Osama bin Laden spent his last weeks in a house divided, amid wives riven by suspicions.

AN American construction worker detained in Pakistan while reportedly on a solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden claimed yesterday that he was obeying an order from God to avenge the September 11 attacks, said Pakistani officials.

Pakistan has told the US military that an Arab al-Qaida operative who masterminded the London jetliner terror plot is hiding in mountainous terrain in north-eastern Afghanistan, an intelligence official said today.