Huge crowds greet Bhutto return

Hundreds of thousands of people have been greeting Benazir Bhutto, following her dramatic return to Pakistan after eight years in exile.

Well-wishers packed the streets of Karachi in the hope of glimpsing the ex-PM, causing her motorcade to get bogged down as it left the airport.

Ms Bhutto is set to hold power-sharing talks with President Pervez Musharraf, which could see her becoming PM again.

She has pledged to work towards free and fair elections.

There is a huge security presence amid threats of attacks by militants.

Roads clogged

Ms Bhutto flew from Dubai, accompanied on the flight from Dubai by about 100 members of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

At least 200,000 people turned out to greet her, lining the 6km (four-mile) route from the airport into the city.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says many people are dressed in the red, black and green colours of Ms Bhutto's PPP party and there is a carnival atmosphere, with music playing and food stalls in place.

The size of the crowd on the streets means her convoy is making very slow progress

Reports say her special bullet-proof truck took three hours to go just half a kilometre and that the road was still clogged as dusk fell.

The former prime minister rejected police calls to sit inside the vehicle, instead on top of it with party colleagues.

Ms Bhutto is planning to make a speech at the tomb of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

"It's an extremely moving and emotional moment for me," Ms Bhutto told the BBC after her arrival in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city.

"I could not believe that this day that I have counted the hours, the minutes, the months and the years to, had finally arrived."

Enduring popularity

When she first stepped onto Pakistani soil at Karachi airport Ms Bhutto was overcome with emotion and burst into tears.

Many PPP supporters have been bussed in from outlying areas by the party - a show of organisational strength which the ex-prime minister hopes will boost her chances of a return to power, correspondents report.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Karachi says that despite being away for eight years, Ms Bhutto is still enormously popular as a scion of Pakistan's pre-eminent political dynasty.

About 20,000 troops and police have been deployed in the city to oversee Ms Bhutto's arrival amid threats by Islamist militants to assassinate both her and Gen Musharraf.

Gen Musharraf had asked Ms Bhutto to delay her return until the Supreme Court decided whether he was eligible to serve as president for another term.

He easily won a presidential vote on 6 October after opposition deputies in the national and provincial assemblies - which choose the president - either boycotted or abstained from the vote.

However, the court said he could not be officially declared the winner until it had finished ruling on objections to his candidacy.

Ms Bhutto left the country soon after Gen Musharraf seized power in a coup.

Washington has backed a power-sharing deal with Gen Musharraf which would see Ms Bhutto becoming prime minister.

It has become increasingly concerned over the military's inability to defeat Islamist extremists and Gen Musharraf's rising unpopularity.

Murray ready for Nadal in Madrid

Andy Murray cannot wait to face Rafael Nadal in front of the world number two's home crowd in the Madrid Masters third round on Thursday at 1900 BST.

The British number one has been in sensational form this week, beating Radek Stepanek and Juan Ignacio Chela for the loss of just nine games.

Top seed and defending champion Roger Federer thrashed Guillermo Canas 6-0 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, third seed Novak Djokovic beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3 2-6 6-4.

The Serb will face Mario Ancic in the next round after the Croat eased past France's Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 6-3.

Last year's losing finalist Fernando Gonzalez, the fifth seed from Chile, had an emphatic 6-4 6-2 victory over Argentine Juan Monaco.

Murray, meanwhile, will be seeking to join them in the last eight and admits that he will have to serve well to overcome the Spanish star.

Nadal won their only previous meeting, a dramatic five-setter at the Australian Open in January.

"That was one of the best matches I've played on the tour," said Murray. "Probably in a Grand Slam the best match I've played. I was a little bit unlucky in part of the fifth set, had a lot of chances but I didn't take them.

"But indoors, if I serve like I have been, I have a good chance against him.

"I will not be the favourite going into the match, but I feel if I play like I have done in the last couple of matches it's going to be tough to beat me."

Nadal set up the tie by beating Marcos Baghdatis 6-4 6-4 in the second round - his first competitive match since going out of the US Open at the start of September.

The Spaniard believes Murray, ranked 17th in the world, could have been in the top six had it not been for the wrist injury he suffered in Hamburg in May.

Murray was kept out of action for three months and Nadal said: "In my opinion, if he did not have the problem in Hamburg he might have been at this moment the number two, three, four, five, six in the world.

"It was disappointing for him but now he is fighting for a good end to the season. He has played very well in the last two tournaments."

Sony offers cut-price PlayStation

A cut price PlayStation 3 (PS3) with a smaller hard drive and no backwards compatibility with previous consoles goes on sale later this month.

The £299 PS3 has a 40-gigabyte hard disk and will be released in Europe, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

Sony has also slashed the price of the 60GB model from £425 to £349, as it hopes to ignite sales.

Ray Maguire, head of PlayStation UK, said he expected the PS3 user base to double by Christmas.

Mr Maguire said the release of the 40GB PS3 was a "strategic decision" and not the result of lower-than-expected sales of the PlayStation 3.

"We have done market research, looked at fans' forums and the feedback from consumers is that they are anxious to get into PlayStation 3 but it is too expensive," he told BBC News.

Sony was the market leader in the previous two generations of console releases. However, Nintendo is now in pole position closely followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360.

We want to get the console to the next level; we have re-engineered the machine to bring the price down Ray Maguire, Sony

More than 5.5 million PlayStation 3 consoles have been shipped worldwide, compared with more than 10 million each of the Wii and Xbox 360.

He said he expected some existing PS3 owners to feel frustrated at the price cut for the 60GB model coming just six months after the machine was first launched.

The new PS3 will be unable to play PlayStation 1 and 2 games, has a reduced number of USB ports, from four to two connections, and no slots for memory cards. It goes on sale from 10 October.

"The cost of peripherals for adding USB connections and memory stick options is low," said Mr Maguire explaining the alterations.

He added: "Backwards compatibility was reasonably expensive for us to implement and taking it out enabled us to reduce the price."

The entry-level PS3 is now the same price as an Xbox 360 Elite, which has a 120GB hard drive.

Extra expense

However, the PS3 has built-in wi-fi connectivity and a high definition Blu-ray DVD player.

An add-on HD-DVD drive and wi-fi peripheral are available to Xbox 360 owners at extra expense.

The Nintendo Wii costs £179 but does not have high definition graphics or DVD playback, and relies instead on an innovative motion-sensitive control system.

There is no confirmation on the launch of the 40GB PS3 in North America and Japan, which have their own divergent models and price points.

Mr Maguire said: "The people who want to get into new technology early are prepared to pay a premium.

"We want to get the console to the next level; we have re-engineered the machine to bring the price down."

He added: "We have invested a lot of money in reaching this price point."

Sony is still losing money on each console sold, said Mr Maguire, but would lose less money on the 40GB machine.

"We are in an investment phase," he said

Sony was criticised last year when it unveiled its £425 price point for the PlayStation 3 with many analysts saying the firm would struggle to win over gamers.

"It has taken us that long to get the cost down, it's as simple as that," said Mr Maguire.

Benazir Expected to Return in October

Former Pakistani Premier Ms. Benazir Bhutto is expected to return in october.

Ms. Benazir Bhutto's Spokesperson told a private T. V. Channel in an interview that she probably announce her date of arrival in Pakistan on 14th of September as she has planned to come back to her home country.

She will lead the party and launch the Election Campaign from Larkana.

He told, "So far no deal has been signed between The Present Government of Pakistan & Ms. Benazir Bhutto", he further added "although they have been engaged in talks for free and fair elections but an agreement has not been signed yet".