The phenomenon of a sudden increase in malware, especially via phony links to malicious sites, has been associated with many prior "interest items." The malware distributors "seed" their sites with key-word tags to get them to pop up in any search for whatever is of "sudden and widespread interest."
Similar, but smaller, blips have been associated especially with international sports events. There was a small one stimulated by the "wedding." They have especially liked sports events where wagering is prominent, since those looking for somewhere to place a bet are to some degree self-identified as "risk takers" and/or "impulsive responders." An apparent liking for "nervous nellies" with only vague understanding of how their computers and the web work has also been observed.
There is NO QUESTION that searches for anything related to Osama NOW are much more likely to lead you to malware than was the case even a week ago, and searches on that subject are currently much more likely to lead to links to malware than are searches on "less popular" subjects.
This is a known and documented "behavior" for the distributors, but this blip was significantly more rapid in appearance and more widespread than for any previous subject of widespread (rabid) popularity. The rapidity of appearance indicates that the malware distribuots are getting a lot better at responding quickly and getting their malicious sites more widely exposed; but that's just a side effect we all knew about.
The threat that is the subject of the second report is specifically the result of the sudden widespread interest in "things Osama." The cause and effect link is quite clear (although of course there will be another "hot item" soon with similar response from the evil ones).