"Alarmed by growing hints of al Qaeda's progress toward obtaining a nuclear or radiological weapon, the Bush administration has deployed hundreds of sophisticated sensors since November to U.S. borders, overseas facilities and choke points around Washington. It has placed the Delta Force, the nation's elite commando unit, on a new standby alert to seize control of nuclear materials that the sensors may detect." [more]

"The planes have been flying since Saturday on their 'first operational mission' in the area and two missions were underway Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand Bon, a French air force spokesman based in Kyrgyzstan, said." [more]

Some people "understand, better than some of their neighbours, that America itself has been largely responsible for creating an ever more integrated world. They therefore recognise that we cannot escape back to some Norman Rockwell-like age of innocence and isolationism, and fear we are alienating too much of a world to which we are now tightly and inexorably bound." [more]

"U.S. bombers blasted the cavernous mountains of eastern Afghanistan for a third day Sunday, pressing a new offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters believed to be regrouping there. One American and three U.S.-allied Afghans were killed Saturday in the opening day of a ground offensive that accompanied the air campaign, the Pentagon said. An Afghan doctor at the Gardez hospital said at least six Americans were injured." [more]

Renewed fighting and bombing campaigns are focused on the mountains southeast of Zormat. A graphic by The New York Times. [more]

"Peace in Afghanistan may be far more daunting than war. Nursing a country back to health is a lot more difficult than launching airstrikes." [more]

"Frustrated by their inability to identify a vast majority of captured fighters of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, federal authorities are proposing to create a DNA databank of terrorism suspects by analyzing blood samples from thousands of detainees being held in Afghanistan and Cuba, government officials said." [more]

"In mounting a major military offensive near Gardez, the Pentagon's aim is to wipe out the last major pocket of Al Qaeda resistance in Afghanistan. One of the most important battles of the war, it seems, did not begin until most Americans concluded that the war was essentially over." [more]

"At 10:30 p.m., the first bombs struck the party; the assault lasted six hours. The next day, a team of special forces arrived in Qila-Niazi to inspect what was thought to have been a triumphant blow against Osama bin Laden's network. Instead it found the remains of [a] party. Out of 112 people, two women had survived." [more]