Images of Osama bin Laden allegedly filmed in December and shots of Muslim fighters killed by American bombs were broadcast yesterday across the Middle East on a Saudi-owned satellite station that says it received an al-Qaida videotape.

The tape, televised by the Middle East Broadcast Corp., could be a copy of one previewed Tuesday on Al-Jazeera. Both tapes are compilations of various clips, including undated material, narration, graphics and news footage of the World Trade Center towers collapsing on Sept. 11. On Tuesday Al-Jazeera aired excerpts of its tape, including one that showed bin Laden sitting next to his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri. MBC's tape included the same excerpt.

MBC Chief Editor Nakhle al-Haj said the tape obtained by his station "best shows al-Qaida's involvement in masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks." Al-Haj wouldn't say when or how the tape was obtained.

In clips MBC said were taken in December, bin Laden appeared in good health wearing a brown gown and a white headscarf. He is heard saying the Sept. 11 attacks cost the United States $1 trillion, describing the 19 hijackers as "our brothers, the martyrs" and calling the attacks the "blessed operations."

The MBC tape also includes clips of al-Qaida spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith and al-Qaida military chief Mohammed Atef, who is believed to have been killed in an airstrike near Kabul in November.

Other segments include photographs of the bodies of young men laid out neatly on blankets. A narrator identifies them by aliases and their home countries. None appeared to be prominent al-Qaida members.

Two former owners of more than 50 Days Inn hotels nationwide have been charged with defrauding banks by pretending to be too broke to pay off debts while leading luxurious lifestyles.

In all, five men were charged with tax and bank fraud in a 33-count indictment returned late Tuesday.

The indictment said the men began plotting in the 1990s to convince banks they were broke by defaulting on loans, faking financial statements, hiding money in offshore accounts and putting assets in the names of relatives.

All the while, two of the men continued to lead lavish lifestyles with multimillion-dollar homes and fleets of luxury cars, prosecutors said. It also said the two men failed to report millions of dollars of income to the IRS.

Monty Hundley, 58, and Stanley Tollman, 71, are accused of using their positions as principals of several related companies that owned the hotels to defraud the banks of more than $42 million. Messages left with lawyers for Hundley and Tollman were not immediately returned yesterday.

The other defendants are attorney Sanford Freedman, 65; accountant James Cutler, 51; and Howard Zukerman, 55, the chief financial officer of companies allegedly used in the fraud scheme.

Freedman's lawyer, Audrey Strauss, said her client was innocent and intends to fight the charges, as did Irving Seidman, Zukerman's lawyer. A lawyer for Cutler did not immediately return a call for comment yesterday.

The state Tourism and Sports Authority is absorbing some of the costs of landing the proposed Arizona Cardinals stadium in a bid to ensure Mesa can seal the deal.

City leaders said the authority is knocking close to $6 million off an estimated $44 million Mesa was expected to pay in various expenses connected to the stadium.

The two sides had reached a tentative deal to pay for various expenses surrounding the project. A final agreement could come as early as yesterday.

The authority's decision to reduce costs for Mesa comes as lawmakers debate several bills that could shut down its site-selection process and place the question of stadium funding on the fall ballot.

Officials said the changes are being made in large measure to appease Mesa Mayor Keno Hawker, who promised to oppose the project unless it can be secured without cost to Mesa taxpayers.

"The mayor set the bar of how Mesa would participate, and I think we are getting very close to that," said Roc Arnett, a member of the sports authority's board.