World in brief

Bin Laden tape authentic, recent, CIA says

WASHINGTON - Osama bin Laden, by referring to recent events in his latest taped message, showed he was alive in the not-too-distant past, U.S. officials said Monday. It was the strongest evidence in months that bin Laden retains command of the al-Qaida network.

Officials with the Central Intelligence Agency said they believed the audio recording of bin Laden, aired Saturday on Arabic al-Jazeera television, was probably authentic. They reached the conclusion after technical analysis in which experts compared the voice to known recordings of the terrorist leader.

Bin Laden made several references in the message that suggested it was recorded in the past several months. For example, he spoke of the government of former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who served from April until Sept. 6. Bin Laden called Abbas' government "a traitor and collaborator government" with the United States.

Since late 2001, U.S. intelligence officials have said they believed bin Laden was in the mountainous region along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They have not believed rumors of his death or severe illness and are still trying to find and capture him.

TEHRAN, Iran - The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany are expected to hold talks this morning in Tehran with President Mohammad Khatami.

The United Nations nuclear agency has given Iran until the end of October to suspend its uranium enrichment programs and sign an additional protocol for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which would allow more aggressive inspections of Iran's nuclear sites.

The New York Times, quoting unnamed Western diplomats in Tehran, reported that the foreign ministers would be unlikely to visit unless they had received assurance from Iran that it intended to comply with the deadline for signing the protocol, set last month in a resolution of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's new president urged the nation's Indians to be patient Monday, pledging to fulfill many of their demands if they give him time to address the problems facing the country after weeks of fierce demonstrations.

President Carlos Mesa addressed tens of thousands of Indians, mainly laborers and peasants, in a La Paz plaza after they marched from nearby El Alto, the epicenter of weeks of rioting that killed at least 65 people and forced the resignation of the former president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Nicholas weakened significantly Monday in the Atlantic Ocean, remaining well away from land, forecasters said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Nicholas had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph, down about 10 mph from earlier in the day, the National Hurricane Center said. More weakening was expected and the storm could be downgraded to a depression today.

The storm was near 18.2 north latitude, 49.3 west longitude, or 790 miles east of the Leeward Islands, and was moving west-northwest near 7 mph.

ULSTER VOTE: Northern Ireland voters may learn within the next two days whether they will get a chance to vote to revive a Catholic-Protestant administration for the British territory, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said Monday. Leaders hope an election for the province's now-empty legislature can proceed next month.

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