RIM to offer free voice calls over Wi-Fi with BBM
















TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry users will soon be able to make free voice calls over a Wi-Fi network using the popular BBM messaging service.


Research In Motion Ltd. announced Wednesday that it’s adding the feature to BBM. Users will be able to switch back and forth from a text chat to a voice call. A split-screen option will let them talk and text at the same time.













The new feature is a free update for existing customers and comes months before RIM introduces its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, which are seen critical to RIM’s survival.


RIM made a surprise disclosure in its most recent earnings report in announcing that the number of subscribers grew, thanks in part to emerging markets and its popular BBM service. It’s struggling in North America as customers migrate to flashier iPhones and Android phone.


RIM stopped short of offering the BBM voice feature over wireless carriers’ own cellular networks. Doing so would have potentially created more congestion on cellular data networks and deprive carriers of revenue for voice calls. With the new feature, the free calls are limited to times and places where Wi-Fi is available.


The Canadian company said the BBM voice feature is especially attractive for developing markets. Unlike regular texts, BBM messages are not charged on a per-text basis.


Although RIM is struggling in North America, the BlackBerry continues to sell well in such markets as South Africa, Nigeria and Indonesia.


The BBM service has long been a reason for BlackBerry users to not defect to other smartphones but there are rival messaging services.


RIM said the BBM voice update is currently available for BlackBerry smartphones running the BlackBerry 6 operating system or higher, with plans for BlackBerry 5 later. RIM’s latest phones run the 7 operating system. The next version, BlackBerry 10, will come soon after a Jan. 30 launch event.


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Jon Bon Jovi’s daughter arrested after suspected drug overdose
















(Reuters) – Rock star Jon Bon Jovi‘s daughter was arrested in New York state on Wednesday on drug possession charges following a suspected heroin overdose, local police said.


Stephanie Bongiovi, 19, was found unresponsive in a dormitory room at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York from an alleged overdose and taken to a local medical facility, according to the Town of Kirkland Police Department.













Heroin and marijuana were found in the dorm room during a search, police said.


Bongiovi was later booked on misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance (heroin), marijuana possession and criminal use of drug paraphernalia. She has since been released, police said.


Representatives of the singer declined to comment.


Police said Ian S. Grant, 21, a student who was in the same room as Bongiovi, was also charged with possession of a controlled substance (heroin) and later released. Both Bongiovi and Grant will appear in court at a later date.


Hamilton College declined to comment on the arrests or Bongiovi’s health but said it is cooperating with the police investigation.


Bongiovi is the oldest of four children of rocker Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea Hurley.


(Reporting By Eric Kelsey and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Kenneth Barry)


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Sources: BP to pay record fine for Gulf Coast disaster

HOUSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - BP Plc is expected to pay a record U.S. criminal penalty and plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster through a plea deal reached with the Department of Justice (DoJ) that may be announced as soon as Thursday, according to sources familiar with discussions.


Three sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said BP would plead guilty in exchange for a waiver of future prosecution on the charges.


BP confirmed it was in "advanced discussions" with the DoJ and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).


The talks were about "proposed resolutions of all U.S. federal government criminal and SEC claims against BP in connection with the Deepwater Horizon incident," it said in a statement on Thursday, but added that no final agreements had been reached.


The discussion do not cover federal civil claims, both BP and the sources said.


London-based oil giant BP has been locked in months-long negotiations with the U.S. government and Gulf Coast states to settle billions of dollars of potential civil and criminal liability claims resulting from the April 20, 2010, explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig.


The sources did not disclose the amount of BP's payment, but one said it would be the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history. That record is now held by Pfizer Inc, which paid a $1.3 billion fine in 2009 for marketing fraud related to its Bextra pain medicine.


The DoJ declined to comment.


The deal could resolve a significant share of the liability that BP faces after the explosion killed 11 workers and fouled the shorelines of four Gulf Coast states in the worst offshore spill in U.S. history. BP, which saw its market value plummet and replaced its CEO in the aftermath of the spill, still faces economic and environmental damage claims sought by U.S. Gulf Coast states and other private plaintiffs.


