OSAMA bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of US troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report said.

Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of US troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report said.

Hundreds of US-led troops have launched an offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan, while a bomb attack near the capital killed three German nationals, officials said today.

France's Defence Ministry strenuously denied a report today that French special forces in Afghanistan twice had al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in their sights but did not get the go-ahead to kill him.

A suspected al Qaida operative who allegedly helped Osama bin Laden evade capture in Afghanistan is being held by the US, it emerged today.

DEMOCRATIC challenger John Kerry hammered George W Bush over Osama bin Laden and then turned on the US President over domestic issues, criticising cuts in after-school programmes, health care coverage and jobs lost in the past four years.

Senator John Kerry returned to domestic issues today, criticising cuts in after-school programs, health care coverage and jobs lost in the last four years.

US president George Bush said the choice facing voters amounted to who could keep Americans safer from terrorists and accused his Democratic rival, John Kerry, of not measuring up.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush and rival John Kerry traded insults over Iraq in new television ads, with Mr Bush using footage of Mr Kerry windsurfing to accuse him of shifting his views "whichever way the wind blows".

THE US Air Force has dropped a 21,000-pound MOAB bomb on a range in northwest Florida in a successful first live test of a powerful new weapon nicknamed the “mother of all bombs.”

US experts were today preparing to analyse an audio tape believed to have been made by al-Qaida terror chief Osama bin Laden urging Iraqis to carry out suicide attacks against Americans.

The CIA has said Osama bin Laden provided the voice recording for the latest al Qaida videotape to air on television, but intelligence officials do not believe he was taped recently.

As Taliban defences around Kabul crumbled under the fury of American bombs, the man responsible for it all - Osama bin Laden - was far away in the safety of this mountain fortress.

SOME of Osama bin Laden's bodyguards have been captured and are among prisoners at the US military base in Cuba, according to American officials.

Some of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards have been captured and are among the prisoners at the US military base in Cuba, American officials say.

An Arabic journalist in Britain claims Osama bin Laden is alive, but was wounded in an attack on his Afghan base in December.

A spokesman for Osama bin Laden says the terrorist and his number two, Ayman Al-Zawahri, are both alive and well.

The US government has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the Tora Bora battle in eastern Afghanistan last year, and that he escaped because US ground troops were not sent in to get him, it was reported today.

American nuclear scientists have been ordered to produce a ‘‘bunker-busting’’ bomb designed to destroy the deepest underground hiding places, it was reported today.

American authorities are planning to take DNA from al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners in a bid to create a databank of their genetic fingerprints, it was revealed today.

The US government is seeking samples of DNA from Osama bin Laden’s family to determine if human remains found in Afghanistan belong to the terrorist leader.

US military chiefs reportedly believe Osama bin Laden is hiding in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan after escaping the assault on the cave complex of Tora Bora.

An American military operation is thought to be underway in the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan to try to confirm senior terror leaders have been killed in an attack earlier this week.

US military forces are looking for new targets after bombing shut 50 caves and levelling 60 buildings at Zawar Kili.

Afghan officials are considering a reported offer of surrender by several ministers from the ousted Taliban regime, while US troops have captured two senior al-Qaida figures near the underground cave complex at Tora Bora.

US troops have captured two senior al-Qaida fighters and confiscated their computers and mobile phones near a huge underground cave complex used by Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, the Pentagon said.

The United States is wrapping up its search of the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan, where it was thought Osama bin Laden was holed up.

US warplanes renewed air strikes against suspected terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan today amid reports al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had fled to Pakistan.

US senators are starting to believe that Osama bin Laden is now in Pakistan.

The first American soldier killed in hostile fire in Afghanistan has been named.

A suspected Taliban leadership compound was blitzed by American planes after reports of a sighting of Osama bin Laden.

American bombers today hit a compound south of Tora Bora targeted three years ago as Osama bin Laden’s headquarters.

American intelligence officials have translated a 100-page document they describe as Osama bin Laden’s top deputy’s ‘‘last will’’, it emerged today.

Pakistani intelligence officials have revealed that FBI agents are interrogating more than 200 suspected members of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

Osama bin Laden has left the mountains of eastern Afghanistan and entered Pakistan, Afghanistan's defence minister said today.

US intelligence was today examining a newly-aired videotape of Osama bin Laden that contains clues suggesting it could have been made around the time he vanished.

Maybe he is dead, either from US bombing, gunfire from his own men or even, as one newspaper reported, from cancer. Maybe he is holed up deep in a mountain cave or hiding in a fortified Pakistan border village. Or perhaps he is in Chechnya, Somalia or back home in Saudi Arabia.

United States forces today intensified their hunt for Osama bin Laden, even as Afghanistan’s interim prime minister declared that terrorism had been ‘‘largely’’ beaten in his war-ravaged country.

United States troops are stepping up their efforts to establish the fate of Osama bin Laden.

The future of the British-led multinational security force in Afghanistan was unclear today as Afghan leaders were divided about how long it should remain in the war-ravaged nation.

Afghan leaders were divided today over how long the British-led multinational security force should remain in the war-ravaged nation.

Afghanistan’s new leader, Hamid Karzai, has said UN peacekeepers are welcome in his country “for as long as it takes” to restore law and order following 23 years of war.

The hunt for Osama bin Laden continued in Afghanistan today, as British Royal Marines prepared to spend Christmas on a peacekeeping mission to protect the country’s new government.

US warplanes have attacked a vehicle convoy in the Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan which officials believe was carrying senior Taliban and al-Qaida leaders.