20 March 2004	Saturday	28 Muharram 1425

WASHINGTON, March 19: The United States has doubled the reward for Osama bin Laden's capture to $50 million as officials in Washington wait for news from South Waziristan where the Pakistan Army has cornered a group of Al Qaeda fighters.

As the US media bombarded audience throughout the United States with the news that bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman Al Zawahiri has been cornered in South Waziristan, the US administration approached the information with caution. From President George W. Bush to government spokesmen, all tried not to raise people's hopes.

And as people in the street were waiting for the news of Zawahiri's capture, the US House of Representatives quietly doubled the reward for bin Laden. The bipartisan motion was adopted unanimously.

The bill, which was passed 414-0, now goes to the Senate. The legislation also amends a 1956 law to raise the maximum amount of terrorist and narco-terrorist rewards from $5 million to $25 million.

The legislation gives the State Department flexibility to give out vehicles, appliances and other goods and to explore ways to best publicise the rewards programme.

The FBI already has placed a $25 million bounty on Zawahiri, who has been indicted in the United States for his alleged role in the August 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.