As the hunt for Osama bin Laden intensifies, a convoy of 13 British naval vessels was spotted crossing through the Suez Canal. The ships travelled through the canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, escorted by ships from Egypt's Suez Canal Authority. However, British Embassy spokesman Gareth Bayley has been reported as saying that the convoy was unrelated to a US military build-up in the Gulf following the attacks in New York and Washington. Bayley said planning for bilateral exercises with Oman, dubbed "Operation Swift Sword", had begun long before the assaults on the United States.

This, at a time when US President Bush is spearheading an international war against terrorism. He has rallied numerous global allies in a war targetted almost sepcifically against bin Laden and his Taliban army. Leaders from various nations are joining Bush‘s rally and support is voiced constantly.

Despite having invested a veritable fortune amounting to millions of dollars in the country’s infrastructure, Sudan‘s government said the Saudi-born militant was not welcome to return. Bin Laden lived in Sudan from 1991 until 1996, when the government asked him to leave under US pressure.

The European Union (EU) has advised foreign aid workers to leave Somalia because of "general tension and

uncertainty" in the country. This, after Somalia's government pledged cooperation in the international war against terrorism and said Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden would not be welcome.

NATO member Turkey said on Saturday it had granted a US request to use Turkish airspace and airbases for US transport aircraft in any response to the September 11 attacks. Turkey also said it was increasing its support to anti-Taliban forces in northern Afganistan. However, a statement issued by Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said that any ground action in Afghanistan would be unwise and Turkey was not prepared to offer troops for it. He also drew attention to the importance of the anti-Taliban forces of the Northern Alliance in the north of Afghanistan.

The Taliban, which was only recognised as Afghanistan‘s legitimate ruling force by three countries, has lost the support of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The country decided to cut diplomatic ties with the Taliban, after a refusal to hand-over bin Laden for trial.

Only Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which has agreed to support the hunt for bin Laden, now recognize the Taliban. A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said Islamabad played a key role in communicating between Kabul and the rest of the world and had no plans to follow the UAE.

Despite the threat of war by the world’s biggest super-power, the Taliban refuses to deliver bin Laden for trial until the US can prove that he was responsible for the attacks. "It would be a showdown of might," Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef, the Taliban envoy to Pakistan, told reporters in Islamabad. "We will never surrender to evil and might."

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States had enough evidence to prosecute bin Laden, but might have to capture him to bring him to justice. "I think we have enough intelligence information as well as legally sufficient evidence to bring him before an American court," Powell told the BBC's Newsnight program. "It might mean that we're going to have to go find him rather than have him delivered by the Taliban".

Brig. Gen. Reinhard Guenzel, the commander of Germany's special forces, said any operation to snatch bin Laden from Afghanistan could "result in a bloodbath". "At least for the time being it would be just about impossible," Guenzel told the online edition of German news magazine Der Spiegel in an interview.

"There's no special force in the west that would agree to such an operation," he said, adding his view was shared by the special forces of the United States, Israel, France and Britain.

Pakistan and Iran have sealed off their borders to neighbouring Afghanistan. After two decades of war, the country‘s food, medical and other eessential supplies will run out within a month, thereby aggrevating the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The world sits with baited breathe, nervously contemplating how much further pressure will be needed to pursuade the Taliban to co-operate and deliver the world’s most wanted man.