1.   An Afghan defense official said Thursday night that Osama bin Laden had escaped the country and was hiding in the mountainous border region of Pakistan.

2.   American and NATO officials are already working to reduce the flow of arms to the guerrillas from Albania and are using sophisticated surveillance techniques along the mountainous border.

3.   But they insisted that there be no American bombing attacks or commando raids launched from their territory, which shares a narrow mountainous border with northern Afghanistan.

4.   But the pullout has raised concern about whether Israel will be able to protect the mountainous border, which it is hurriedly is trying to fortify.

5.   In Afghanistan, a British-led effort, dubbed Operation Snipe, is under way along the mountainous border with Pakistan.

6.   Its mountainous border with China, plus the fact that Lake Issyk-Kul was used as a secret testing ground for torpedoes, made it a highly sensitive area.

7.   Muhammad Arif, a penniless refugee from Kabul who crossed the mountainous Pakistani border earlier this week, does not.

8.   On Wednesday, Rumsfeld said Pakistani forces along the mountainous border had captured hundreds of non-Afghan al-Qaida and Taliban fighters fleeing Afghanistan in the past few days.

9.   Pakistani troops in the mountainous border area near the recent U.S. battle in Afghanistan have arrested seven suspected al-Qaida fighters, Pakistani officials said on Tuesday.

10.   Russian NTV television showed footage of Serb artillery blasting at villages in the mountainous border area.