The New Nation - Internet Edition

Laden warning

WASHINGTON : Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden warned Muslims against supporting Iraq's US-backed government and promised the "liberation of Palestine," in a new online message issued Saturday. In the 56-minute tape, the hunted militant accused the United States of seeking to control the region through the Iraqi government, according to SITE, a US-based institute that monitors extremist web forums. He singled out Iraqis fighting against Al-Qaeda in Anbar province, and the Islamic Party of Iraq, a political group allied with the government, saying that Muslims supporting it are traitors to Islam, the monitor said in a report. "The group is assisting the Americans in Iraq" and "fighting against the mujahideen" Islamist warriors, Bin Laden said, according to an excerpt translated from the Arabic by SITE.

Pilgrims stranded

in Red Sea

BBC Online: Some 2,000 Palestinians returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca are stranded on two boats off the Egyptian coast. Egypt is insisting that they must re-enter Gaza through Aouja, a border crossing controlled by Israel. The group is thought to include senior members of the militant organisation Hamas, and Israel believes some of them may attempt to smuggle funds into Gaza. Hamas believes that if the pilgrims travel through Aouja, Israel will arrest the Hamas members. Senior Hamas officials have accused Egypt of bowing to Israeli pressure by refusing to let the pilgrims cross into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, which is the only entry-point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. "We are aware of the Israeli and American pressures on Egypt, and we urge Egypt to reject these pressures and to allow the pilgrims a safe return through Rafah," Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters.