On Thursday night the United States continued its heavy attacks on the capital Kabul. At least ten bombs were reported to have been dropped on Kabul on Thursday night.

In Washington, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the US had no doubts as to the effectiveness of the US-led campaign. In an attempt to backtrack previous remarks that Bin Laden might never be caught, he said the government expected to capture or eliminate Bin Laden and that progress was being made in the fight against the Taliban regime.

"I think we are going to get him," he said. "The air campaign has cleared the way for further operations."

Hundreds of British commandos will be deployed in Afghanistan. The decision was made by the British government this morning. The UK's contribution will consist primarily of Royal Marines commandos the UK government said on Thursday.

200 will be deployed immediately, a total 2400 soldiers will be involved in the operation. They will include specialists trained for winter and Arctic fighting.

The task forces concentrate mainly on hit and run combat, following a week of hard frontline US bombing.

The UK's contribution comes as it becomes clear that Afghanistan's air defences have clearly not been completely neutralised. Only a week ago the Pentagon declared that US air strikes had eliminated the Taliban's capacities to retaliate. North of Kabul, two American fighter jets narrowly missed being hit by a Taliban missile.

And there is a rising wave of anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.

The Taliban say that earlier yesterday US planes hit a crowded bus and worshippers leaving a mosque. The report has not been confirmed yet.

But as more and more reports come in of injured refugees - civilians with wounds from the bombing and fighting - fleeing across the border to Pakistan, international pressure is rising.

Overnight fighter planes continued bombing Taliban positions in northern Afghanistan to ease the advance of the opposition Northern Alliance.

American warplanes have been striking Taliban positions near the former main Soviet air-base at Bagram for several days now. Northern Alliance opposition forces have welcomed the attacks which they believe may pave the way for them to take the Afghan capital, Kabul, and sever the Taliban's main lines of communication.

Defence Department officials have admitted the Taliban were proving to be "tough opponents". The Pentagon said it was taken aback by the tenacity of the Taliban as the US-led attacks continue for the third week.

The ruling Taliban have said they're arming villagers to resist U.S. ground attacks and have vowed to fight to the last man. The Taliban are reported to be moving into residential areas in order to avoid being hit.

Aid agencies' supplies ground to a halt

Aid agencies have warned that thousands of Afghans may starve, follwing reports that food supplies are running dry.

Oxfam has confirmed that its wharehouses are empty. The situation is particularly critical in rural areas. "We knew that we had run out of food about four or five days ago," an Oxfam spokesman said. However, Oxfam hopes for access to a shipment from the World Food Programme soon.

International concern is growing about the fate of ordinary people in Afghanistan. The German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder says his government is worried by the humanitarian situation.

Not only wheat and beans are needed. Winter clothes, blankets and sleeping bags must be delivered soon. When the winter snows arrive next month, temperatures will plunge.

Last winter 100 refugees froze to death in the Nauabad camp.

This year, the refugees have already made made holes in the ground to protect themselves from the frost. Agencies are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe once temperatures drop.

And one in three Afghans is now a refugee.

The United Nation has voiced further concern over unexploded munition from cluster bombs dropped by US-led forces. The UN said that villagers near the western Afghan city of Herat were trapped, and were afraid to move due to unexploded bombs.

70 % of Herat's population have left the city due to the widening use of cluster bombs.The bombs contain a large number of small bombs which are dispersed when the bomb explodes.

UN's Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan Dan Kelly has said that these could explode if touched. The United Nations has appealed for more information in order to find out how to deal with these deadly weapons and therefore "prevent further loss of human life".

Anthrax spores at Capitol particularly lethal

The CIA is the latest US institution to suffer from Anthrax attacks. Traces of anthrax have been found at a CIA mail handling facility in Washington, forcing authorities to close the building.

A CIA spokesman said tests on Thursday confirmed the result.

Three people in the US have died this month in a spate of cases involving anthrax-laced letters.

In Washington, a postal worker at the State Department has contracted the most deadly form of the disease - inhalation anthrax.

The employee worked in a State Department mail facility in a Washington suburb. It is still unclear how he came into contact with the disease. The sorting office has been sealed off, and State Department mail deliveries have been frozen.

In New York, anthrax has been detected on four mail sorting machines at a processing station that handles millions of parcels and letters a day, the US Postal Service said.

In the US, two more areas contaminated with anthrax have been found in a Senate office building in Washington, following the discovery of a letter containing anthrax spores at Senator Tom Daschle's office last week.

Medical tests on the letter have now shown the anthrax was of weapons grade quality.

Security Director Tom Ridge said the spores had been refined to make them easier to inhale and were therefore more infectious. Experts say a chemical additive used to do this was of a kind so sophisticated, it could only have been made in three countries. These include laboratories in the United States, Russia and Iraq.

The additives allow the bacteria spores to remain suspended in the air for longer, making them easier to spread and to be inhaled.

The discovery of traces of anthrax in the letter sent to Daschle led to an almost complete shutdown of Capitol activity last week.

Tighter security measures in US and Germany

The US Senate has passed a sweeping package of measures designed to strengthen the arm of law enforcement agencies in their fight against terrorism. The legislation is designed to improve the flow of information between the police and secret services.

These give law enforcement agencies sweeping powers to track and detain suspected terrorists for up to 7 days without charge. Phone tapping has now been made easier and records of e-mail usage must be given to investigators on request.

The measures also give the FBI unprecedented authority to monitor phone calls, e-mail and Internet traffic. The measures include the introduction of stiffer penalties for terrorism, for harboring terrorists and for assisting them in getting money. The Bill, passed by the House of Representatives will now go to US president George Bush who will sign it into law.

In Germany, negotiations between the partners in the coalition government are due to resume today over controversial new legislation to combat terrorism. Hour-long talks between the Green Party and the Social Democrats concluded on Thursday without agreement, but Interior Minister Otto Schily said progress had been achieved.

Schily's proposals to give expanded powers to the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation - the BKA - have come under fire from leading politicians within the Green Party and his own Social Democrat party, warning it could turn the organisation into a secret service.

Schily has now indicated he would be prepared to make compromises over the plan.

Another item up for discussion is whether physical data, such as fingerprints, should be included in identity documents.

Fischer in Middle East for talks

Israel says it will pull out of Palestinian-controlled territory it occupied in response to the assassination of a cabinet minister last week. After a meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and key cabinet members, a spokesman says the troop withdrawal could begin on Saturday. But he said it was conditional on Palestinians observing a ceasefire.

Israel's security cabinet has decided on a phased withdrawal. President Bush described the pull-out of Israeli troops from Beit Reema as a positive step. Bush had re-iterated calls for a swift end to the Israeli incursions since the begin of the Israeli occupation of six West Bank towns last week.

Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs are to meet today for US-mediated talks to coordinate the Israeli withdrawal. Israel's announcement comes amid growing international concern at the incursions, which left at least five Palestinians dead on Wednesday. As Israeli troops killed at least another four Palestinians on Thursday, international envoys were in the region to discuss the violence.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is among those to take part in the talks with Israeli and European leaders.

On Thursday, the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana welcomed the partial withdrawal which began yesterday. "This is a situation which is not compatible with the law. And I expect and I hope - as they have withdrawn today, this morning, from some of the places - that they will continue the withdrawing process," he said.

But after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Fischer's tone was less optimistic. "Given the extremely difficult and worrying situation, expectations should not be set too high".

Fischer is due to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Friday. Arafat warned on Thursday that the peace process could be on the brink of collapse.