U.S. Marines based at the Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan moved to a state of heightened alert following what officials said was a possible threat during the Christmas holidays.
An Anti-Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan said his troops had detained Anwar Gul, a commander with alleged close ties to bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. Anti-Taliban commanders said most of the caves in the Tora Bora region, which was at the center of the hunt for bin Laden, had been searched. 
Pakistan detained a prominent anti-India militant leader, Maulana Azhar Masood, at his house today as the two South Asian countries hovered on the brink of a war following the Dec. 13 attack on the Indian parliament, which killed 14 people. India has demanded that Pakistan arrest Islamic militants operating in the disputed Kashmir region.
U.S. military sources told ABCNEWS that depleted uranium had been found in an underground bunker near Kandahar airport. U.S. officials are now trying to determine if anyone had been trying to use it to make some kind of "dirty bomb," which is designed to disperse radiation over a large area.
In a widely hailed diplomatic move in the capital of Kabul, Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's newly sworn in interim prime minister, announced the appointment of controversial warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum as deputy defense minister on Monday. The announcement suggests General Dostum, who had expressed reservations about the political solution agreed for Afghanistan, is now supporting the new government.
