed to this report. Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Follow Uchikura on Twitter at www.twitter.com/auchikura

A starter pistol and a vintage hand gun had been outside for quite some time and neither had any ammunition when discovered, says West Vancouver Police Constable Jeff Palmer.

They also don’t know how they wound up on the secluded greenbelt around Rockridge Secondary School. “[There is] nothing to indicate right now how they came to be there,” says Palmer.

The antique hand gun was eventually identified as a vintage six-shot revolver that could be from the World War I era or even earlier. The most recent version of the Webley .455 calibre pistol was discontinuned after World War II.

Both had been exposed to the elements for quite a while but the students immediately called police anyway who retrieved the two firearms.

Palmer said neither gun can be linked to any crime and praised the actions of the two children.

He said the incident reinforces the importance of the province-wide gun amnesty program currently underway. “This is the kind of risk we’re trying to head off. That the weapons wind up for some reason discarded in a public place,” says Palmer.

He said they will attempt to find the guns’ owner or owners.

The historic shoreline around the former Jericho Marginal Wharf has been restored.

The wharf – now gone – was a remnant of a former Royal Canadian Air Force station that operated from 1921 to 1945.

Park Board Commissioner Constance Barnes says the $2 million project has returned the site to its original natural beauty.

“We realized the soil was toxic, it had to be stored and taken off site bringing in fresh new soil. Then it was about restoration, bringing in the native habitat that was there,” she says.

The restored beach includes a lookout with binoculars, walking trails, seating and new signage displaying Jericho’s history.

“We did what we could to create and keep some of it, upcycle. Even the railings, they were actually from the old Lion’s Gate Bridge which people didn’t realize were incorporated in the structure that was there,” Barnes says.  

Approval for the demolition of the Jericho Marginal Wharf came in 2010 after public consultations.

Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai was speaking to a Tokyo hall packed with thousands of investors for an annual general shareholders’ meeting, where the proposal from Third Point hedge fund, led by activist investor and billionaire Daniel Loeb, was high on people’s minds. It was the first question from the floor.

Hirai reiterated his position that Sony takes the proposal seriously, and it will be discussed by the company board. But he ruled out a quick decision.

“This is an important proposal that will influence the future of Sony,” he said. “This will take time, and we are not going to come to a conclusion for the sake of coming to a conclusion.”

Loeb has proposed selling up to a 20 per cent stake in Sony’s relatively healthy movie, TV and music business.

Third Point, one of Sony’s top shareholders, said this week it has raised its stake to 6.9 per cent from the 6.5 per cent Loeb had said the fund owned, when it first made the proposal last month.

Loeb is best known for instigating a mass shake-up at Yahoo Inc.

He is proposing the money raised from selling a part of Sony’s entertainment division be used to strengthen its troubled electronics operations.

His proposal was not up for a vote at the nearly two-hour shareholders’ meeting, which approved new board members and a proposal on stock options. Sony said more than 10,000 people took part in the meeting.

Some analysts have been advocating changes at Sony, similar to what Loeb has suggested.

Takao Miyake, a retired shareholder who had attended the meeting, agreed.

“I think Sony is caught up in their own ways,” he said. “Working with the hedge fund is the only way to survive.”

Others were unsure. Takeshi Kawamata, 56, a businessman who owns 100 Sony shares, hadn’t heard about the hedge fund proposal before.

“How should we know if we can trust the hedge fund or not?” he said.

Tokyo-based Sony has run into hard times in recent years despite a glorious nearly seven-decade history of having pioneered products, such as the Walkman portable player.

Sony, which also makes the PlayStation 3 game machine and Bravia flat-panel TVs, has fallen behind rivals such as Apple Inc. of the U.S. and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co.

It was also battered by natural disasters in Japan in 2011, as well as an unfavourable currency rate, although that disadvantage has lessened with the yen cheapening in recent months.

The company barely turned a profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, its first in five years.

Hirai, who took office last year, promised a revival at Sony, focusing on smartphones, digital imaging and games, as well as turning around its money-losing TV operations. Sony is also trying to move into new fields such as medical equipment, having set up a joint venture with Olympus Corp.

He said Sony has undergone drastic restructuring under his helm over the last year, an effort that he called unprecedented in company history. He said he was talking frequently with Sony engineers to prevent any brain drain and boost morale. He said he was determined to make sure all products were “fitting of putting S-O-N-Y on them.”

“We want people to say that a world without Sony would be no fun at all,” he said.

___

Azusa Uchikura contributed to this report. Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Follow Uchikura on Twitter at www.twitter.com/auchikura

Tristan Bowen opened the scoring for the visitors in the seventh minute, when his right-footed shot from outside the box beat ‘Caps goalkeeper Brad Knighton to the top left corner.

Despite controlling the ball for almost 60% of the first half, it looked like the Goats would lead going to the break, but Vancouver defender Jordan Harvey had converted a Camilo feed with his left foot which deflected off a defender for the ‘Caps first goal.
It was Harvey’s third goal in four games.

On the final play of the half, Russell Teibert fed Camilo and the Brazilian swooped in off the right side and cut into the middle to score on a low shot with his left foot to give Vancouver the lead for good.

Teibert now has 6 assists in his last 4 matches.

Camilo capped the the scoring in the 81st minute, when his right-footed shot from the middle of the Chivas box, went into the left corner of the net past Dan Kennedy. It was his sixth goal in his last four games for Vancouver.

The Whitecaps now have six wins and four draw at BC Place. It was the stadium’s 30th anniversary.

Vancouver is now fourth in the Western Conference of MLS.

The cable channel, and managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders, say the 51-year-old Gandolfini (gan-dahl-FEE’-nee) died Wednesday while on holiday in Rome.

In a statement, HBO called the actor a great talent and a gentle and loving person.

Gandolfini played conflicted mob boss Tony Soprano in the groundbreaking HBO series that aired from 1999 to 2007.

His film credits included “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Killing Them Softly,” and he appeared in the Broadway production “God of Carnage.”

They mailed a package to a friend at the Port Coquitlam fire department.  Inside, there were tampons and this came shortly after the hiring of some women at the department.

It was quickly brought to the attention of Port Coquitlam’s senior officer who notified Vancouver Fire Chief John McKearney.

“Two members came forward on their own volition and we went through a disciplinary hearing and they took full responsibility and were subsequently reprimanded,” says McKearney who feels it is an isolated incident.

Both will have it marked in their file and the McKearny says they are sorry.

McKearney says the department has increased hiring of female firefighters in recent years and doesn’t feel the incident will have a negative impact on it.

His daughter Ivanka, and sons Donald Junior and Eric were by his side at the news conference which overlooked the construction site.

“It’s an amazing place, it’s a beautiful place, and we’re going to make it more beautiful.  Architecturally the building will be magnificent,” says Trump.

The twisting tower is based on an Arthur Erikson design, and will include 147 hotel rooms and 218 residences

“They talk about twisted and that’s what it’s going to be. That means two things, it means beauty but it also means expensive because it is a very expensive building to build but I think it will be one of the great buildings not only in Canada, not only in the US but anywhere in the world,” explains Trump.

It will also be home to Vancouver’s first nightclub with its own pool.

Trump is not investing in the project but his name will be etched in the Vancouver skyline.

Joo Kim Tiah, CEO and president of Holborn Group says he doesn’t feel the Trump name is a liability.

“I think the Trump name is synonymous with real estate and success and luxury and the highest quality of excellence.  I think it will appeal to Vancouverites,” says Tiah.

The total cost is projected at $360,000,000 and the building will sit on Georgia Street between Thurlow and Bute.