Russia today sent a cargo plane to the Pakistani capital, carrying tents, beds, blankets and other bedding for victims of the devastating weekend earthquake, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

RESCUERS struggled to reach remote, mountainous areas and stricken residents of a devastated city scavenged for food and gasoline yesterday, a day after a massive earthquake struck Pakistan and India.

Villagers dug with bare hands into collapsed schools and homes today in desperate searches for survivors of a huge earthquake that killed more than 30,000 in South Asia.

More than 3,000 people died today when a massive earthquake triggered landslides, toppled an apartment building and flattened villages of mud-brick homes near the border between Pakistan and India.

A roadside bomb wounded six American troops in the same mountainous area where a commando team was ambushed and a special forces helicopter shot down last month, the US military said today.

One US soldier and seven rebels were killed and three American troops were wounded in fighting today in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said.

US forces killed more than 12 insurgents in a clash in south-eastern Afghanistan, the military said today.

In a clear reference to Iraq’s weekend balloting, a statement purportedly made by Osama bin Laden’s top deputy says holy war, not “rigged elections”, is the only path for reform in Islamic nations.

Afghan and American troops, backed by warplanes, killed up to 50 militants in a day-long battle near the Pakistani border.

Dozens of Taliban rebels captured and burned a remote Afghan government outpost before disappearing back over the Pakistani border, a local official said today.

ON the second anniversary of its intervention in Afghanistan, the United States said there were signs Taliban guerrillas were planning more spectacular attacks and urged Pakistan to do more to curb Islamic militants.

Osama bin Laden may be hiding along Pakistan’s mountainous border with Afghanistan where Islamic hard-liners hold sway, President Pervez Musharraf said today.

Eleven civilians have been killed in eastern Afghanistan after a bomb dropped by an American warplane landed on a home near the Pakistani border, the US military said today.

ABOUT 200 US special forces and their allies were battling rebels in southeast Afghanistan yesterday in the heaviest fighting since Operation Anaconda nine months ago.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in South Asia to reduce tensions between Pakistan and India, said yesterday that the nuclear neighbours appeared to be inching toward talks that could lead to a lasting peace.

Royal marines are on their way to the Pakistani border in Afghanistan to seal off possible transit routes for Al Qaida and Taliban forces.

British troops have found indications that Taliban and al Qaida fighters may be sneaking back into the area they fled last month during the US-led Operation Anaconda.

Gunmen have attacked US coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, touching off a firefight that lasted several hours.

US warplanes kept up heavy bombing raids on terrorist hideouts in eastern Afghanistan today.

Osama bin Laden’s hiding places are shrinking, but they aren’t gone. The accused terrorist could sneak across a mountain border to Kashmir, blend in with refugees inside Afghanistan or - perhaps most likely - hunker down in a cave and hope not to be found.

The family of British journalist Yvonne Ridley was today awaiting official confirmation that their daughter had been released by the Taliban after reports suggested she had been freed by her captors.

Fears are mounting today over the safety of British journalist Yvonne Ridley, who was arrested in Afghanistan more than a week ago on suspicion of spying.

The first US/British strikes in Afghanistan were focused on military targets such as airfields and command centres.

Fearing widespread starvation in Afghanistan if America attacks, the United Nations has sent its first food shipments there since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Calling Ahmed Shah Massood their battlefield enemy, the hard-line Islamic Taliban denied they were behind a suicide bombing that has critically injured the opposition leader.