M A I N   N E W S

Pak terms it incorrect

Islamabad, February 28
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri today termed reports of Osama bin Laden’s capture as “incorrect” after initially declining to confirm these.

A few minutes after saying at a joint press conference with visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin that he could not confirm the reports, Mr Kasuri told mediapersons that the news was “incorrect.”

A Pakistani military operation had been launched recently in the rugged tribal terrain in the South Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan to flush out al-Qaida and Taliban fighters hiding there. — PTI

Not true, says USA

Tehran, February 28
The US Department of Defence denied reports by Iran’s official IRNA news agency today that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had been captured.

A senior US defence official denied the report, saying it was “another piece of stray voltage passing around out there.”

Larry Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman who travelled with Mr Donald H. Rumsfeld this week to Afghanistan, denied the report of bin Laden’s capture. “I do not have any reason to think it is true,” he said.

Lt-Col Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan, also said he had no information to suggest bin Laden had been caught. — Reuters, AP