Arab TV station airs Bin Laden and al Qaeda tapes

An al Qaeda audio tape purported to have clips of Osama bin Laden praising hijackers he trained for changing "the face of history" when they flew airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon was played Monday by Arab station Al-Jazeera, according to CNN.com. "There aren't enough words to describe how great these men were and how great their deeds were," bin Laden said. Although the tape left no doubt that al Qaeda was behind the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 there was little evidence as to when the tape was recorded. Al-Jazeera also showed an al Qaeda video of the hijackers, where Abdulaziz Alomari, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which flew into the north tower of the World Trade Center said, "We will get you. We will humiliate you. We will never stop following you." There was evidence that the video was dubbed after the attacks, according to CNN.com, because there was imagery of the attacks in it. Al-Jazeera did not specify how it obtained the tapes, saying only that it received them on Monday. U.S. authorities have said that they are unsure whether bin Laden is alive. Sources have told CNN that bin Laden is wounded but alive in Pakistan.

National: Washington, D.C.

U.S. violent crime at lowest point since tracking began

National violent crime statistics fell in 2001 to their lowest rates since statistics were first tracked in 1973, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey and The New York Times. The number of people who were victims of all violent crimes except homicide fell by nine percent in 2001. The drop was primarily due to a record low number of reported assaults, the most common form of violent crime, according to The Times. The survey is based on interviews with victims and thus does not include homicide. Preliminary figures from another F.B.I. report reflected a 3.1 percent increase in homicides in 2001. Experts believe the low crime rate is directly correlated with the strong economy of the 1990s and tougher sentencing laws-citing violent crime's overall decrease of nearly 50 percent since 1993. Assault was down 10 percent, but injuries increased by 13 percent. The share of violent crimes involving guns held steady at about 26 percent. Rape fell eight percent and sexual assaults, which include verbal threats and groping, fell 20 percent, according to the report.

Local: Boston, Massachusetts

Call to abolish Mass. Turnpike Authority from within

A member of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board called for the agency's abolition on Friday. "It's time to phase out the Turnpike Authority," Jordan Levy said to the Associated Press. "I am convinced that would be in the best interest of the Turnpike Authority and save taxpayers many millions of dollars ... It's time that we take this antique apart." The state legislature is also usurping much of the board's power with recent mandates of permanent toll discounts, according to The Daily Hampshire Gazette. The Turnpike Authority currently oversees the Big Dig, the Massachusetts Turnpike and the portion of Interstate 90 that runs the length of the state, but Levy believes that the state Highway Department should handle those responsibilities. House Transportation Committee Chairman Joseph Sullivan said the board should be given time. The idea of abolishing the Turnpike Authority isn't new and it has been revived in the gubernatorial campaign. Several candidates, including Republican Mitt Romney and Democrats Robert Reich and Warren Tolman, have suggested handing some or all of the Turnpike Authority's responsibilities to the Highway Department, according to The Gazette.