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This afternoon, Al-Qaida's As-Sahab Media Foundation has released the second audio recording of Usama Bin Laden in the space of only three days--this time, openly addressed "to the Islamic nation." But, perhaps what is most interesting about Bin Laden's latest set of audio recordings is not what they contain--but rather, what they inexplicably lack: the English-language subtitles and matching transcript that have, until recently, been a customary feature of professional-quality As-Sahab videos. An analysis of the history of As-Sahab recordings and their evolution over time would seem to indicate that the responsibility for creating these English-language products fell largely on...

Excerpt - DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape marking Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations to continue the fight against the Jewish state and its allies and not give up an inch of Palestinian land. "We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on earth," the al Qaeda leader said in the tape posted on an Islamist website on Friday. Bin Laden said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at the heart of...

HAVANA - Fidel Castro looked frail but alert and even playful in a series of official photographs taken during a meeting with Brazil's president on Tuesday, the first images of the ailing Cuban leader released in about three months. Wearing a tracksuit and tennis shoes that have become his trademark since he fell ill, Castro is seen seated and grinning, his beard well-trimmed and his hair combed as he talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In some images, Castro is seen pretending to snap pictures with a camera. The pictures were given to reporters as Brazil's leader left...

LEFTIST leaders and sympathisers marked the 40th anniversary of the death of revolutionary icon Ernesto Che Guevara today in Cuba, where he is buried, and Bolivia, where he was killed in 1967. Cuba's Acting President, Raul Castro, led the main event under a giant bronze statue of the guerrilla fighter in the town of Santa Clara, some 300 kilometres (186 miles) east of Havana. Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, 81, was absent, but a homage he penned was read in public. The Argentine-born doctor-turned-guerrilla was "a flower torn up prematurely by the stem. I bow my head to pay tribute...

Krawetz says the inner frame of bin Laden was resaved at least twice, and not at the same time. The images show fine horizontal stripes on bin Laden and a background indicating these came from interlaced video sources. In contrast, the text elements, such as the As-Sahab logo, appear to be from non-interlaced sources. The September 7 video shows bin Laden dressed in a white hat, white shirt and yellow sweater. Krawetz notes "this is the same clothing he wore in the 2004-10-29 video. In 2004 he had it unzipped, but in 2007 he zipped up the bottom half. Besides...

(CNN) -- A new video purportedly featuring an introduction from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared on the Internet Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. In the video's introduction, a voice identified as bin Laden's praises 9/11 hijacker Waleed al-Shehri, from Saudi Arabia. He sat in seat 2B on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into World Trade Center's north tower.

Osama Bin Laden's widely reported video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary...

(CBS) "People of America," he says, "lend me your ears." So says the most wanted man in the world, Osama bin Laden, appearing in a new videotape which has surfaced nearly six years after the attacks of September 11, 2001. In it, he rails against Western corporations, neoconservatives, and Democrats in Congress, telling Americans they had voted for Democrats to stop the war, but in his words, the majority party hasn’t made a move worth mentioning. CBS News consultant Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst and author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror" and...

Egypt (AP) - Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden plans a new video addressing the American people regarding the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, terror monitoring groups said Thursday. SITE Intelligence Group said an Internet announcement of the plan included a photo of the al-Qaida leader from the upcoming video—his beard, which in previous messages had been streaked with gray, was entirely dark.

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My cellphone has not stopped ringing for the past ten minutes. Various sources inform that an announcement will come within the next few minutes from the Cuban government on Cuban TV and media. Stay tuned and we'll see if we've been manipulated once again or if today is the birth date of Cuba's liberty. Update: Here's the deal and what I know up to now, as of 1500 hours, August 24, 2007: First, South Florida Law Enforcement is on alert. An EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been set-up and manned somewhere in Homestead. Im also told Local and State government...

Tehran, 30 April (AKI) - The culture committee of the Iranian parliament approved on Monday a bill sentencing to death producers of 'pornography', videos and films deemed vulgar by the country's censorship. The draft law will now go to parliament where it is expected to be approved by an ample majority. Amateur porn films have a properous market in Iran and can fetch up to 30 euros each. The market, tolerated for a long time, became a nationwide issue earlier this year after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner, was released.

Sayyaf chief dies while in Navy’s custody An alleged Abu Sayyaf leader reportedly died while in the custody of naval personnel in Zamboanga City, where he was brought for interrogation, a military officer said Saturday. The officer, who requested not to be named, said Tandico Saddae reportedly succumbed in a hospital in Zamboanga, where he was brought after complaining of chest pains Friday night. Saddae reportedly tried to escape by jumping from a Navy ship while being brought to Zamboanga from Tawi-Tawi, where he was arrested.“He jumped after asking his guard to [untie] him so could pray. He tried to...

A new statement by al Qaeda's No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, will be posted on the Internet soon, according to a banner on a militant Islamist Web site. It will be Zawahri's third statement this year alone, in sharp contrast to the fact that nothing has been heard from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden since an audiotape released last July. "It raises speculation that bin Laden may be dead or incapacitated," Middle East political analyst Salameh Nematt told ABC News. The statement is entitled "Lessons, Examples and Great Events in the Year 1427" (the Islamic year that ended...

THE United States believes Osama bin Laden is still alive, but intelligence on the al-Qaeda mastermind has gone "cold". The former comander of US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry told CNN: "Our working assumption is that Osama bin Laden is alive." But asked whether he knew where bin Laden was located, Lt. Eikenberry said: "The intelligence has gone cold on Osama bin Laden." "The search for Bin Laden will continue because this man has committed mass crimes and atrocities against the American people," he said. "Our military will not rest until that man is found, captured or killed,"...

His poem "Woman In The Window" is set to music and will be released as a single in April. Rock legend Jim Morrison is helping the fight against global warming from beyond the grave, with the release of a song he wrote. Environmental campaigners have taken a poem, "Woman In The Window," written by Morrison shortly before he died in 1971, and set it to music, with the help of New Order and former Jane's Addiction star Perry Farrell. The track was given to Farrell by the Jim Morrison estate. It will be released as a single in April. Dan...

Late Doors frontman Jim Morrison is to make an unlikely comeback - an unreleased song featuring the rocker has been found. "Woman in the Window" will be featured on a forthcoming album by rockers Satellite Party. The new song will feature both Morrison and vocals from Satellite Party. An industry insider says, "To hear Morrison performing on a new track is obviously going to be a dream come true for fans. It's being tipped as a massive hit." The icon died of heart failure in 1971, at age 27.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro has long prided himself on Cuba's doctors and free public health care system, but that system seems to have let him down after he fell ill in July , U.S.-based doctors said on Tuesday. Based on a report in Tuesday's edition of Spain's El Pais newspaper, the doctors -- who have no first-hand knowledge of Castro's condition -- said Castro had received questionable or even botched care at the hands of health experts on his communist-ruled island. "It's not a good story. Too bad they didn't send him to Miami for surgery," said...

Nothing follows ... No mention on any other major news sites.

SADDAM HANGS Just in time for Eid, the Iraqis decided Saddam Hussein was one old acquaintance who really should be forgot. Despite The New York Times’ protests that it’s all been too rushed, it’s three years since the mass murderer was pulled from his spider hole. Here’s what I wrote in The Spectator in December 2003, outlining the possible approaches to the trial: In a nutshell: A courtroom in Baghdad: good. A courtroom in The Hague: bad. Iraqi and coalition judges: good. International jet-set judges: bad. Swift execution: good. Playing Scrabble with Slobo in the prison library for the next...