Inzamam to retire after Lahore Test

Former captain hopes to break Miandad's record

Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former captain of the Pakistan team, has announced he will retire from international cricket after ... [More]

SECOND ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL, Dambulla:

SECOND ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL, Dambulla:
England 234-8 (50 overs) bt Sri Lanka 169 (44.3 overs) by 65 runs

Owais Shah's 82 and some fine bowling helped England beat Sri Lanka by 65 runs to level the one-day series 1-1.

The tourists were 61-4 and 142-6 on a slow surface but Shah worked the ball around shrewdly as they posted 234-8.

Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad took two wickets each to reduce Sri Lanka to 38-4 before captain Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan put on 52.

Graeme Swann and Paul Collingwood also struck twice and despite Jehan Mubarak (44), the hosts were dismissed for 169.

It was only England's second one-day international triumph on the island - their previous one was more than 25 years ago - and just the tonic they needed after an abject surrender in Monday's opener at the same venue.

Shah will quite rightly take most of the plaudits after a brilliantly paced knock which rescued his team after the top order had failed dismally to cope with the variations in pace and length the home seamers employed, particularly Farveez Maharoof (3-30).

Alastair Cook wafted leaden-footedly to slip, Ian Bell was lbw shuffling across his crease, while Phil Mustard and Kevin Pietersen - who scratched around for 41 balls for his 12 - spooned catches off ill-judged swipes.

Captain Collingwood was never totally at ease on a sluggish pitch but he passed 1,000 ODI runs for 2007 in helping Shah lay the foundations for the recovery.

They kept the scoreboard ticking against the spinners in a partnership of 78 with a measured approach which was studded with rare boundaries.

Collingwood pulled Dilhara Fernando for England's only six in the 35th over before he was pinned in front trying to work the seamer away on the leg-side and when Ravi Bopara lost his leg-stump to part-time spinner Dilshan, the visitors were still some way short of respectability.

Shah took them there with his fourth one-day fifty and Graeme Swann's support in a stand of 70, and only a brilliant catch from Chamara Silva ended his 92-ball defiance.

Sidebottom produced an impressive opening spell to rock the hosts

It was the best score by an Englishman in a one-day international in Sri Lanka, bettering Graham Gooch's 74 in that 1982 success.

And its importance was magnified when Sidebottom and Broad extracted bounce and movement from a pitch that quickened significantly in the evening.

Upul Tharanga edged Sidebottom to Cook at second slip and Sanath Jayasuriya - playing in his 400th ODI - cracked the left-armer to Bell at cover.

Kumar Sangakkara was dropped twice by Cook at slip and Mustard before the keeper redeemed himself with a superb catch, while Silva was snapped up at backward point when a Broad delivery reared up.

England were rampant but their fires were doused by Dilshan's aggression and the composed class of Jayawardene.

The duo seized on errors in line and length from Broad and James Anderson to pick up a flurry of boundaries as their fifty partnership came up in 44 balls.

However, Swann's third ball, a vicious off-spinner, ripped through Dilshan's defences and Collingwood saw his opposite number flip him straight to mid-wicket to land two hammer blows.

The same duo worked their way through the tail and although Mubarak struck several lusty blows and Fernando (20) made his highest one-day score, nothing could take the shine off Shah and England's day.

Siemens fined after bribery probe

Siemens has been fined 210m euros ($248m; £145.5m) by a German court following an investigation over whether workers paid bribes to gain contracts.

Siemens also agreed to pay 179m euros to the tax authorities, after a failure to declare payments properly.

The decision comes amid a series of inquiries into whether the firm illegally gained telecom transactions.

The decisions conclude German investigations into "illegal conduct and tax violations", said Siemens.

The company said it would not appeal against the decision, made by the Munich District Court.

Allegations of corruption and bribery have prompted the arrest of several current and former executives.

In May, Andreas Kley was given a two-year suspended sentence for bribery and breach of trust, while Horst Vigener was given nine months' probation.

US law firm Debevoise & Plimpton has been conducting an independent enquiry into the firm that continues.

Battle to beat fake Ebay e-mails

Fake Ebay and Paypal e-mails which are used to con users out of money are being targeted by a secure mail system.

