KHARWAR, AFGHANISTAN
Search is on in eastern Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden's lieutenant
Associated Press
In the mountains and gorges of eastern Afghanistan, U.S. aircraft are hunting for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters after local Afghan commanders reported sightings of al-Qaida's second in command.
Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri reportedly was traveling on horseback with three senior clerics and 26 al-Qaida officials, all Arabs. U.S. officials, however, say there is no credible evidence al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden or his top aide is among the group.
Al-Zawahri, 50, spiritual adviser and personal physician to bin Laden, was last seen about a week ago near the site of this month's Operation Anaconda battles between U.S. troops and al-Qaida fugitives in neighboring Paktia province, according to Mohammed Momen, an Afghan intelligence officer from Gardez.
From there, Momen and other Afghan authorities believe al-Zawahri made his way to this part of eastern Afghanistan's Logar province, about 55 miles southwest of Kabul. It is a region with a long history of support for the Taliban.
"We are sure, 100 percent, they came in this direction," Momen said as his car lunged and lurched over a rock-strewn road through the Darang Gorge that leads to Kharwar -- a forlorn and parched plain flanked by snow-streaked mountains.
Overhead, a U.S. reconnaissance plane could be heard prowling the skies. Four distinctive jet streams of B-52 bombers were seen against the blue sky.
Momen said he had received word that al-Zawahri plans a meeting with his supporters sometime this week in one of three places -- Kharwar, Charkh or Sur Tangi Gorge. All are within 50 miles of each other.
At the Pentagon, U.S. military officials played down reports that al-Zawahri or bin Laden himself have been sighted. In December, U.S. officials, acting on tips from Afghan allies, said they believed bin Laden was cornered in the Tora Bora cave complex. When the area was overrun, no trace of bin Laden was found.
MERCED, CALIF.
Man kills daughter, three other children, himself in affluent suburb, deputies say
Associated Press
A man shot his 5-year-old daughter and his ex-wife's three other children to death yesterday, then turned the gun on himself while the woman was on her morning walk, authorities said.
Christine McFadden returned from her walk in an affluent suburb of Merced shortly after 7 a.m. to find her 17-year-old daughter lying dead in the hallway near her bedroom, Merced County Sheriff's Sgt. Tom Cavallero said.
McFadden called police from a neighbor's house and returned to find her three other children and her ex-husband lying in separate bedrooms dead with gunshot wounds, Cavallero said.
"It looks like they had been sleeping," Cavallero said of the children.
The man's body was found in the bed of the master bedroom, holding the 5-year-old in his arms. The others, including a 15-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy, were not his children.
The couple had been divorced for about a year and the man, whose name was not immediately released, was living in Kern County, near Bakersfield, Cavallero said.
The shooting took place in the Robinson Estates on the east side of Merced.
MESA
Accounting firm's workers defend their employer, Arthur Andersen
Associated Press
Some of Arthur Andersen's 500 workers in Phoenix are speaking out in defense of their employer.
Earlier this month, the accounting firm agreed to pay $217 million to settle lawsuits filed after the 1999 failure of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona.
Andersen also pleaded innocent to obstruction of justice charges involving its shredding of documents related to its audit of now-bankrupt Enron Corp.
Employees of Andersen's office in Phoenix were eager to voice their frustration with the indictment Monday during interviews with the East Valley Tribune.
They contend the charges can't be substantiated and that the government is taking an unwarranted step that could costs thousands of innocent people their jobs if the company goes under.
Some of the firm's Phoenix-area workers are among thousands of employees listed in a full-page ad in Monday's Wall Street Journal proclaiming "Injustice for all." Similar efforts showing employee solidarity have occurred in other major cities.
