11.   Letting a reporter into his three-room home, the poet dusts plastic boxes holding cassettes Afghan folk music.

12.   On Thursday, rebels would not let reporters near the airport, where the airstrip is big enough to handle large transport planes.

13.   Taliban soldiers at check points outside the capital refused to let reporters beyond the city limits.

14.   The Taliban also refused to let reporters inside the Kabul Museum, repository for thousands of Buddhist antiquities.

15.   Russian troops sealing off Katyr Yurt refused to let reporters through Friday.