Tales of the Legendary Osama Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit TALES OF THE LEGENDARY OSAMA: He's dead, he's alive, he's going to commit suicide on TV ...and he's the hero of South Korean schoolkids 'Osama died of lung disease in Tora Bora' ISLAMABAD, Dec 26 (PTI)--Terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden died of a serious lung disease in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains earlier this month, a Pakistani daily reported on Tuesday quoting an unnamed Taliban commander. The Taliban official, who claimed to have attended the low-key funeral of Bin Laden, said that Osama who suffered from serious complications in the lungs succumbed to the disease for lack of proper medical attention, Pakistan Observer reported. Asked whether he could point out the place of Bin Laden's burial, the Taliban commander, who requested anonymity, said: "I am sure that like other places in Tora Bora that particular place too must have vanished," meaning that it was obliterated by US aerial bombing. Bin Laden's burial was attended by his close aides including his most trusted body guards, family members and some Taliban friends, he said. As his body was lowered into the grave, his body guards fired a volley of bullets into the air as a mark of respect, he said. The coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfil their cherished goal of getting Osama alive or dead, the report quoted him as saying. * Osama still alive, says biographer TIMES OF INDIA NEWS NETWORK ISLAMABAD, Dec 26--Suspected terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden is alive and has probably escaped somewhere to the southern Afghan-Iran border, according to Bin Laden's biographer Hamid Mir. Conflicting reports about of Bin Laden's death have been circulating to ease US pressure on the hunt for the Saudi billionaire, Mir was quoted as saying by a private TV channel. Earlier, a report said Bin Laden died of a serious lung disease in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains earlier this month. A Pakistani daily quoting an unnamed Taliban commander, said Laden who suffered from serious complications in the lungs succumbed to the disease for lack of proper medical attention. * Mirror.co.uk - Dec 26, 2001 http://www.mirror.co.uk BIN LADEN'S SONS WILL KILL HIM ON TV Sons 'will shoot him to foil allies' From Jeremy Armstrong in Kabul OSAMA bin Laden plans a TV suicide that will trigger attacks on landmarks in London, Paris and the US. His estranged wife Sabiha said last night he would order his elder sons to shoot him rather than be captured. Sabiha, 45, added: "That will be the signal for a new wave of terror. The targets this time would be the Capitol building in Washington, Big Ben in London and the Eiffel Tower in Paris." Her claims were broadcast on Russian television as al-Qaeda boss bin Laden reportedly led 1,000 loyalists into forests in Afghanistan after being flushed out of his Tora Bora caves. [...] Bin Laden, 44, whose Saudi family run a multi-billion dollar construction business, is said to have 15 children by three or four wives. Estranged wife Sabiha, who abandoned him after he took another wife aged 17, revealed the "suicide" plan on Russian TV channel, TV6. Sabiha said he wanted his death and ultimate martyrdom filmed by the al-Jazeera TV network, based in Gulf state Qatar. It has broadcast several of bin Laden's rants against the West since September 11. Yesterday bin Laden's mother Alia spoke for the first time about him, saying she was not angry with him - just disappointed by his ideas and actions. "Like all mothers, I am satisfied and pleased with my son and pray to God to guide him and save him," she told a Saudi newspaper. The family disowned him in 1994. [...] * South Korean school kids sing praises of bin Laden SEOUL, Dec 26 (AFP)--School kids in South Korea are singing the praises of Osama Bin Laden to the dismay of school authorities, newspaper reports said on Wednesday. School authorities in the southern city of Pusan and its surrounding province of South Kyongsang said they were wracking their brains to think of a way of discouraging children from singing the "Bin Laden worship song", the Joongang daily said. Police in Pusan and the city's education office asked elementary schools there to stop students singing the song and educate them as to why the man suspected of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States is not someone to be admired. The police and education authorities have also been searching for the origin of the song, without success. The song, which is sung to the tune of a theme song of a popular cartoon, goes as follows: Osama Bin Laden, the person I admire most. I will be a terrorist when I grow up. President Bush, the person I detest the most. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-12.26.01-12:11:57-13608