Afghan Talks at Impasse Before Vote, Officials Say --- KABUL, Afghanistan — Despite recent optimism about talks over a future American military presence here, two senior Afghan officials said on Sunday that the negotiations were at a profound impasse, days before an Afghan grand council is scheduled to meet to seek popular support for a deal. -- The officials said both sides had refused to budge on American negotiators’ insistence that United States troops retain the right, at least in some form, to enter Afghan homes — something President Hamid Karzai has openly opposed for years. -- The three negotiators reconvened on Sunday, and General Dunford proposed to modify the wording of the agreement to say that troops would only enter homes “on extraordinary occasions,” the same official said. -- Mr. Karzai responded that “in no way will you be allowed to go into Afghan homes,” the official said. “If that is needed, show us your intelligence and we will go in alone.” -- The Afghans said that if Washington did not give up its insistence that American troops be allowed to enter Afghan homes, they would present two versions of the disputed clause to the loya jirga: one with the American position and another with the Afghan government’s position. - More, nytimes