WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two U.S. citizens have been charged with illegally lobbying the United States for the Pakistani government and its spy agency over the disputed territory of Kashmir, U.S. authorities said on Tuesday.

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, was arrested in Virginia on charges that he failed to register as an agent of a foreign government in his capacity as director of the Kashmiri American Council and for receiving at least $4 million from Pakistan for his lobbying efforts.

Zaheer Ahmad, 63, was also charged but is believed to be at large in Pakistan.

The arrest and allegations are likely to only further strain ties between Washington and Islamabad which were already complicated — particularly after U.S. forces conducted a secret raid in Pakistan in May that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Control over the mountainous region of Kashmir has been at the center of hostilities between Pakistan and India, two countries that now have nuclear arms, since their partition in 1947. The area is heavily militarized, and has been the scene of numerous conflicts, including a 1999 war.

An FBI affidavit detailed the alleged scheme in which Fai’s organization received up to $700,000 annually from Pakistan to make campaign contributions to U.S. politicians, sponsor conferences and other promotions.

One unidentified confidential witness told investigators that Pakistan’s powerful military spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), was behind some of the money Fai received, according to the FBI affidavit.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The legal team for cycling superstar Lance Armstrong, who is under federal investigation for doping, has asked a U.S. judge to probe apparent leaks of secret grand jury proceedings examining the sport.

Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, has denied taking banned substances but has had to fend off accusations by former teammates that he did so despite never failing drug tests.

The cyclist’s newly hired legal team filed a motion in federal court in California asking a judge to investigate purported leaks from grand jury proceedings and require prosecutors to show why they should not be held in contempt.

“Each leak has revealed information damaging to Armstrong’s reputation and has been carefully calculated to drum up publicity and cultivate public support for an investigation that is, to say the least, questionable in both its motive and its merits,” his lawyers wrote in the 20-page motion filed last week and released on Monday.

A grand jury reviews possible wrongdoing and decides whether to issue an indictment based on evidence presented. The proceedings are mostly secret. Only witnesses who go before them may talk about what they said to the panel.

Armstrong in May hired two prominent defense lawyers, John Keker and Elliot Peters. They won a case for the Major League Baseball Players Association in which an appeals court ruled federal agents did not have the right to seize anonymous drug test results.

While they acknowledged prosecutors denied responsibility for the leaks, Armstrong’s lawyers suggest a connection to the government, possibly an investigator who also was involved in the probe of anabolic steroids use in baseball, Jeff Novitzky.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The legal team for cycling superstar Lance Armstrong, who is under federal investigation for doping, has asked a U.S. judge to probe apparent leaks of secret grand jury proceedings examining the sport.

Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, has denied taking banned substances but has had to fend off accusations by former teammates that he did so despite never failing drug tests.

The cyclist’s newly hired legal team filed a motion in federal court in California asking a judge to investigate purported leaks from grand jury proceedings and require prosecutors to show why they should not be held in contempt.

“Each leak has revealed information damaging to Armstrong’s reputation and has been carefully calculated to drum up publicity and cultivate public support for an investigation that is, to say the least, questionable in both its motive and its merits,” his lawyers wrote in the 20-page motion filed last week and released on Monday.

A grand jury reviews possible wrongdoing and decides whether to issue an indictment based on evidence presented. The proceedings are mostly secret. Only witnesses who go before them may talk about what they said to the panel.

Armstrong in May hired two prominent defense lawyers, John Keker and Elliot Peters. They won a case for the Major League Baseball Players Association in which an appeals court ruled federal agents did not have the right to seize anonymous drug test results.

While they acknowledged prosecutors denied responsibility for the leaks, Armstrong’s lawyers suggest a connection to the government, possibly an investigator who also was involved in the probe of anabolic steroids use in baseball, Jeff Novitzky.

WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) – The head of President Barack Obama’s task force to better combat fraud in the wake of the financial meltdown, Robb Adkins, is stepping down from his position on Friday, the Justice Department said.

Adkins, 40, leaves as executive director of the Financial Fraud Task Force after about 17 months in the job. He will join a private firm in California where he was a federal prosecutor before taking the task force position, the agency said.

The task force was set up in late 2009 by Obama in a bid to focus more on mortgage and financial fraud that emanated from the housing market implosion, drawing on resources from various federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder expanded the group’s mandate earlier this year to include examining possible fraud as a result of speculation in the oil and gas markets as fuel prices soared.

“He has helped in the administration’s efforts to launch the largest coalition of federal, state and local enforcement and regulatory authorities ever brought to bear to combat a wide range of fraud,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole said in a statement.

“We will continue to focus our efforts on this important work,” Cole said. A replacement is expected to be hired in the coming weeks, according to Justice Department spokeswoman Alisa Finelli.

Adkins said in a statement he and his family wanted to return home to California.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A judge declared a mistrial on Thursday in the perjury trial of baseball pitching great Roger Clemens because the lead prosecutor gave jurors information that had been barred from the courtroom.

Judge Reggie Walton was furious at prosecutor Steven Durham for introducing material in a video that appeared to bolster the credibility of a future witness, Clemens’ former teammate Andy Pettitte, and referred to Pettitte’s wife, Laura, saying she had been told Clemens used human growth hormone.

“If this man is convicted, knowing how I sentence, he goes to jail,” Walton said. “He is entitled to a fair trial. In my view he cannot get one.”

The mistrial was a major setback for the U.S. government, which spent more than a year preparing the case and was only in its second day of presenting its evidence with the prosecution’s third witness on the stand.

After the mistrial declaration, Clemens walked to a nearby sandwich shop, signing autographs along the way.

