http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/i...o-tupac-assault/2008/04/08/1207420350639.htmlThe Los Angeles Times has formally retracted a story based on bogus documents that linked rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs to the 1994 assault on late rapper Tupac Shakur.
The newspaper said in a statement that an article published last month, which alleged that two men linked to Combs helped set up the shooting, had "relied heavily on information The Times no longer believes to be credible".
The March 17 article, titled "An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip Hop War," purported to contain "new information" about an attack on Shakur gleaned from previously unseen FBI reports.
However, the newspaper said it believed the documents were fabricated and that other sources used in the story did not support the claims.
The Times had already apologised on March 27 after being made aware that the FBI documents were bogus by crime website thesmokinggun.com.
"In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job," Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chuck Philips said in a statement published in an LA Times article. "I'm sorry."
Philips' story alleged that James Rosemond, a rap talent manager, and James Sabatino, identified as a promoter, wanted to curry favour with Combs and believed Shakur had disrespected them.
Combs and Rosemond vehemently rejected the article's allegations.
No one has been charged for the November 30, 1994 assault on Shakur in his Quad Recording Studios in New York.
The shooting triggered a rap war pitting West Coast rappers including Shakur against East Coast rivals represented by superstar rapper Notorious BIG, whose real name was Christopher Wallace.
Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas in September 1996 and Wallace was shot dead in Los Angeles six months later. Both murders remain unsolved.
Whatever happened to Tupac, god knows.
Conspiracies, Conspiracies, Conspiracies.