Audio massage by "Bin Laden"

An audio message (about 10 minutes long) released by Osama Bin Laden on an Islamist website two days ago.

Bin Laden has avoided capture since

the 2001 attacks on the US

The message, entitled "a statement to the American people", was about 10 minutes long and was accompanied by a still image of Bin Laden but no video. 

In the message, a voice tells the US president that he is "powerless" to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The message comes just two days after the US marked the eighth anniversary of the 11 September attacks on America. 

'No real change'

In the recording, the voice discusses what motivated the al-Qaeda network to launch the 11 September attacks. He explaining that they were, in part, fuelled by US support for Israel. 

"The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby," the voice in the tape says. 

"The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in Palestine." 

The voice believed to be Bin Laden also speaks of how the conflict between al-Qaeda and the US may end. 

"If you stop the war, then fine. Otherwise we will have no choice but to continue our war of attrition on every front [...] If you choose safety and stopping wars, as opinion polls show you do, then we are ready to respond to this," it says. 

In the message, the al-Qaeda leader accuses the new president of failing to fundamentally change foreign policy because of his decision to retain key figures from the previous administration, including Defence Secretary Robert Gates. 

"If you think about your situation well, you will know that the White House is occupied by pressure groups," he says. 

Bin Laden is thought to be hiding in mountainous terrain on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. 

In his last known message, in June, Bin Laden had said that US President Barack Obama had planted the seeds of "revenge and hatred" towards the US in the Muslim world.

Staph bacteria found at West Coast beaches

for the first time the Dangerous staph bacteria have been found at five public beaches along the coast of Washington. Scientists and specialists think that this is not the only one state  with this problem.

Reuters – An employee displays a bacteria strain inside a

petri dish containing agar jelly for bacterial culture

The germ causes nasty skin infections as well as pneumonia and other life-threatening problems. It spreads mostly through human contact. Little is known about environmental sources that also may harbor the germ.

Finding it at the beach suggests one place that people may be picking it up, said Marilyn Roberts, a microbiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"We don't know the risk" for any individual going to a beach, she said. "But the fact that we found these organisms suggests that the level is much higher than we had thought."

She presented results Saturday at an American Society for Microbiology conference in California. Last year, her team reported finding a different type of bacteria, enterococci, at five West Coast beaches. And earlier this year, University of Miami researchers reported finding staph bacteria in four out of 10 ocean water samples collected by hundreds of bathers at a South Florida beach.

Many communities also commonly restrict bathing at beaches because of contamination with fecal bacteria.

In the new study, researchers tested 10 beaches in Washington along the West Coast and in Puget Sound from February to September 2008. Staph bacteria were found at nine of them, including five with MRSA. The strains resembled the highly resistant ones usually seen in hospitals, rather than the milder strains acquired in community settings, Roberts said.

No staph was found in samples from two beaches in southern California.

People should not avoid beaches or be afraid to enjoy them, scientists say.

Needle attacks in China

In China's far western region the needle attacks appeared to spread. The authorities arrested nine new suspects in three cities, officials said Friday.

Chinese paramilitary police patrol through the center of

the city in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, Monday

The suspects were recently detained in the Xinjiang region cities of Hotan, Altay, and Kashgar in connection with alleged attacks involving hypodermic needles, a press officer at the Xinjiang government press center in the provincial capital Urumqi said Friday. He declined to give his name as is customary or provide more details.

Since last week, more than 500 people in Urumqi have reported attacks, though only about 100 showed evidence of being pricked. The bizarre stabbings led to mass demonstrations by tens thousands of Han Chinese earlier this month against what they said was a government that can't guarantee their safety.

The needle assaults have aggravated tensions in the restive western region of Xinjiang where ethnic riots in July left nearly 200 dead. The violence exposed the long-term rifts between Muslim Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic minority group, and the Han Chinese, who are the majority group in China.

A staffer surnamed Li at the propaganda department of the Communist Party in Kashgar confirmed that people had reported cases but said none showed any evidence of a syringe attack.

