Al-Qaida No.2 Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Muslims to step up their resistance against the US, in a video aired by CNN early today on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Pakistan has told the US military that an Arab al-Qaida operative who masterminded the London jetliner terror plot is hiding in mountainous terrain in north-eastern Afghanistan, an intelligence official said today.

A leader of an Egyptian militant group denied yesterday that it had joined al-Qaida, saying the majority of its members are sticking by a truce they declared almost a decade ago.

Al-Jazeera Arab satellite network said today that it would broadcast excerpts of a new videotape by Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaida’s No. 2 leader.

Osama bin Laden may no longer have operational control of his terror network, the US ambassador to Pakistan told a gathering of local journalists today, according to two Pakistani television channels.

Muslim scholars in Baghdad tonight expressed doubts that two Italian women aid workers had been murdered.

A tape purportedly recorded by Ayman al-Zawahri, the number two in the al-Qaida terror group, called Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a traitor today and urged people to get rid of his government.

OSAMA BIN LADEN'S right-hand man has warned the US to prepare for more al-Qaida attacks.

Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera broadcast video footage of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, while an accompanying audio tape attributed to al-Zawahri called on Iraqi guerrillas to “bury” American troops in Iraq.

AN audio tape of Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida's fugitive second in command, appears to be genuine and to have been recorded in the last few weeks, a US official said yesterday.

In an autobiography that some describe as his last testament, Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant wrote he may not get another chance to speak out because of ‘‘troubled circumstances’’.

The Taliban are prepared to put Osama bin Laden on trial. They want the US to provide proof of his involvement in the September 11 terrorist attacks.