The fine would far outstrip BP's last major settlement with the DoJ in 2007, when it payed about $373 million to resolve three separate probes into a deadly 2005 Texas refinery explosion, an Alaska oil pipeline leak and fraud for conspiring to corner the U.S. propane market.


The massive settlement, which comes a week after the U.S. presidential election, could ignite a debate in Congress about how funds would be shared with Gulf Coast states, depending on how the deal is structured. Congress passed a law last year that would earmark 80 percent of BP penalties paid under the Clean Water Act to the spill-hit states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas.


POTENTIAL LIABILITY


In an August filing, the DoJ said "reckless management" of the Macondo well "constituted gross negligence and willful misconduct" which it intended to prove at a civil trial set to begin in New Orleans in February 2013. The U.S. government has not yet filed any criminal charges in the case.


Given that the deal will not resolve any civil charges brought by the Justice Department, it is also unclear how large a financial penalty BP might pay to resolve the charges, or other punishments that BP might face.


Negligence is a central issue to BP's potential liability. A gross negligence finding could nearly quadruple the civil damages owed by BP under the Clean Water Act to $21 billion in a straight-line calculation.


Still unresolved is potential liability faced by Swiss-based Transocean Ltd, owner of the Deepwater Horizon vessel, and Halliburton Co, which provided cementing work on the well that U.S. investigators say was flawed. Both companies were not immediately available for comment.


According to the Justice Department, errors made by BP and Transocean in deciphering a pressure test of the Macondo well are a clear indication of gross negligence.


"That such a simple, yet fundamental and safety-critical test could have been so stunningly, blindingly botched in so many ways, by so many people, demonstrates gross negligence," the government said in its August filing.


Transocean in September disclosed it is in discussions with the Justice Department to pay $1.5 billion to resolve civil and criminal claims.


The mile-deep Macondo well spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over a period of 87 days. The torrent fouled shorelines from Texas to Florida and eclipsed in severity the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.


BP has already announced an uncapped class-action settlement with private plaintiffs that the company estimates will cost $7.8 billion to resolve litigation brought by over 100,000 individuals and businesses claiming economic and medical damages from the spill.


(Additional reporting by Andrew Callus in London; Editing by Edward Tobin and David Stamp)


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Congress, Obama face dynamite in “fiscal cliff”: CEOs
















BOSTON (Reuters) – Corporate America is raising the volume of its plea that the U.S. government avert a year-end “fiscal cliff” that could send the nation back into recession, but chief executives aren’t pushing the panic button just yet.


With a heated election season in the rear-view mirror, executives are calling on the White House and congressional leaders to head off a self-imposed deadline that could bring $ 600 billion in spending cuts and higher taxes early in 2013 if they are unable to reach a deal on cutting the federal budget deficit.













The Business Roundtable on Tuesday kicked off a print, radio and online ad campaign on which it plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars featuring the chiefs of Honeywell International Inc , Xerox Corp and United Parcel Service Inc calling on lawmakers to resolve the issue.


In an opinion piece published on Tuesday evening on the Wall Street Journal’s website, Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein urged the business community and the Obama administration to compromise and reconcile so as not to derail the fragile recovery.


One of the more dramatic warnings of the consequences of allowing the U.S. economy to go over the fiscal cliff came from Honeywell CEO David Cote.


“If the last debt ceiling discussion was playing with fire, this time they’re playing with nitroglycerin,” Cote said in an interview. “If they go off the cliff, I think it would spark a recession that’s a lot bigger than economists think. Some think it would just be a small fire. I think it could turn into a conflagration.”


The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the U.S. economy would contract 0.5 percent in 2013 if the government fails to stop the budget cuts and tax increases – far below the 2 percent growth economists currently forecast.


A failure in Washington to solve the crisis by the year’s end could prompt major companies to curtail investment plans, said Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext , operator of the New York Stock Exchange.


