Osijek, Croatia, June 07: The Vatican today downplayed threats made to Pope John Paul II during his ongoing visit to Croatia, saying the Roman Catholic leader's travels were often met with fraudulent attack warnings. "It is not unusual that during pope's trips there are warnings or rumours of potential assassination attempts. The credibility of these information is often very doubtful or completely false," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls told journalists travelling with the pope during his five-day visit to the Balkan State.
Navarro Valls said that the Vatican would pass on all information to relevant authorities, but added, "I can assert that in the 100 trips the pope has taken up until today, we have never considered it necessary to modify the itinerary of his trip."

Two Croatian news agencies, the catholic news agency Ika and the Hina news agency, each received yesterday an e-mail message, signed by the "el Mudjehedin Islamic Front,” threatening to assassinate the Pope during his stay in Croatia.
The message, entitled "message to infidels," was sent in the name of Allah, Hina reported.
Croatia's interior ministry said that the message had a Bosnian address and was apparently sent from abroad, adding that it had requested international police assistance in the matter.
Bureau Report