The New York Times included four elements in their lead on a story about a U.N. official meeting with Taliban leaders: who, what, when, and why.
All of the information in the lead is general in the sense that all questions could be answered with more specificity.
The lead says that Taliban leaders met with a U.N. official, but does not name any names. The reader does not know which U.N. official met with what ranks of Taliban leaders.
The reader knows that what happened was that a U.N. official met with Taliban leaders, but doesn't know what happened to encourage the meeting to take place, what happened during the meeting, or what resulted from the meeting.
The lead says that they met in early January, but did not specify a date in January.
The lead includes why they met, which was to talk about the possibility of face-to-face peace talks with Afghanistan government.
The New York Times may have chosen to be broad and general because the results of the meeting were inconclusive. If the lead sounded specific and final, it might mislead people into believing that a conclusion had been reached.
The lead may also have been broad so the reporter could go into more detail later on in the story.
January 2010 Archives
After a 19-year-old male student was shot outside of Centennial Hall on late Monday night, requests for University of Minnesota campus escorts increased.
According to the Star Tribune, the shooting that occurred outside of Centennial Hall happened after three female students were robbed by the same suspects that allegedly shot the 19-year-old male student. Police said the suspect shot him in the chest "without provocation".
The Minnesota Daily reported that 54 people requested escort services on Tuesday night, an increase from the usual average of 10 to 15 requests per night the previous week.
The assistant manager of the University Security Monitor Program, Justin Yarrington, said that this increase could also be attributed to below-zero temperatures, reported the Minnesota Daily.
The Star Tribune reported that the Minneapolis City Council approved a proposal to install 600 kilowatt-hours of solar panels on the roof of the Minneapolis Convention Center on Thursday, Jan. 21.
The solar panels would be installed on the flat part of the roof in order to leave the domes uncovered so the panels aren't visible at street level, reported the Star Tribune.
The Minnesota Daily reported that installation of the solar panels could reduce the building's annual energy consumption by 5 percent to 8 percent, though the cost of powering the building would increase from $18,000 to $21,500 per year.
Though the City Council approved the proposal, it still has to be approved by the full council, who would start final negotiations if the proposal passed, reported the Star Tribune.
Also according the Star Tribune, state regulators would then have to shift a $2 million renewable energy grant to the city in order to secure the plan.
NASA had planned on sending a space shuttle to the moon by the year 2020, but President Barack Obama's new proposed budget doesn't allow for that plan to be carried through.
The Washington Post reported that the budget numbers show that administration plans on getting rid of the constellation program, the program that would send the first shuttle since 1972 to the moon by the year 2020.
NASA has spent about $9 billion on the Ares I rocket and the Orion capsule that would bring the astronauts to and from the moon, according the The New York Times.
With his current proposed budget, Obama will look to improve facilities at the Kennedy Space Center and make the space staion last for five years beyond its original life-expectancy to the year 2020, reported The New York Times.
Obama is expected to give NASA more than $1 billion a year, but this amount is much less than the $3 billion a year that would be needed in order to create a good human space flight program, reported The Washington Post.
A U.N. official met with Taliban leaders in early January, making a possible step toward future peace negotiations.
Kai Eide, the United Nations representative for Afghanistan, met with Taliban leaders before an international conference in London, reported the New York Times.
The New York Times reported Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as saying that "[Eide] wanted to test for himself the mindset of some of the Taliban leaders."
However, on Saturday the Taliban denied having met with Eide. Taliban leaders are opposed to negotiating with coalition forces, according the the Washington Post.
Although the Taliban denied meeting with Eide, a former minister in Taliban government and a former Taliban official confirmed that the meeting did take place, the Washington Post reported.
The Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai would like to start peace talks, but whether or not the Taliban would take part in them is unknown, according to the Washington Post.
The New York Times said that the important details of the meeting are not known.
An official, who commented under the condition of anonymity, said that Eide's meeting was the first step to setting up future talks with the Taliban, reported the Washington Post.