“We simply won’t be investing in the United States. We will be investing elsewhere where we have more certainty of the outcome,” Niederauer said in an interview.


About a dozen top U.S. CEOs, including General Electric Co’s Jeff Immelt, Aetna Inc’s Mark Bertolini, American Express Co’s Ken Chenault and Dow Chemical Co’s Andrew Liveris are scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama on Wednesday to discuss the issue.


The four are members of “Fix the Debt,” an ad-hoc lobbying organization that this week launched an advertising campaign that advocates long-term debt reduction.


UNCERTAINTY FACTOR


Bank of America Corp CEO Brian Moynihan said on Tuesday that worries about the cliff have companies holding off on spending.


“That uncertainty continues to hold back the recovery,” Moynihan said, speaking at an investor conference in New York.


Sandy Cutler, CEO of manufacturer Eaton Corp , shared his concern.


“Until we solve the fiscal issues (in the United States and Europe), you’re not going to get back to normal GDP growth,” Cutler told investors on Tuesday.


CEOs are not alone in this worry. The CBO report warned that failure to reach a deal could push the U.S. unemployment rate up to 9.1 percent, the highest since July 1991. It is currently 7.9 percent.


Obama and the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives have signaled a more conciliatory tone since last week’s election, when Obama soundly defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney, whose party retained a majority in the House.


Wilbur Ross, an investor known for taking stakes in distressed companies, is bracing for higher tax rates in 2013.


“We, like many people, have been trying to utilize gains this year. It does seem that the probability is that rates will go up,” Ross said in an interview with Reuters Insider. “We don’t have a “for sale” sign on anything. But we are mindful that there is a benefit to concluding things this year rather than next.


NO SIGNS OF PANIC


Concerns about the cliff have not prompted customers to cancel orders, though they have added to an overall level of uneasiness that has companies wary of making large capital purchases or hiring significant numbers of new workers.


“We haven’t seen the panicking, like, ‘I’m not going to order something because of the fiscal cliff,’” said Steve Shawley, chief financial officer of heating and cooling systems maker Ingersoll Rand Plc . “Customers are being very judicious with their orders.”


Likewise, JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon last month told investors he did not expect the negotiations to hurt lending in the fourth quarter.


“The fiscal cliff isn’t going to change us,” Dimon said, referring to JPMorgan’s commercial bank, which loans money to businesses. The bank’s investment banking side could be more vulnerable if the debate makes investors jittery, he allowed.


WEAPONS, MEDICINES IN THE CROSS-HAIRS


The defense and healthcare sectors are the most vulnerable to the fiscal cliff, as they face the threat of sequestration — automatic, across-the-board cuts to their funding.


Makers of weapons systems note that they have long been preparing for declining sales as the United States winds down two long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The industry has already shed tens of thousands of jobs and closed facilities.


Lockheed Martin Corp’s new president and chief operating officer, Marillyn Hewson, told analysts on Monday her company had been preparing for tighter defense budgets for years, even before the sequestration deal.


“We aren’t going to see a major change,” said Hewson. “We’ve been very proactive as a leadership team in taking actions in recent years to address our cost structure, to look at how we can make our product more affordable.”


Automatic cuts to the federal budget could reduce federal health spending by $ 21.5 billion in 2013, potentially affecting everything from Medicare to the Food and Drug Administration, according to an analysis by PwC’s Health Research Institute.


Vincent Forlenza, the CEO of Becton Dickinson & Co , said the labs he supplies have held off on buying new instruments because of the threat of spending cuts.


“If we don’t get to a deal we will have another year of paralysis and putting off research,” Forlenza said. “The impact of uncertainty on the (National Institutes of Health) budget is causing our research customers to put off research.”


