• Atef literally wrote the book on terrorism
  CAIRO -- Mohammed Atef, the key lieutenant to Osama bin Laden thought killed in Afghanistan, wrote al-Qaida's terrorism manual and ran the organization's training camps.

Is bin Laden's fate to be a mystery?
WASHINGTON -- Although the United States has improved its spying capabilities in Afghanistan dramatically since Sept. 11, there is still a possibility that Osama bin Laden will never be found, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Friday.

German leader wins vote on sending troops abroad
BERLIN -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won his game of chicken Friday with his junior coalition partner, the Greens, forcing them to support the government in a confidence vote over German participation in the war in Afghanistan.

Second anthrax-tainted envelope to Capitol Hill found
WASHINGTON -- Investigators have found an anthrax-tainted letter addressed to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, the second bearing the deadly germ known to have been sent to Capitol Hill.

Aid workers treated well in harsh land
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Even as Heather Mercer's Taliban guards treated her like a sister, allowed her to sing and pray and occasionally sent meals prepared by the commander's cook, she often listened as Afghan women prisoners were beaten until they bled.

Taliban braces for last, bloody stand
BANGI, Afghanistan -- Her infant girl was only a month old. The trip was nine hours by foot. And anyone who tried it, warned the Taliban, would be killed.

Taliban fighters open fire, die
KAREZ-I-MIR, Afghanistan -- On the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims renew their faith in God, a small group of Taliban fighters came down from the mountains and made a feeble attempt to start a guerrilla war by shooting at passing cars.