1.   FORMER Middlesbrough goal king John Hickton got stripped for action again on Saturday.

2.   Among those surveyed about the proposals being negotiated in Germany, the former king won the most praise by far, among Tajiks and Pashtuns alike.

3.   An aide to the former Afghan king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, warned that Afghanistan was threatened with a return to the past.

4.   A large number of government employees held banners proclaiming a warm welcome for the former king.

5.   A Western diplomat said the former king faced the threat of assassination.

6.   Abdullah also agreed that the former king could play a symbolic, rallying role for the nation, Dobbins said.

7.   But in a measure of the dissension that permeates the anti-Taliban ranks, the former king declined to send a representative to the meeting.

8.   But political problems arose after the former king seemed to suggest in several interviews that he would be a candidate for leader of Afghanistan.

9.   But the former king did not send representatives to the meeting, signaling to some his limited support for its participants and strategies.

10.   Certainly the former king has never sought either attention or power.