An explosion ripped into a famous bazaar in Cairo, killing a French woman and wounding at least 21 people, most of them foreigners.

Two leading Islamic militants jailed over the 1981 killing of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat have been released after more than two decades behind bars, prison officials and lawyers said today.

Experts around the world called the videotape from Osama bin Laden a heavy-handed attempt to influence the impending US election, while warning against dismissing it as just propaganda.

Key European nations, including Iraq war opponents Germany and France, vigorously rejected a truce offer purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying there could be no negotiating with his al- Qaida terrorist network.

An audiotape said to be from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida deputy warned that the terror group would target Americans “in their homeland” and drive the military from US bases.