Italian authorities: Terror suspects planned Vatican attack

From the Associated Press:

MILAN (AP) — Islamic extremists suspected in a bomb attack in a Pakistani market that killed more than 100 people had also planned an attack against the Vatican in 2010 that was never carried out, an Italian prosecutor said Friday. 

Wiretaps collected as part of an investigation into an Islamic terror network operating in Italy gave "signals of some preparation for a possible attack" at the Vatican, prosecutor Mauro Mura told a news conference in Cagliari, Sardinia. 

That included the arrival in Rome of a Pakistani suicide bomber, Mura said. The Pakistani eventually left Italy, Mura said, without explaining why. 

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that there were two suicide bombers and that they were warned off by their associates in Italy when police began executing search warrants in the case. 

The Vatican downplayed the significance of the alleged plot. 

"From what it appears, this concerns a hypothesis that dates from 2010 which didn't occur. It has therefore no relevance today and no reason for particular concern," the Rev. Federico Lombardi.