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ISLAMABAD — Supporters of Benazir Bhutto reiterated their call for an independent international investigation into the death of the former Pakistani prime minister after a Scotland Yard probe reaffirmed the government’s original contention that she died of a head injury.

“We are not satisfied with the terms of investigation by the U.K. police,” said Sherry Rehman, a spokeswoman for Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. “We will continue our quest for an independent inquiry on the perpetrators of the crime.”
Investigators from London’s Metropolitan Police, also known as Scotland Yard, concluded that Ms. Bhutto died of head injury caused by the impact of a suicide blast and not by gunfire, reaffirming Pakistan government’s initial position.

In a report released in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, on Friday, the U.K. investigators said Ms. Bhutto was thrown against a lever on her vehicle’s roof and that there was no bullet mark on her body. It said Ms Bhutto’s only apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head and the investigators ruled out that the wound was result of a gunshot.

“The only tenable cause of her rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effect of the bomb blast,” the report said. . (Read the Scotland Yard statement.)

The finding matches the Pakistani government’s explanation of Ms Bhutto’s death following a campaign rally Dec. 27. Pakistani Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said the investigation into the circumstances of Ms Bhutto’s death was completed, but said Pakistan could seek Scotland Yard’s help in a further probe on the perpetrators of the attack. Pakistan has blamed a militant tribal leader for masterminding the attack.

The report may heighten political tensions in the run-up to parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 18 that are designed to install a new prime minister and return Pakistan to democracy after nine years of military rule.

There was no post mortem on Ms. Bhutto’s body and the scene of the crime was hosed down within hours, compromising forensic evidence. Ms. Bhutto’s supporters have insisted that she died from a bullet and have accused President Pervez Musharraf of covering up his administration’s complicity. They have also called for an independent investigation by the United Nations. The demand was rejected by Mr. Musharraf, who denies his government was in any way involved in her murder.

TV pictures that emerged after Ms. Bhutto’s death appeared to show a gunman aiming a weapon at her as she stood through the escape hatch of her vehicle. The U.K. police report confirmed that shots were fired - but said they weren”t the cause of death.

The British inquiry also determined that the gunman who was spotted on the scene and the suicide bomber were the same person. “The body parts of only one individual remain unidentified,” the report said. It said the footage of the incident didn’t show the presence of any other potential bomber. The bombing suspect stood up to two meters from the vehicle, the investigators ascertained.

source:online.wsjISLAMABAD — Supporters of Benazir Bhutto reiterated their call for an independent international investigation into the death of the former Pakistani prime minister after a Scotland Yard probe reaffirmed the government’s original contention that she died of a head injury.

“We are not satisfied with the terms of investigation by the U.K. police,” said Sherry Rehman, a spokeswoman for Ms. Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. “We will continue our quest for an independent inquiry on the perpetrators of the crime.”
Investigators from London’s Metropolitan Police, also known as Scotland Yard, concluded that Ms. Bhutto died of head injury caused by the impact of a suicide blast and not by gunfire, reaffirming Pakistan government’s initial position.

In a report released in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, on Friday, the U.K. investigators said Ms. Bhutto was thrown against a lever on her vehicle’s roof and that there was no bullet mark on her body. It said Ms Bhutto’s only apparent injury was a major trauma to the right side of the head and the investigators ruled out that the wound was result of a gunshot.

“The only tenable cause of her rapidly fatal head injury in this case is that it occurred as the result of impact due to the effect of the bomb blast,” the report said. . (Read the Scotland Yard statement.)

The finding matches the Pakistani government’s explanation of Ms Bhutto’s death following a campaign rally Dec. 27. Pakistani Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said the investigation into the circumstances of Ms Bhutto’s death was completed, but said Pakistan could seek Scotland Yard’s help in a further probe on the perpetrators of the attack. Pakistan has blamed a militant tribal leader for masterminding the attack.

The report may heighten political tensions in the run-up to parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 18 that are designed to install a new prime minister and return Pakistan to democracy after nine years of military rule.

There was no post mortem on Ms. Bhutto’s body and the scene of the crime was hosed down within hours, compromising forensic evidence. Ms. Bhutto’s supporters have insisted that she died from a bullet and have accused President Pervez Musharraf of covering up his administration’s complicity. They have also called for an independent investigation by the United Nations. The demand was rejected by Mr. Musharraf, who denies his government was in any way involved in her murder.

TV pictures that emerged after Ms. Bhutto’s death appeared to show a gunman aiming a weapon at her as she stood through the escape hatch of her vehicle. The U.K. police report confirmed that shots were fired - but said they weren”t the cause of death.

The British inquiry also determined that the gunman who was spotted on the scene and the suicide bomber were the same person. “The body parts of only one individual remain unidentified,” the report said. It said the footage of the incident didn’t show the presence of any other potential bomber. The bombing suspect stood up to two meters from the vehicle, the investigators ascertained.

source:online.wsj

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo’s board members are formally discussing Microsoft Corp’s $42 billion unsolicited offer for the company and have scheduled an in-person meeting for next week, the All Things Digital blog reported on Friday.
Board members will have discussed the bid by phone on Friday and are expected to meet next Wednesday at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, the blog said, citing unnamed sources.

A Yahoo spokeswoman, commenting on an earlier report that the board was meeting on Friday, said the company was still “carefully and thoroughly evaluating” the Microsoft offer but would not say when its directors plan to meet. The company declined to comment on reports of a Wednesday meeting.

Microsoft made its offer public on February 1.

Yahoo has sought an alternate tie-up with Web search leader Google Inc to maintain its independence. Should it pursue the Microsoft offer, it is expected to seek a higher price than the current cash and stock offer, now valued at about $29 per share.

