News agencies citing an anonymous official reported that the woman's husband was killed in the war in Chechnya.

The anonymous official said the militants were preparing to execute the alleged plot when it was stopped.

Two of the anonymous officials also claimed that an interest rate cut is likely.

Many organizations also require that information attributed to an anonymous official be verified elsewhere.

"We do get money from Arab countries," the anonymous Bosnian official said.

An anonymous senior British official said the documents appeared authentic.

The magazine later retracted the story after noting that the anonymous official who was their source subsequently could not remember important details.

A spokesman for the magazine said it had merely printed what an anonymous official speculated.

But it also ranks as the single most successful use of the news media by an anonymous unelected official with an agenda of his own.

Two other anonymous officials added that Hezbollah was behind the bombing, although declined to offer further information.