Al-Qaeda's number 2 threatens Britain in new audio tape

Al-Qaeda's No. 2 issued a new audiotape on Tuesday threatening to retaliate against Britain for having honored novelist Salman Rushdie, a US-based intelligence monitoring group said.

Ayman al-Zawahri's 20 minute speech was entitled "Malicious Britain and its Indian Slaves." It was produced by as-Sahab, the multimedia wing of al-Qaeda, to be distributed to extremist web sites, said the US-based SITE intelligence group, which monitors al-Qaeda messages. The authenticity of the tape could not be independently confirmed. (AP)