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Bin Laden trail runs cold

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - The trail has gone cold in the hunt for suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden three years after the audacious attacks, but the al-Qaida chief and his No. 2 are orchestrating strikes like the recent suicide car bombing of a U.S. security firm in Kabul, a top American commander said Saturday.

Maj. Gen. Eric Olson said the military had not intercepted any radio traffic or instructions from bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. But he said the involvement of well-trained foreign fighters in attacks near the Pakistani border convinced him the fugitive leaders were pulling the strings.

"What we see are their techniques and their tactics here in Afghanistan, so I think it is reasonable to assume that the senior leaders are involved in directing those operations," Olson, the operational commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, said.

CAIRO - An audiotape purportedly by key terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi boasts that Islamic holy warriors have humiliated the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

The speaker noted recent battles between American forces and militiamen loyal to a radical Shiite cleric in the holy city of Najaf, indicating it had been made recently.

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the 45-minute recording or the date it was made. The audiotape surfaced Saturday, the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, on a Web site known for Islamic content.

ATHENS, Greece - The Patriarch of Alexandria, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians in Africa, died Saturday when a helicopter taking him and fellow churchmen to a monastic enclave in northern Greece crashed into the sea, government and church officials said.

The Army helicopter, carrying 12 passengers and a four-member crew, disappeared from radar screens at 11 a.m. as it approached the monastic community of Mount Athos.

Hours later, bodies and wreckage were found about 5 miles off the coast of northern Greece, army and coast guard officials said.

Rescue workers said the body of Patriarch Petros VII of Alexandria was among seven retrieved from the wreckage. The six other recovered bodies have not been identified.

Petros, 55, was the spiritual leader of the estimated 300,000 Christian Orthodox throughout Africa, while Roman Catholics, Protestants and Coptic follow other clerical leaders.

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II discussed the U.S. sex-abuse scandal with American bishops Saturday, encouraging them to be more open to the needs of parishioners in the wake of a "crisis of confidence in the Church's leadership."

The pontiff made clear the authority of bishops was not in question, but they need to include the faithful more.

He said "a commitment to creating better structures of participation, consultation and shared responsibility should not be misunderstood as a concession to a secular "democratic' model of governance, but as an intrinsic requirement of the exercise of episcopal authority and a necessary means of strengthening that authority."