"As of now, according to the diagnoses, we haven't confirmed any syringe attacks yet. Most of them only felt some sudden pain when they were walking in the crowd, and some of them felt they'd been tapped on the body. But the doctors and medical examiners did not find any signs of a hypodermic attack on their bodies," he said.

The official China Daily reported out of 19 reported attacks in the three cities, only six were confirmed.

Calls to the city governments in Kashgar, Altay and Hotan were not answered Friday.

Reports of the needle attacks emerged several weeks ago though the size and scale remain unclear. None of the reported victims have suffered from illness, poisoning or other effects. Officials and state media have repeatedly blamed the attacks on separatists bent on destroying ethnic unity.

Rioting in early July by the minority Muslim Uighurs, followed by revenge attacks by Han Chinese, was the worst ethnic unrest in China in more than a decade.

On Friday, two well-known bloggers published accounts of at least two Uighurs being beaten, one of them fatally, last week by Han Chinese, and called on state-run media to provide more balanced reporting of the events.

On his Web site, economist and professor Ilham Tohti — who was detained earlier this year for writing about the reasons behind the ethnic strife in Xinjiang — posted a report on the Sept. 3 beating of local journalist Kaynam Jappar by six or seven Han Chinese men near his home in Urumqi.

In addition, Tibetan writer and blogger Woeser posted on her Web site an account of the beating death of Uighur singer Mirzat Alim, 43, on Sept 2., after being attacked by an armed group near his home.

Calls to the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau rang unanswered. It was impossible to confirm either attack independently.

Top Taliban leader arrested with four militants

In north-west Pakistan One of  Taliban leaders  has been arrested with four other militants, officials say.

Muslim Khan was articulate and skilled in handling the media

Mmuslim Khan was a key spokesman for the Taliban in the Swat valley as well as one of the most senior militant commanders in the region. 

The army recently staged an offensive in Swat, which it declared a success. 

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says this is a milestone for the army's operation there. 

One of the chief criticisms of the operation had been that it had failed to net the top Taliban leadership, our correspondent says. These are the first significant arrests.

The whereabouts and fate of the Taliban leader in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, are unknown. 

After reports that Maulana Fazlullah was close to death earlier this year having being seriously wounded, it was Muslim Khan that contacted the BBC to say the Taliban chief was "alive and healthy". 

Muslim Khan is one of the most recognised faces of the Taliban in the Swat valley. 

He frequently spoke to journalists on behalf of Maulana Fazlullah. He was articulate and skilled in handling the media, our correspondent says. 

The widely travelled Muslim Khan speaks English fairly well and also gave interviews in Arabic. 

He spent two years as a seaman with a British shipping company in the 1970s and lived in the US in the late 1990s, where he worked as a house painter.

The latest fighting in the Swat valley began in April when Pakistani Taliban forces expanded their operations into districts only 96km (60 miles) from the capital. 

Under the terms of a peace deal, militants were expected to disarm in exchange for the implementation of Sharia law throughout the Malakand division, which includes Swat valley.

The army accused the Taliban of reneging on the deal. As the fighting intensified some two million people were displaced. 

Although many have returned, there is still unrest and bloodshed in the troubled district. Fighting is still reportedly continuing in isolated pockets. 

And in recent weeks, more than 200 corpses have been found across the valley. 


The killings have been carried out execution-style and the bodies are believed to be of suspected Taliban militants. 

Security forces have strenuously denied carrying out extrajudicial killings as part of their anti-Taliban offensive. They claim local residents are behind the attacks. 

While this remains unconfirmed, local residents have formed tribal militias to take on militants in what correspondents say is a new development for the region. 

In early September, members of a local tribal militia killed three suspected insurgents. 

The army has been encouraging the voluntary tribal fighting forces, which exist in other parts of north-west Pakistan.

The people of USA rmember the misserable hijacked plane attacks of 11 September 2001 & held the Eighth anniversary of this attack in USA.

Traditional ceremonies and a national day of service will remember the victims of the attacks

Nearly 3,000 people died when the four planes crashed in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field. 