Analysts have said Microsoft could be persuaded to raise its bid to make it easier for Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and his board to accept it.

Separately, a major investor in Yahoo met with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to see if he would be willing to raise the offer, the New York Post reported.

Capital Research and Management, which owns more than 11 percent of Yahoo shares and more than 6 percent of Microsoft, wants to know how much more the software maker might pay if Yahoo rejects the initial offer, the Post said, citing a source familiar with the meeting.

Officials for Capital Research and Microsoft declined comment on the report.

Yahoo shares rose 16 cents to close at $29.20 on the Nasdaq. Microsoft shares rose 44 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $28.56.

(Reporting by Michele Gershberg in New York, Daisuke Wakabayashi in Seattle and Muralikumar Anantharaman in Boston; editing by Phil Berlowitz, Gary Hill)

source:news.yahoo

WASHINGTON - Brian McNamee told congressional investigators he injected Roger Clemens’ wife with human growth hormone as she prepared for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition photo session five years ago, the New York Daily News reported Friday.
McNamee testified during his Capitol Hill deposition on Thursday that he injected Debbie Clemens at her husband’s direction, the News said on its Web site, citing an unidentified Washington source.

Clemens’ lawyers did not directly address the accusation when asked. The pitcher was in Washington to meet with congressmen for a second straight day.

“It’s pretty clear now who this guy really is,” Rusty Hardin, Clemens’ lead lawyer, said of McNamee. “This guy never ceases to amaze me.”

McNamee told baseball investigator George Mitchell that he injected Clemens at least 16 times with steroids and HGH in 1998, 2000 and 2001, charges the seven-time Cy Young Award winner repeatedly has denied. Clemens and McNamee are set to testify Wednesday at a public hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“Did Roger get the Cy Young ’cause his wife took the HGH?” said Lanny Breuer, another lawyer for Clemens.

After meeting with about a dozen representatives Thursday, Clemens was slated to meet with another six Friday. He arrived at the office of Rep. Danny Davis, an Illinois Democrat, shortly after 9:30 a.m.

“It’s highly unusual, and that’s why I think one would try to determine the rationale for it. What is he trying to accomplish?” Davis said in an interview with The Associated Press before Clemens arrived. “I am willing to hear him out and hear what he has to say.”

Clemens gave a sworn deposition Tuesday. McNamee’s turn came Thursday, when he met for seven hours with congressional lawyers.

During McNamee’s deposition, his lawyers showed the committee photographs of syringes and vials and even a crumpled beer can. McNamee’s lawyers say the items, when tested, will link Clemens to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

“Roger Clemens has put himself in a position where his legacy as the greatest pitcher in baseball will depend less on his ERA and more on his DNA,” one of McNamee’s lawyers, Earl Ward, said Thursday.

Less than an hour later, not far away in the Rayburn House Office Building, Clemens and his attorneys held their own news conference. Clemens said little, but his lawyers repeatedly attacked McNamee’s character and scoffed at the newly presented evidence.

“This man has a total history of lying,” Hardin said.

McNamee’s lawyers called on Clemens to provide a DNA sample. Asked about that, Hardin said the pitcher would comply with any request of that type from a federal authority.

“But they’re going to have to come to us,” Hardin said.

McNamee’s attorneys did not know when the items would be tested, or when the results might be known.

“We look forward to the results of these tests,” said another McNamee lawyer, Richard Emery, “and we look forward to just definitively finishing this whole controversy and ending this circus.”

McNamee’s attorneys said he turned over physical evidence to federal prosecutors, shortly after Clemens held a Jan. 7 nationally televised news conference at which he played a taped conversation between the two men.

“At that point,” Ward said, “(McNamee) decided there was no holds barred.”

One photo shows a beer can that Emery said was taken out of a trash can in Clemens’ New York apartment in 2001. Emery said the beer can contained needles used to inject Clemens. That picture also shows what Emery said was gauze used to wipe blood off Clemens after a shot.

The other photo shows vials of what Emery said were testosterone and unused needles, items the attorney said Clemens gave to McNamee.

While Clemens’ camp called it “manufactured” evidence, Emery said the items were “just a collection of stuff” thrown in a box and “kept in a basement for seven years.”

Emery said McNamee kept the items because he “had this inkling and gut feeling that he couldn’t trust Roger and better keep something to protect himself in the future.”

Clemens met Thursday with committee chairman Henry Waxman and ranking Republican Tom Davis for about 20 minutes, then signed an autograph for a bystander upon exiting. That was one of many times Clemens was asked to stop to affix his name to something or pose for a snapshot.

Clemens’ deposition Tuesday was the first time he addressed McNamee’s allegations under oath, and therefore the first time he put himself at legal risk if he were to make false statements.

Thursday’s bizarre events served as something of a dress rehearsal for Wednesday’s session, which will be held in the same wood-paneled hearing room that housed the committee’s 2005 hearing with Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro.

That hearing was part of Congress’ push to get baseball to toughen its drug program, increasing tests and penalties. It also led to former Senate majority leader George Mitchell’s report on doping in baseball.

The 45-year-old Clemens, who pitched for the Yankees last season, requested Thursday’s meetings with the committee members. He carried a white three-ring binder as he headed from one House office building to another, going through a garage and taking a freight elevator at one point.

“Because the perception out there was so strong originally that he did it and was lying, he’s going to extra steps to try and persuade and make people comfortable with the fact that he didn’t do it. He’s having to take extraordinary measures because the allegations are extraordinary,” Hardin said.

Hardin said Clemens was meeting with individual representatives “to assure them privately the same thing he’s saying publicly — that he didn’t take steroids, and he didn’t take human growth hormone, and he’s here to talk to anybody about it who wants to.”
source:news.yahoo