“He’s eager to get back to his family as soon as he can,” said his lawyer Rusty Hardin, declining further comment because Walton has issued a gag order in the case.

Clemens, 48, whose career spanned 24 years playing for four teams and winning the Cy Young Award for best pitcher seven times, was fighting charges that he lied to Congress in 2008 when he denied taking steroids and human growth hormones.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A judge declared a mistrial on Thursday in the perjury trial of baseball great Roger Clemens, because prosecutors violated an order that barred certain information from being introduced to the jury.

Judge Reggie Walton was furious at prosecutor Steven Durham for introducing evidence that appeared to bolster the credibility of a future witness, Clemens’ former teammate Andy Pettitte, and referred to Pettitte’s wife, Laura, after the judge issued an order that limited or barred such information.

“A first year law student would know that you can’t bolster the credibility of one witness with clearly inadmissible evidence,” Walton said, raising his voice in anger at Durham. “I don’t see how I unring the bell.”

The mistrial was a major setback for the government, which spent a year preparing the case. Four days were spent on selecting a jury.

Walton said the parties would have to discuss whether retrying Clemens would violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, which protects an individual from being tried twice for the same offenses.

A hearing on the double-jeopardy issue will be on Sept. 2 but no new possible trial date was set.

Durham had pressed Walton to instead instruct the jury to disregard the information which was presented in a video of the 2008 congressional testimony by Clemens to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A judge declared a mistrial on Thursday in the perjury trial of baseball great Roger Clemens, because prosecutors violated an order that barred certain information from being introduced to the jury.

Judge Reggie Walton was furious at prosecutor Steven Durham for introducing evidence that appeared to bolster the credibility of a future witness, Clemens’ former teammate Andy Pettitte, and referred to Pettitte’s wife, Laura, after the judge issued an order that limited or barred such information.

“A first year law student would know that you can’t bolster the credibility of one witness with clearly inadmissible evidence,” Walton said, raising his voice in anger at Durham. “I don’t see how I unring the bell.”

The mistrial was a major setback for the government, which spent a year preparing the case. Four days were spent on selecting a jury.

Walton said the parties would have to discuss whether retrying Clemens would violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, which protects an individual from being tried twice for the same offenses.

A hearing on the double-jeopardy issue will be on September 2 but no new possible trial date was set.

Durham had pressed Walton to instead instruct the jury to disregard the information which was presented in a video of the 2008 congressional testimony by Clemens to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Prosecutors promised on Wednesday to link Major League Baseball pitching great Roger Clemens to steroid use with needles and bloodied cotton balls in their bid to prove he lied to Congress about it.

Prosecutors gave their opening statement in U.S. District court against Clemens as they seek to prove he lied to Congress in 2008 when he told lawmakers he never took anabolic steroids or human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.

Clemens has repeatedly denied taking the performance enhancing drugs or lying to lawmakers, telling them that his personal trainer and onetime friend, Brian McNamee, had injected him with shots of vitamin B12 and the anesthetic lidocaine instead.

“We will prove that Mr. Clemens … used both anabolic steroids and human growth hormones,” prosecutor Steven Durham told the jury, just blocks from Congress where the pitching legend gave his disputed testimony.

“Mr. McNamee saved needles and cotton balls that he used to inject Mr. Clemens — he never completely trusted this man.”

The evidence McNamee saved was sent by prosecutors to private laboratories which tested them and found evidence consistent with Clemens’ DNA on the needles and his actual DNA on the bloodied cotton balls, Durham said.

“They found absolutely no B12 and they found absolutely no lidocaine,” Durham said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday promised to tie pitching legend Roger Clemens to steroid use with needles and bloodied cotton balls in their bid to prove he lied to Congress about it.

Prosecutors made their opening salvos against the seven-time Cy Young Award winner as they seek to prove he lied to Congress in 2008 when he told them he never took anabolic steroids or human growth hormones from 1998 to 2001.

Clemens has repeatedly denied taking the drugs or lying to lawmakers, telling them that his personal trainer and onetime friend, Brian McNamee, had injected him with shots of vitamin B12 and the anesthetic lidocaine instead.

“We will prove that Mr Clemens … used both anabolic steroids and human growth hormones,” U.S. prosecutor Steven Durham told the jury.

“Mr. McNamee saved needles and cotton balls that he used to inject Mr. Clemens — he never completely trusted this man.”

The evidence McNamee saved was sent by prosecutors to private laboratories which tested them and found evidence consistent with Clemens’ DNA on the needles and his actual DNA on the bloodied cotton balls, Durham said.

“They found absolutely no B12 and they found absolutely no lidocaine,” Durham said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lawyers for Roger Clemens, on trial on charges he lied to Congress, plan to argue that U.S. lawmakers overreached when they called the former pitching ace to testify about steroids in Major League Baseball.

A day before opening arguments, prosecutors and defense lawyers squabbled on Tuesday over whether Congress had the authority to probe the use of performance-enhancing drugs and to interview Clemens and his accuser, former trainer Brian McNamee.

Prosecutors will try to prove that Clemens took steroids and human growth hormones and then lied to Congress and obstructed its investigation into drug use in baseball.

Clemens has denied taking the drugs or lying about it.

Hearings by the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee in February 2008 followed an independent report released by Major League Baseball in which McNamee and others accused Clemens of using both substances from 1998 to 2001.

One of Clemens’ lawyers said the hearing with Clemens and McNamee testifying was beyond Congress’ purview because there was no pending, future or past legislation being discussed.

“We will be able to prove that that ship had sailed. … Now it became a question of Mr. Clemens versus Mr. McNamee,” said the pitcher’s lawyer Michael Attanasio.