Afghanistan's Taliban Education Minister has said that Osama bin Laden cannot launch hostile acts from Afghan soil. However, he will be allowed to continue to issue statements.
This apparently contradicts an earlier statement from the Taliban, saying that all restrictions on bin Laden had been lifted and that he was free to wage a holy war against the United States.
Earlier, speaking through an interpreter, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said that Americans would not be safe as long as they were shedding the blood of Afghans.
Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network issued a defiant statement, calling on Muslims to join what it called a "holy war" against the United States.
A spokesman praised last month's terrorist attacks in the United States and warned that Al-Qaeda would bring its battle to what he called the heart of America.
The pre-recorded statement was broadcast by the Gulf-based television station Al-Jareeza. The Al-Qaeda spokesman, Sulaiman Bu Ghaith, is wanted in his homeland, Kuwait, where he was a prayer leader. He had appeared with Osama Bin Laden in a previous video issued last Sunday.
The White House responded by saying the statement did nothing but bolster its view that the group must be eradicated.
The United Nations has meanwhile said that the Taliban regime has been beating local UN staff employed to clear the country of land mines.
In another development, the Taliban authorities have charged a French journalist and his two Pakistani guides with spying. Michel Peyrard of Paris Match was arrested yesterday.
The Taliban intelligence chief again warned that journalists who enter Afghanistan illegally would be treated as US soldiers.