The online auction site and web pay service are working with Yahoo to use the firm's anti-phishing technology.

The firms are supporting the emerging standard known as domain keys, which block fake e-mails by validating the sender with a digital signature.

Spammers hide their identity by using a false, or spoofed, address in the millions of messages they send out.

The technology, called the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), will be available to millions of Yahoo Mail users worldwide in the coming weeks.

"It is a big step forward for consumers in defence against the bad guys," John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail, told Reuters news agency.

Targeted companies

According to security analysts Trend Micro, eBay and its popular payment service Paypal are the two most targeted companies for phishing e-mails in the last months.

E-mail analysts MessageLabs reports that one in every 173 e-mails sent around the world each day contains some form of phishing attacks.

Two years ago if you asked companies whether they were using e-mail authentication, most people wouldn't have cared Chenxi Wang, Forrester

"Our message to both businesses and consumers is: beware of unexpected or strange-looking e-mails regardless of their sender and never open attachments or links contained in these email messages", said David Sancho, of TrendLabs at Trend Micro.

A recent YouGov poll, conducted on behalf of USwitch.com, reported that 35% of 2,500 people surveyed in the UK said they received more than 10 spam e-mails every day.

Yahoo's system is designed to automatically detect potential phishing attacks without relying on the consumer to intervene.

Encrypted signatures

"If the consumer doesn't receive an e-mail in their inbox then it is very hard for the phisher to victimise them," Michael Barrett, PayPal's chief information security officer.

DKIM uses encrypted digital signatures to prove a message's origin.

Although 90 to 99% of e-mail comes from senders known to the recipient, establishing the identity of a sender remains a key consideration in the protection against spam.

Spammers get away with sending spoofed e-mails because mail servers only check if a domain mentioned in these spoofed addresses - such as @madeupmailname.com - is known to be used by spammers.

DKIM lets honest e-mail senders prove they sent a message by encrypting a two-part signature, or key, in a selected part of the mail.

The e-mail provider, such as Yahoo, puts an encrypted private key into the e-mail when it is sent.

It is linked to a public key held by the internet's domain name system - the phonebook of the internet.

The mail server which receives the e-mail checks to ensure that the private and public keys match, proving that the message has come from a genuine sender.

'Coming around'

But in order for the technology to work, both the sender and recipient need their mail services to be signed up to DKIM.

The technology was developed by Yahoo and is backed by AOL, Google, IBM, Sendmail an Verisign.

A second standard, called Sender Policy Network (SPF), is backed by Microsoft, Amazon and eBay, which supports both forms of protection.

Digitally signed e-mails are expected to become the norm in the coming years.

Chenxi Wang, a security analyst with Forrester Research, told Reuters: "Two years ago if you asked companies whether they were using e-mail authentication, most people wouldn't have cared.

"The industry is slowly coming around," Mr Wang said.

"EBay and PayPal are some of the first to actively block unauthenticated e-mails."

ECB keeps interest rates on hold

The European Central Bank (ECB) has left interest rates unchanged at 4.0%.

The decision comes despite the strength of the euro, which set a new record high against the US dollar of $1.4284 on Monday.

The ECB's policymakers were meeting in Vienna in one of their twice-yearly meetings away from Frankfurt.

At a news conference, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said that there is "heightened uncertainty" about the outlook for Europe's economy.

As last month, he added that the ECB would continue to "monitor very closely all developments" in the euro zone.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has put pressure on the ECB to cut rates in order to reduce the value of the euro and boost European competitiveness.

The strong euro makes European exports more expensive to customers outside the euro zone.

Mr Trichet would not be drawn on currency questions, saying that "verbal discipline is very important" where currencies are concerned and stressing that the methodology is in place to deal with volatility.

Before the credit crunch hit global markets in the summer, the ECB had been expected to raise rates to 4.5% by the end of the year, but the consensus is now for them to remain unchanged in November and December.

"The strong euro and the persistent dislocations in the money and credit markets will likely force the ECB to keep rates on hold for the foreseeable future," said Holger Schmieding from Bank of America.

'Gay bomb' scoops Ig Nobel award

Pioneering research into a "gay bomb" that makes enemy troops "sexually irresistible" to each other has scooped one of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes.

Other winners included work on treating hamster jetlag with impotency drugs, extracting vanilla from cow dung, and the side-effects of sword swallowing.

The awards, founded in 1991, mark achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think".

The prize ceremony took place at Harvard University, US.

Genuine Nobel Laureates handed out the much-coveted awards to the winners, who took away no cash, but instead received a handmade prize, a certificate, and, of course, the glory of such an illustrious win.

Sword effects

Dan Meyer, executive director of Sword Swallowing Association International and an author of the British Medical Journal paper Sword Swallowing and its Side-Effects, said: "I was surprised and extremely honoured when I found out I was not only nominated for an Ig Nobel prize but that I had won it. I couldn't believe it."

He told the BBC News website that the study revealed that when professional sword swallowers ingested a single sword very carefully, it did not do much harm, but swallowing many swords, strangely shaped blades, or being distracted when swallowing, could cause injury.

The findings also suggested that sword swallowers should not swallow swords if they already had a sore throat, he said.

Unfortunately, said the organisers, nobody from the US military who carried out the research on chemicals that could prompt homosexual dalliances amongst rival troops (a research project called Harassing, Annoying and "Bad Guy" Identifying Chemicals) attended the ceremony because the study's authors could not be tracked down.

Real research

The Ig Nobel Prizes were created by the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), a science magazine.

The awards, now in their 17th year, are intended to "celebrate the unusual, honour the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology".

Marc Abrahams, the editor of AIR, told the BBC News website: "When I became the editor of a science magazine, suddenly I was meeting all kinds of people who had done things that were hard to describe, and for the most part, nobody had ever heard of.

"For some of them, it seemed a great shame that nobody would give them any kind of recognition, and that was what really led to the birth of the Ig Nobels."

Like their more sober counterpart, the Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobels are split into several categories and all research is real and published.

2007 Ig Nobel Winners

Medicine - Brain Witcombe, of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust, UK, and Dan Meyer for their probing work on the health consequences of swallowing a sword.

Physics - A US-Chile team who ironed out the problem of how sheets become wrinkled.

Biology - Dr Johanna van Bronswijk of the Netherlands for carrying out a creepy crawly census of all of the mites, insects, spiders, ferns and fungi that share our beds.

Chemistry - Mayu Yamamoto, from Japan, for developing a method to extract vanilla fragrance and flavouring from cow dung.

Linguistics - A University of Barcelona team for showing that rats are unable to tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and somebody speaking Dutch backwards.

Literature - Glenda Browne of Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study of the word "the", and how it can flummox those trying to put things into alphabetical order.

Peace - The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops.

Nutrition - Brian Wansink of Cornell University for investigating the limits of human appetite by feeding volunteers a self-refilling, "bottomless" bowl of soup.

Economics - Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan for patenting a device that can catch bank robbers by dropping a net over them.

Aviation - A National University of Quilmes, Argentina, team for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters to recover from jet lag.

Beyonce copy claim back in court

A woman who sued Beyonce Knowles claiming the singer illegally used her lyrics in the song Baby Boy has taken her case to a US appeal court.

Jennifer Armour claims Knowles, 26, took lyrics from her song, Got A Little Bit Of Love For You.

Her lawyer said the case, thrown out by a judge in Houston, Texas last year, should be heard by a jury.

Dana Kirk added an expert analysed the two songs and said the two were substantially similar.

But Ms Knowles' lawyer, Cynthia Arato, said the standard for copyright cases is what an ordinary person hears, not an expert's analysis.

The judge in last year's case ruled the two songs were "substantially dissimilar".

Ms Armour's song is slower and more melodic than Ms Knowles' hit.

"I do believe it was the heart of my song," she said after the hearing in Lubbock, Texas. "When I first heard it, it hit me."

The panel of judges did not issue a ruling on Wednesday.

Arrests after da Vinci work found

A police raid in Glasgow has recovered a Leonardo da Vinci painting stolen more than four years ago.

Three men from Lancashire and one from Glasgow were arrested as officers found the Madonna of the Yarnwinder, taken from the Duke of Buccleuch's estate.

