Nope: It’s NOT True

Osama bin Laden is NOT on his way to Rome:

Italy’s leading news agency has denied reporting that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would attend Pope John Paul’s funeral Friday after a story attributed to it circulated widely on the Internet.

“Some people just won’t stop even at a time of mourning for the Pope: among the deluge of false emails, viruses and spam, a false item attributed to Ansa is circulating about Osama bin Laden attending the funeral of John Paul II,” the Ansa agency said.

In a dispatch issued late Tuesday, Ansa noted that the prankster, who specified bin Laden would be flying to Rome from Pakistan, had accurately imitated the agency’s sign-off style — a series of letters and numbers at the end of every item.