Video: Real Player The Afghan opposition Northern Alliance has said that the possibility of US strikes against the Taliban would improve its military position. (28k, 56k)

Taliban say Laden missing; USA not convinced
Islamabad, September 23
In an intriguing development, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia today said Osama bin Laden had gone “missing” but the USA rejected it saying Washington was “not going to be deterred” by the reports.

USA admits losing spy plane
Washington, September 23
The USA had lost a spy plane over Afghanistan, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today, playing down claims that forces of the Taliban militia shot down the aircraft. “The USA have lost contact with an unmanned aerial vehicle,” Mr Rumsfeld told journalists after appearing on a talk show early today.

• Pak awaits US response on cooperation details

• US attack unlikely this week

• Clinton had ‘given order’ to kill Laden

A Palestinian girl looks from the window of her burnt house after it was struck by an Israeli tank during an attack last night at Dear al Balah in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.— Reuters

Did Laden pay money to Sharif?
New Delhi, September 23
Mr Hamid Mir, a journalist who wrote the biography of international terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, is yet to find an answer to whether the world’s most wanted man had paid millions of dirhams to exiled Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif.

SGPC gives rooms to foreigners
Wagah, September 23
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee today got the top storey of its VIP guest house — Sri Guru Hargobind Niwas — Bhai Gurdas Hall and other serais vacated with a view to provide free board and lodging to the foreign nationals advised by their respective missions to leave Pakistan and cross over to India through the Wagah checkpost in view of the heightened tension in the region.