What the world is reading

Michael Hudson talks about how bin Ladens death may not be the end of al Qaeda,as actors with smaller roles look to stage further violent scenes. Hudson writes that Osamas sympathisers see his bloody demise at the hands of US agents intruding in a Muslim land,as a heroic death. Could this over-the-hill actor gain a new lease on lifein death? Let us not forget the sources of bin Ladens popularity,because they are still there8230;there might be a new,unknown,actor out there somewhere,with Ladens charisma,who might pick up his script and stage new and bloody spectacles.

Los Angeles Times

Al Qaedas bad year

Al Qaeda is having a very bad year and the death of Osama isnt the worst of it,says Doyle McManus. The biggest potential blow is the spread of democratic politics in the Arab world and if it succeeds,al Qaeda will be deprived of its reason for being. In 2001,when he held the United States and Europe in a state of terror,Laden was a hero to a sizable fringe of Muslims frustrated by their countries stagnant politics. But by the time he died this week,the Saudi-born terrorist had become little more than an object of curiosity, writes McManus.

Der Spiegel

Death comes 10 years too late

Bin Ladens death will not provide a happy ending for Americas tale of woe as it is no longer the country it was before 9/11, writes Gregor Peter Schmitz in Der Spiegel. The search for Laden has come at a cost. At least 3,000 people died at the hands of him but Washington didnt just begin a search for a criminal and launched one of the largest campaigns for retribution in history. On the American side,there were about 6,000 dead US soldiers and 1.3 trillion in new federal debtattributed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps the decade would have gone a little differently,if US soldiers had killed Laden in the caves of Tora Bora in 2001, writes Schmitz.

Time

Ladens great mistake

Osama bin Ladens goal on September 11,2011,wasnt merely to murder as many innocent Americans as possible. He believed al Qaeda could bleed America into bankruptcy, writes Romesh Ratnesar. The war on terror did run up a huge bill,says Ratnesar,but US remains the worlds most powerful,prosperous nation,while bin Laden swims with sharks.