President Barack Obama will speak at the Pentagon site and Americans have been encouraged to contribute to a national day of service. 

US soldiers in Afghanistan completed a 9.11km (5.5 mile) run to mark the day.

Traditional ceremonies including moments of silence and the reading of the names of the victims will take place at the sites of the attacks. 

President Obama will join defence secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon, where 184 people died, to meet members of victims' families and lay a wreath.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president would "speak about what the day means and the sacrifices of thousands, not just at the Pentagon, but in Pennsylvania and certainly and most obviously in New York". 

On Thursday, Mr Obama issued a statement urging Americans to take part in community service while also vowing to "apprehend all those who perpetrated these heinous crimes, seek justice for those who were killed, and defend against all threats to our national security". 

Vice-President Joe Biden will attend the New York ceremony. 

There will be four moments of silence there - one each for the times the two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers and for the collapse of the buildings. 

Volunteers who helped in the aftermath of the attacks will join family members in reading the more than 2,700 names of the victims. 

The BBC's Matthew Price in New York says the Ground Zero area remains a building site, despite plans for a memorial, a museum and five new skyscrapers.

Ground Zero is still a building site eight years after the attacks

Delays caused by political arguments and financial and legal disputes have left huge question marks over the entire project, he says. 

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell will speak at the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

The names of the 40 passengers and crew will be read to mark the time of the crash - 1003. 

In a break with tradition, the anniversary has also been designated a national day of service. 

Americans have been encouraged to contribut their labour and time in memory of the victims. 

Conservation projects, aid packages for serving soldiers and the simple offering of work for free are among the undertakings made by members of the public. 

However, some commentators and members of victims' families have expressed concern that the remembrance may lose its primary focus. 

Debra Burlingame, whose brother died at the Pentagon, told Associated Press news agency: "I greatly fear at some point we'll transition to turning it into Earth Day where we go and plant trees and the remembrance part will become smaller." 

About 1,000 US troops in Afghanistan marked the anniversary with a 9.11km run at the main Bagram base in Kabul. Two other bases also took part. 

The 9/11 attacks sparked the US-led invasion in October 2001 to oust the Taliban and tackle al-Qaeda leaders living in Afghanistan. 

A formal commemoration service will take place later to coincide with the time of the New York attacks.

Good news about swine flu

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,

second from right, speaks as Mayo Clinic Vaccine

Australian and U.S. researchers said Thursday, One dose of the new swine flu vaccine can protect adults and can spark protection within 10 days of the shot. So its a good news in the flu fight world.

Australian shot maker CSL Ltd. published results of a study that found between 75 percent and 96 percent of vaccinated people should be protected with one dose — the same degree of effectiveness as the regular winter flu shot. That's remarkable considering scientists thought it would take two doses.U.S. data to be released Friday confirm those findings, and show the protection starts rapidly, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told The Associated Press.

"This is quite good news," Fauci said.

The dose question has an important ramification: It means people will have to line up for influenza vaccinations twice this year instead of three times — once for the regular winter flu shot and a second time to be inoculated against swine flu, what doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain.

Thursday's swine flu vaccine reports center on adults; studies in children aren't finished yet.

But scientists had feared that people of all ages would need two shots about a month apart because the new H1N1 strain is so genetically different from normally circulating flu strains that most of the population has little if any immunity.

Some one told to Obama 'You lie'

When president 'Barack Obama' said he had never proposed providing coverage to illegal immigrants, some one shouted, 'You lie'.

Though President Obama has formally accepted the apology of Joe "You lie!" Wilson, the fallout from the emotional outburst continues to ripple across the nation, even raising doubts about the Republican congressman's political future.

Ninety minutes after Obama finished his address, the South Carolina representative—who yelled out "You lie!" after the president said he had never proposed providing coverage to illegal immigrants—issued a statement explaining he "let my emotions get the best of me." According to the congressman's office, Wilson also made a personal phone call to the White House in hopes of apologizing to Obama himself, but instead had to express his apologies to gatekeeper Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.