(The story corrects spelling of company name in penultimate paragraph to “Becton Dickinson” instead of “Beckton Dickinson”)


(Additional reporting by John McCrank, Nick Zieminski, Caroline Humer, Jed Horowitz, Sharon Begley and Daniel Wilchins in New York, Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nichola Groom in Los Angeles, Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington, Debra Sherman in Chicago and Anna Driver in Houston; Editing by Patricia Kranz and Steve Orlofsky and Carol Bishopric)


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Cellphones may get smaller Holiday lift: Gartner
















(Reuters) – The pre-Christmas shopping season is likely to boost cellphone sales less that usual this year as a weaker global economy forces consumers to cut back, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.


“It will be a cautious quarter. Consumers are either cautious with their spending or finding new gadgets like tablets, as more attractive presents,” Gartner analysts said.













Gartner said sales of cellphones declined 3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, falling for the third quarter in a row, while sales of smartphones grew 47 percent.


Smartphone growth this year is boosted by strong demand in China, where annual sales will grow to 165-170 million from 78 million a year earlier, it said.


“There is huge growth coming from the Chinese market,” said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.


This is helping local players to climb in global cellphone rankings, with ZTE, Huawei and TCL now among the seven largest cellphone vendors globally, Gartner said.


Samsung Electronics continues to lead the global cellphone sales ranking, ahead of Nokia and Apple. In smartphone sales Nokia, which still lead the market early last year, dropped to No 7, Gartner said.


(Reporting By Tarmo Virki)


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Liza Minnelli to guest star on TV musical drama “Smash”
















LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Liza Minnelli will guest star on an episode of TV musical drama “Smash,” NBC said on Tuesday.


The singer and actress will play herself and sing a number in one episode of the show when it returns in February 2013. The series, starring Debra Messing, Anjelica Huston and Katharine McPhee, dramatizes the backstage life of writers, producers and actors working to create a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe.













Liza Minnelli is the essence of a multi-talented, singular show business sensation, particularly for her extraordinary contributions to Broadway,” Robert Greenblatt, the president of NBC Entertainment, said in a statement.


“So what could be more fitting than to have her legendary talent on a show that celebrates a world Liza has dazzled for decades?” he added


The daughter of director Vincente Minnelli and Hollywood legend Judy Garland, Minnelli, 66, is one of a handful of stars to have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony award.


She is best-known for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the musical “Cabaret.” She is also expected to revive her role as Lucille on the upcoming fourth season of “Arrested Development,” which is slated to air on Netflix after being canceled by Fox in 2006.


NBC has moved the second season of “Smash” from Monday to Tuesday night, starting on February 5, 2013.


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Jill Serjeant and Matthew Lewis)


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'Warrior monk' at center of growing scandal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Marine Corps General John Allen, the soberly formal, spit-and-polish head of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, is not a military leader whose image immediately conjures up the word "flirtatious."


The four-star general, who succeeded General David Petraeus last year as head of the International Security Assistance Force, is known for his ability to work with tribal sheikhs, a skill that helped him turn the tide against al Qaeda in Anbar Province in Iraq five years ago and has served him well in Afghanistan.


So the news that Allen, a 36-year veteran of the Marine Corps, had been snared in the same investigation that prompted the resignation of Petraeus as CIA director last week was greeted with surprise at the Pentagon and elsewhere in Washington.


John Ullyot, who served under Allen at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in 1993, said he was all about "setting the example" for those under him and it was "hard for anyone who ever served under Allen" to believe he had been pulled into the probe.


Allen, who is married and has two daughters, "was known as a kind of warrior monk," said Ullyot, who was a spokesman for former U.S. Senator John Warner, a Republican who chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee.


Allen's connection to the probe that snared Petraeus was revealed early on Tuesday when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced he was putting Allen's nomination as head of U.S. European Command on hold pending an investigation.


A senior U.S. defense official said Panetta had asked the Defense Department's inspector general to investigate what the Pentagon called "inappropriate communication" between Allen and Jill Kelley, a Tampa, Florida socialite who is involved in volunteer causes that support the military.


