GOOD NEWS...

Unless your name is John Kerry...

A son of Osama bin Laden's deputy has given crucial information on the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leaders after being captured by Pakistani forces in a lawless frontier area close to Afghanistan, intelligence officials in Islamabad have revealed.

Ayman al-Zawahiri's son, Khalid, was seized with 20 other suspected foreign militants in a raid by Pakistan's security forces in the remote South Waziristan area 10 days ago, officials said.

Information gleaned from him by interrogators has helped direct Pakistani and US forces in their drive to capture bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda figures, being conducted in the mountainous areas on both sides of the border.

The authorities in Islamabad are unwilling to announce formally the capture of the younger al-Zawahiri, but officials have confirmed privately that he is being questioned by officers from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA at a secret location in Pakistan...

They say recent sweeps by British and US special forces in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan have been linked to disclosures made by Khalid al-Zawahiri and others, including his wife, captured with him in raids on houses in Azam Warak, 15 kilometres from Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.

Pakistani security forces also recovered ammunition, passports, video cassettes and literature belonging to the al-Qaeda terrorist network in the raids in the frontier area. Al-Zawahiri is said to have been in touch with his father recently.

Hundreds of troops from Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps, backed by helicopter gunships, have been in the area to tackle the foreign militants and either capture bin Laden or drive him across the Afghan border into American hands.