Art experts confirmed the painting was the one stolen in August 2003.

The artwork was taken from Drumlanrig Castle, near Thornhill, in Dumfries and Galloway. Four anti-crime agencies were involved in the Glasgow raid.

Police said that, acting on intelligence, they intercepted a meeting between five people in the centre of Glasgow at about 1100 BST.

The painting was recovered at the scene.

For four years police staff have worked tirelessly on the theft and with help from the public we have been able to track down and locate the painting Det Ch Insp Mickey Dalgleish

Four men have been arrested and will appear in court on Friday.

Police will not confirm further details but it is understood a deal for the sale of the painting may have been under negotiation.

The work was taken to a vault for formal identification.

The operation was led by Dumfries and Galloway Police and involved the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and Strathclyde Police.

Most wanted

"We are extremely pleased to recover the Madonna with the Yarnwinder painting," said lead investigation officer Det Ch Insp Mickey Dalgleish.

"The recovery of this artwork is down to extensive police enquiries and the combined efforts of several Scottish police forces, the SCDEA and SOCA.

"For four years police staff have worked tirelessly on the theft and with help from the public we have been able to track down and locate the painting."

The theft sparked a worldwide search, with the FBI putting the painting on its list of 10 most wanted pieces of stolen artwork.

The painting had been in the Buccleuch family for almost 200 years and had been admired by thousands of visitors to the castle every year.

The discovery of the artwork comes just a month after the death of the Duke of Buccleuch.

He died at the beginning of September at the age of 83.

Spears awarded visitation rights

A court in the US state of California has refused to restore custody of her two children to singer Britney Spears.

Instead, Ms Spears was granted rights to visit the children. Her former husband, Kevin Federline, was awarded sole custody earlier this week.

Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner Scott Gordon extended that custody order until another hearing on 26 October to review the situation.

The couple previously shared custody, and no reason was given for the change.

However, a lawyer for Ms Spears, Sorrell Trope, told a US magazine that the judge had acted after the singer was unable to prove she had complied with several court orders.

Last month, Mr Gordon said Ms Spears, 25, showed "a habitual, frequent and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol".

Hit-and-run

The singer, whose career has been hit by a year of frequent erratic behaviour, did not attend court on Wednesday, although Mr Federline did.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Federline's lawyer, Mark Kaplan, said his client believed the ruling giving him custody was "justified".

"Kevin wants to maintain the custody that he has as long as he can," Mr Kaplan added.

The judge was later expected to confirm the details of Ms Spears' visitation rights.

She has already been ordered her to undergo random drug and alcohol tests twice a week and meet weekly with a "parenting coach", according to court documents.

The judge has also ordered Ms Spears and Mr Federline to complete a parenting class.

Also last month, Ms Spears was charged with hit-and-run and driving without a valid licence.

She is accused of hitting a parked car and driving away from a Los Angeles car park on 6 August, a spokesman for the city's attorney's office said.

Ms Spears could face six months in jail and a $1,000 (£495) fine if convicted of the charges.

The singer's latest setback follows a year of unfavourable headlines following her separation from Mr Federline last November.

She was dropped by her management firm last month following her so-called comeback performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, which was panned by critics.

Her divorce was finalised on 30 July and since then, the estranged couple have shared an equal amount of time with the two boys.

However, Mr Federline had been fighting for greater time and more money.

Spice Girls add new London dates

The Spice Girls have added two more UK dates to their worldwide reunion tour, which kicks off in Canada in December.

The new dates at London's 02 Arena take place on January 15-16, with tickets going on sale at 1000 BST on 6 October.

The girl band will also play the O2 Arena on 15-16 and 18 December, and 2-4, 6, 8-9 and 11-13 January.

The Spice Girls have also announced they will be adding more US dates shortly after shows in San Jose, Los Angeles and Las Vegas sold out.

Solo careers

The group's greatest hits album will be released on 12 November.

The full line-up has not performed on stage since Geri Halliwell left in May 1998.

The reunion concerts have been put together by Simon Fuller, whose 19 company was behind the group's global success more than a decade ago.

The group notched up a string of hits - including Wannabe and 2 Become 1 - and capitalised on their fame with a string of sponsorship deals.

Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Victoria Adams and Geri Halliwell quickly became household names - although they were better known as Baby, Scary, Sporty, Posh and Ginger.

They sold more than 55 million records around the world, and even starred in a film, Spice World.

Halliwell quit in 1998 citing "differences", leaving the band to complete a sold-out world tour as a foursome.

Since 2001 each member has since pursued solo careers with varying degrees of success, while Posh Spice has become better known as fashion fan Victoria Beckham.

Carter confident for French test

New Zealand v France
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Saturday, 6 October
Kick-off: 2000 BST

New Zealand's star fly-half Dan Carter says he expects to be fully fit to face France in Saturday's World Cup quarter-final in Cardiff.

The 25-year-old missed the Romania win with a calf strain and has been restricted to light training this week but was named in the Kiwi starting XV.

"I'm confident I've progressed and I'll be fine," he said.

"This is what I've prepared myself for - the knockout games. I need to step up my game another level."

Centre Luke McAlister said losing Carter would be a blow but would not alter New Zealand's threat.

"Obviously we'd like him to play but if not, Nick Evans can step in there," said McAlister, who is set to play beside Carter at inside centre.

The selection of the side is probably the most difficult it's been since we've done the job, particularly the backs New Zealand coach Graham Henry

"We've got the best players in the world and we've learned to adapt to each other for the last three or four years, so it's no big deal."

New Zealand's record try-scorer Doug Howlett was left out of coach Graham Henry's 22 when he named the All Blacks team on Tuesday.

Howlett, who has scored 48 Test tries, has been kept out of the side by Sitiveni Sivivatu.

The winger is one of only five players that remain from the side that beat Romania, along with McAlister, wing Joe Rokocoko, lock Keith Robinson and back row Jerry Collins.

Robinson is preferred at lock to Chris Jack, while Anton Oliver starts at hooker, with Keven Mealamu on the bench.

Leon MacDonald starts at full-back and Mils Muliaina comes in at outside centre.

"The selection of the side is probably the most difficult it's been since we've done the job, particularly the backs," said Henry.

"We could have picked any of our 14 backs in this match because they're all playing exceptionally well.

"Up front, there is a bit of a gap between the top and second players in some positions. That's no criticism of the second player, that's just the fact of the matter.

"Having tough choices to make is a great situation to be in but it's also difficult to inform the guys who haven't been picked."

Henry had all of the 30-man squad available for selection, with the exception of loose forward Sione Lauaki, who was banned for two matches for a dangerous tackle on Romania winger Gabriel Brezonianu.

Henry added: "We are excited to play France. Sudden-death rugby obviously has its own tensions and that's the reality all eight teams face this weekend.

"France probably weren't expected to be in this quarter-final so there may be some extra tension in this match particularly.

"As a team we have really enjoyed the big occasions over the last few years and we've enjoyed a good and thorough preparation for this match."

New Zealand will wear their grey "away" strip instead of their traditional black after losing a coin toss to France, whose shirt is dark blue.

"The All Blacks are a very strong team and if they play in pink, blue or white they would be as strong as playing in black," said France captain Raphael Ibanez.

New Zealand: MacDonald, Rokocoko, Muliaina, McAlister, Sivivatu, Carter, Kelleher; Woodcock, Oliver, Hayman, Robinson, Williams, Collins, McCaw (capt), So'oialo.
Replacements: Mealamu, Tialata, Jack, Masoe , Leonard, Evans, Toeava.

Huge fine for US music downloader

A court in the US has ordered a woman to pay $222,000 (£109,000) in damages for illegally downloading music.

The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 32, from Minnesota, to pay for offering to share 24 specific songs online - a cost of $9,250 per song.

But the fine could have been millions, as record companies said she illegally shared a total of 1,702 songs.

Ms Thomas was the first person accused of illegal file-sharing who decided to fight the case in court.

Each year millions of households illegally share music files, and the music industry takes it as a serious threat to its revenue.

About 26,000 lawsuits have been filed against alleged file-sharers, but most defendants settle privately by paying a fine amounting to a few thousand dollars.