Kelley is the woman who told the FBI she had received anonymous harassing emails about Petraeus. The FBI investigation into the emails uncovered an extramarital affair between Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, who was found to be the source of the emails to Kelley, officials have said.


The FBI investigation also uncovered 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails between or copied to Allen and Kelley. While defense officials were unable to say exactly how many emails there were between the two, the volume in pages raised concerns, they said.


A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the emails were "flirtatious" in nature, but did not deal with security or military business. The official said he had not seen the emails and could not say whether they were merely friendly or sexually explicit.


The investigation came just two days before Allen, the first Marine to serve as Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, was to testify at a confirmation hearing naming him to replace Admiral James Stavridis as head of the U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe.


RECOMMENDED BY PETRAEUS


Allen and Petraeus have long known one another and served together. Allen was Petraeus' deputy at U.S. Central Command, based in Tampa.


Petraeus personally recommended Allen for the ISAF command. During Allen's confirmation hearing for the job, Senator John McCain told Allen he could "think of no higher compliment to pay a military officer" than to have the kind of support Petraeus had given him.


Allen has served as the head of ISAF since July 2011, managing the drawdown of U.S. forces following a surge that helped push Taliban insurgents out of major cities across the country.


His time in Afghanistan also has been marked by a spate of incidents that have enraged Afghans. They include video images of troops urinating on Taliban corpses and the burning of Korans and religious texts taken from a prison library. There also has been a surge in attacks on international forces by their Afghan partners.


Allen has handled the incidents with sensitivity, even as tensions have increased, his supporters say.


"I think General Allen has done a good job under very difficult circumstances in Afghanistan," said Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Armed Services Committee.


McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said he was surprised by the probe of Allen's emails and urged people to withhold judgment until the inspector general had finished his investigation.


"I have great respect and appreciation for the work that General Allen has done," he said. "If we fail in Afghanistan, which we are, it's because of decisions that were made by the president, not by General Allen."


"General Allen has said that he is not guilty of any improper behavior," McCain added. "He deserves to have us withhold judgment until the investigation is completed."


Allen, a 1976 Naval Academy graduate, served from 2008 to 2011 as deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military dealings with countries from Egypt to Kazakhstan, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.


He was a deputy commanding general of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq from 2006 to 2008.


(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell. Editing by Warren Strobel and Christopher Wilson)

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Bayer: 5 key drugs to have combined peak sales of 5.5 billion euro
















LEVERKUSEN, Germany (Reuters) – Bayer said its five most promising new drugs have an annual peak sales potential of more than 5.5 billion euros ($ 7 billion).


The sales forecast comprises anti-clotting pill Xarelto, ophthalmic drug Eylea, also calle VEGF Trap-Eye, anti-cancer products Alpharadin and Stivarga, as well as lung treatment riociguat.













Last year, Bayer said four of the drugs, excluding riociguat, would have a peak sales potential of more than 5 billion euros.


(Reporting by Frank Siebelt; Writing by Ludwig Burger)


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General investigated for emails to Petraeus friend
















PERTH, Australia (AP) — In a new twist to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal, the Pentagon said Tuesday that the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is under investigation for alleged “inappropriate communications” with a woman who is said to have received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the woman with whom Petraeus had an extramarital affair.


Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a written statement issued to reporters aboard his aircraft, en route from Honolulu to Perth, Australia, that the FBI referred the matter to the Pentagon on Sunday.













Panetta said that he ordered a Pentagon investigation of Allen on Monday.


A senior defense official traveling with Panetta said Allen’s communications were with Jill Kelley, who has been described as an unpaid social liaison at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., which is headquarters to the U.S. Central Command. She is not a U.S. government employee.


Kelley is said to have received threatening emails from Broadwell, who is Petraeus’ biographer and who had an extramarital affair with Petraeus that reportedly began after he became CIA director in September 2011.


Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Friday.


Allen, a four-star Marine general, succeeded Petraeus as the top American commander in Afghanistan in July 2011.


The senior official, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because it is under investigation, said Panetta believed it was prudent to launch a Pentagon investigation, although the official would not explain the nature of Allen’s problematic communications.


