Taliban: Bin Laden is doing just fine

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden is doing just fine, Taliban sources said.

Arab and Afghan sources have denied media reports that Bin Laden is dying of kidney failure. Bin Laden has sought refuge in the Taliban area of Afghanistan.

The sources said Bin Laden rides horses several hours daily with his sons and associates. They said he recently opened a riding club.

The reports of Bin Laden's illness, the sources said, is part of a campaign of psychological warfare against Bin Laden. They said in 1998 a recruit in Bin Laden's Al Quaida group tried to poison the Saudi. He was imprisoned and later executed.

Last November, the Taliban also arrested a Jordanian national, Abu Mubtasim, suspected of sending reports of Bin Laden's whereabouts to an Arab intelligence agency. After he was interrogated, the Taliban closed all training camps for non-Afghan militants and move them to one large camp near Kabul. The Afghan Defense Ministry also investigated the non-Afghans associated with Bin Laden.