Industry defiant

However, contesting the charge and losing will cost Jammie Thomas almost a quarter of a million dollars.

Her lawyer, Brian Toder, told the Associated Press Ms Thomas was reduced to tears by the verdict.

"This is a girl that lives from paycheque to paycheque, and now all of a sudden she could get a quarter of her paycheque garnished for the rest of her life," he said.

The US record industry said people would understand the verdict.

Richard Gabriel, a lawyer for the music companies, said the verdict was important.

"This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK," he told AP.

He said no decision had yet been made about what the record companies would do, if anything, to pursue collecting the money from Ms Thomas.

Spain police seize Basque leaders

Spanish police have arrested the entire alleged leadership of the banned Basque separatist party, Batasuna.

Twenty-two people were detained in the town of Segura on orders from Spain's top anti-terror judge, Baltasar Garzon.

The security forces raided a Batasuna meeting at which the party's old guard was alleged to be transferring control to new leaders.

Mr Garzon led moves to outlaw Batasuna five years ago, accusing it of being a front for armed separatists Eta.

The operation is the latest in four months of operations against Basque radicals, including the arrest of Batasuna's leader Arnaldo Otegi.

Among those arrested on Thursday was Joseba Permach, who has acted as Batasuna's main spokesman since Mr Otegi's arrest in June.

Tough line

Spain's Attorney General Candido Conde Pumpido welcomed the latest arrests, saying some of those held were accused of co-operating with an armed group.

"These activities cannot be tolerated, so if the police find out about them, as they did in this case in Segura, it seems prudent that they be ordered to intervene," he told Spanish public radio RNE.

Before Batasuna was banned in 2003 it represented about 15% of the people in the Basque region on local councils and in the regional government.

Earlier this year the militant group Eta called off a 15-month ceasefire.

The separatist group is blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people during a four-decade campaign to set up an independent Basque state in northern Spain and south-western France.

Spain's socialist government has been quick to take a hardline approach against Eta to maintain electoral support.

The group is considered a terrorist organisation by Spain, the European Union and the United States.

Pinochet family arrested in Chile

The widow and five children of Chile's former military ruler, Gen Augusto Pinochet, have been arrested on charges of embezzlement.

They are accused of illegally transferring $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during the general's time in power between 1973 and 1990.

A judge ordered 17 other suspects to be held, including aides to Gen Pinochet.

Gen Pinochet died in December 2006 before he could stand trial on charges of corruption and human rights abuses.

More than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during his military rule.

Pablo Rodriguez, the Pinochet family lawyer, said he was "astonished" by the decision, which he called "illegal and abusive".

He expressed confidence the ruling would be reversed on appeal.

Aides implicated

Gen Pinochet's 84-year-old widow, Lucia Hiriart, was taken to hospital with high blood pressure following her arrest.

However, Judge Carlos Cerda said there were "solid indications" the accused had "participated in the misuse of fiscal funds".

No-one in Chile is above the law Michelle Bachelet Chilean president

Judge Cerda is investigating a case in which Gen Pinochet allegedly hid funds with the help of Washington-based Riggs bank.

Suspects include Gen Pinochet's former personal secretary, Monica Ananias, and his lawyer Gustavo Collao.

At least three retired army generals - Jorge Ballerino, Guillermo Garin and Hector Letelier - were also charged.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she would await the court's decision "with calm".

"No-one in Chile is above the law," she said.

RIGGS CASE 2004 US probe into Riggs bank found Gen Pinochet held up to $8m in secret accounts there Accounts alleged to have been opened in names of his widow, children and associates Further investigations found former ruler held some $27m in foreign accounts Gen Pinochet charged with tax evasion and using false passports to open accounts abroad His lawyers say fortune gained legally through savings, donations and accrued interest

In 2004 a US Senate investigation found hundreds of bank accounts in the name of Pinochet and his relatives at the bank. He was being investigated for tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement in relation to those funds.

His immunity from prosecution was stripped in 2000, sparking years of legal wrangling to try to bring him to trial for alleged human rights abuses and tax fraud.

His lawyers said he was unable to defend himself for health reasons.

In 2006, Gen Pinochet died of a heart attack aged 91 while under house arrest.