Bin Laden videos raise new health questions

CAIRO, Egypt — Two messages from Osama bin Laden in a matter of days have revived the game of questions over his health and whereabouts, but they also made clear he is al-Qaida's propaganda "top gun," able to draw attention in the West and strike a chord among sympathizers.

In a new video released Tuesday, bin Laden's voice was heard commemorating one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and calling on young Muslims to follow his example in martyring themselves in attacks.

It came on the heels of a video released Saturday containing the first new images of the terror movement's leader in nearly three years. It showed him urging Americans to convert to Islam and railing against capitalism, globalization and democracy as failed philosophies.

U.S. intelligence agencies are poring over bin Laden's messages, looking for clues to the 50-year-old's health and location.

The images in Saturday's video were clearly recent because bin Laden mentioned British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took office in June. But because bin Laden's image moves for only a few minutes in the first tape and not at all in the second, questions are being raised about his health.

Militant group claims responsibility for plot

BERLIN — An Islamic militant group is claiming responsibility for a foiled bomb plot that targeted the U.S. military facility at Ramstein and sought to force Germany to close an air base that supports German troops in Afghanistan, the government said Tuesday.

The Interior Ministry, which is responsible for police and internal security, said the Web announcement by the Islamic Jihad Union was being treated as genuine by security officers. Three purported members were arrested Sept. 4 on suspicion of planning bombings in Germany.

The ministry said the attacks were aimed at pressing Germany to close its air base in Termez, Uzbekistan. The base near the Uzbek-Afghan border provides logistical support for the some 3,000 German soldiers serving in the international security force in Afghanistan.

1,300 pounds of explosives defused

ANKARA, Turkey — Police found and defused more than 1,300 pounds of explosives packed into a minibus parked near a marketplace Tuesday, thwarting what one official described as "a possible disaster."

Bomb experts said the materials were similar to those seized in the past from Kurdish separatists. Turkey accuses Kurdish rebels of smuggling hundreds of pounds of explosives into the country from neighboring Iraq, where the guerrillas have been based for decades.

Sniffer dogs led officers to the blue minibus parked in a multilevel parking lot just yards from a food market, authorities said.

Turkey, an ally of the United States, had increased security Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Police evacuated houses and cordoned off the area, and explosives experts defused the bomb in three hours, Police Chief Ercument Yilmaz said.

Seattle Times news services