The official said 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen’s communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.


“Gen. Allen disputes that he has engaged in any wrongdoing in this matter,” the official said. He said Allen currently is in Washington.


Panetta said that while the matter is being investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General, Allen will remain in his post as commander of the International Security Assistance Force, based in Kabul. He praised Allen as having been instrumental in making progress in the war.


The FBI’s decision to refer the Allen matter to the Pentagon rather than keep it itself, combined with Panetta’s decision to allow Allen to continue as Afghanistan commander without a suspension, suggested strongly that officials viewed whatever happened as a possible infraction of military rules rather than a violation of federal criminal law.


Allen was Deputy Commander of Central Command, based in Tampa, prior to taking over in Afghanistan. He also is a veteran of the Iraq war.


In the meantime, Panetta said, Allen’s nomination to be the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has been put on hold “until the relevant facts are determined.” He had been expected to take that new post in early 2013, if confirmed by the Senate, as had been widely expected.


Panetta said President Barack Obama was consulted and agreed that Allen’s nomination should be put on hold. Allen was to testify at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. Panetta said he asked committee leaders to delay that hearing.


NATO officials had no comment about the delay in Allen’s appointment.


“We have seen Secretary Panetta‘s statement,” NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels. “It is a U.S. investigation.”


Panetta also said he wants the Senate Armed Services Committee to act promptly on Obama’s nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to succeed Allen as commander in Afghanistan. That nomination was made several weeks ago. Dunford’s hearing is also scheduled for Thursday.


___


Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.


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Belize wants to quiz anti-computer virus guru McAfee in murder probe
















BELIZE CITY (Reuters) – Police in Belize want to question U.S. anti-computer virus software pioneer John McAfee in connection with the murder of a neighbor he had been quarrelling with, but they say he remains a person of interest at this time and is not a suspect.


McAfee, who invented the anti-virus software that bears his name, has homes and businesses in Belize, and is believed to have settled in the country sometime around 2010.













“He is a person of interest at this time,” said Marco Vidal, head of Belize’s police Gang Suppression Unit. “It goes a bit beyond that, not just being a neighbor.”


Police officers were looking for the software engineer, said Miguel Segura, the assistant commissioner of police.


Asked if McAfee was a suspect, he said: “At this point, no. Our job … is to get all the evidence beyond reasonable doubt that Mr A is the one that killed Mr B.”


“He (McAfee) … can assist the investigation, so there is no arrest warrant for the fellow,” added Segura, who heads the Criminal Investigation Branch.


McAfee’s neighbor, Gregory Viant Faull, a 52-year-old American, was found on Sunday lying dead in a pool of blood after apparently being shot in the head.


McAfee has been embroiled in controversy in Belize before.


His premises were raided in May after he was accused of holding firearms, though most were found to be licensed. The final outcome of the case is pending.


McAfee also owns a security company in Belize as well as several properties and an ecological enterprise.


Reuters was unable to contact McAfee on Monday.


Segura said McAfee had been at odds with Faull for some time. He accused his neighbor of poisoning his dogs earlier this year and filed an official complaint.


“There was some conflict there between (them) … prior to the death of the gentleman,” Segura said. “But those dogs didn’t have a post mortem to see if the toxicology would confirm what type of poison, if any.”


McAfee previously accused the police Gang Suppression Unit of killing his dogs during the May raid.


McAfee was one of Silicon Valley’s first entrepreneurs to amass a fortune by building a business off the Internet.


The former Lockheed systems consultant started McAfee Associates in 1989, initially distributing its anti-virus software as “shareware” on Internet bulletin boards.


He took the company public in 1992 and left two years later following accusations that he had hyped the arrival of a virus known as Michelango, which turned out to be a dud, to scare computer users into buying his company’s products.


(Reporting by Simon Gardner and Gabriel Stargardter in Mexico City and Jim Finkle; Editing by Kieran Murray and Todd Eastham)


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