Maddie case to be handed to magistrate Article from: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Portimao, Portugal September 12, 2007 05:03am
PORTUGUESE prosecutors will submit the case of British girl Madeleine McCann, whose parents are suspects in her disappearance, to an investigating magistrate, an official said overnight.
"The public ministry will transmit the dossier to the investigating magistrate," a ministry spokeswoman said without mentioning when.
Portuguese prosecutors had been studying the police case against British couple Kate and Gerry McCann, who said they were in an "unending nightmare" over suspicions that they were behind the disappearance of their daughter.
Investigators had sent their report to prosecutors after the national police director admitted that blood traces found in a car rented by the couple did not give a 100 per cent match to four-year-old Maddie, who went missing in southern Portugal on May 3.
The McCanns were made formal suspects in the case on Saturday and two days later returned to Britain with their two year-old twins.
They have strongly attacked Portuguese police, insisting on their innocence and saying they no longer trust the investigators. Some British media have also attacked the police work.
The McCanns insist Maddie was abducted while she slept and they ate a meal with friends at a tapas bar in a hotel complex in the Algarve region of Portugal.
I read also that it was not blood but DNA evidence which could mean saliva transferred from a toy or clothing, from Maddie. We will not know truly what happened to Maddie until she is found. I believe that Maddie was dead before she was even reported missing. Like our own Daniel Morecombe from here on the Sunny Coast, only their remains will be found, one day.
In trust for the surviving children would be a good idea.
McCanns won't tap fund for legal bills 6:46a.m. 13 September 2007
The parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann won't use a public fund set up to help find their daughter to pay their legal bills, a family spokesman says.
Gerry and Kate McCann have raised a million pounds from well-wishers since launching the fund in May after the four-year-old went missing while on holiday in Portugal.
"We are not seeking support from the fund," spokesman David Hughes told reporters outside the McCanns' family home in Rothley, Leicestershire.
The couple do not want to upset people who think the money should not be used to pay their legal bills, he added.
The fund's trustees said they had decided not to allow the money to be used to pay lawyers' fees, despite receiving expert advice that it would have been legal.
"The fund's directors realised there is not only a legal answer, but recognised too the spirit which underlies the generous donations to Madeleine's fund," Esther McVey, one of the fund's directors, told a news conference.
"For this reason, the fund's directors have decided not to pay for Gerry and Kate's legal defence costs."
The McCanns, both 39, returned to England on Sunday after detectives in Portugal questioned them for hours as formal suspects in the case.
On Tuesday, Portugal's public prosecutor passed the case against them to a criminal judge who will decide whether there are grounds for charges.
The judge can decide whether there is enough evidence for a trial or reject the case for having insufficient evidence.
Lindy Chamberlain warning on McCann case Article from: AAP September 12, 2007 07:54pm
PORTUGUESE police and a public hungry for the truth might derail the investigation into the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, Lindy Chamberlain has warned. Madeleine McCann, 3, vanished from her parents' room at a hotel in Portugal's Algarve region on May 3 as her two-year-old twin siblings slept and her parents ate at a tapas bar with friends nearby.
But her parents, Kate and Jeremy McCann, were last week named by police as suspects and returned to Portugal for lengthy questioning, but were released again two days later.
Police have handed their 10 volumes of reports and evidence to prosecutors, who have now submitted it to the investigating magistrate to consider any further lines of inquiry.
Lindy Chamberlain, now Chamberlain-Creighton, said there were many similarities between the McCann case and the disappearance of her daughter Azaria while on a family camping holiday to Uluru in August 1980.
Ms Chamberlain-Creighton has always insisted a dingo took nine-week-old Azaria from the family's tent.
She was convicted of Azaria's murder in 1982 amid intense public and media speculation, but was exonerated six years later.
"It's certainly looking like it (the McCann case) is having far more echoes of mine than I would wish on anybody," she told the Nine Network tonight.
"Answers are going to come from somewhere or another - whether it is the right answer is a very worrying problem."
There was immense pressure for police to solve the case, Ms Chamberlain-Creighton said.
"The public want answers, and if they haven't got them, they are going to invent them," she said.
"And the police are under pressure and have been trained to find answers.
"I certainly wouldn't want to go through it again and be in their shoes.
"There's nothing you can do, but I think as the public, we want to be careful not to run ahead."
Home-alone teens robbed Edmund Tadros September 13, 2007 - 7:04AM Two teenage sisters were threatened during a home invasion in Sydney's west.
Two men broke through the rear door of a Bonnyrigg Heights home at about 6.30pm yesterday as a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old sister waited for their parents to return home.
The men, one armed with a knife and the other with a pair of scissors, threatened the girls before robbing the home, in Wellard Avenue.
When the girls' parents arrived home about 20 minutes later the robbers fled the scene, taking cash, mobile phones and other items.
Police have described the men as between 20 and 25 with both wearing hooded jumpers. The first man was about 175cm tall and the second man about 165cm tall, they said.
Police have warned parents about the danger of leaving their children at home alone after the invasion.
"It's very difficult to give advice about what to do if someone breaks into the house with a knife - you're really at their mercy," said Inspector Simon Maund, duty officer at Wetherill Park Police Station.
"Normal thing is to not answer the door or phone if your parents aren't home, have contact details for your parents or another caregiver, preferably don't leave a 12-year-old at home, and ring police if you see anyone suspicious."
Anyone with information phone Wetherill Park Police Station on 8788 5199 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Solarium skin cancer victim Clare Oliver dies September 13, 2007 10:16am
SKIN cancer victim Clare Oliver has lost her battle, dying in hospital this morning.
Ms Oliver, who turned 26 late last month, had campaigned in her final days to raise awareness of the dangers of tanning salons.
Ms Oliver who died of aggressive melanoma, captured Victorian hearts when she spoke out against tanning and solariums.
Her plight sparked the government to action with Health Minister Daniel Andrews promising to frame legislation to ensure that tanning salons adhered to age limits for clients and insisted on parental consent forms from customers aged between 16 and 18.
Mr Andrews said the industry's voluntary code of practice would be written into Victorian law, with penalties applying for businesses which breached the regulations.
Under the laws, solariums would be required to give health warnings to customers about the risks of using tanning beds and must obtain informed consent.
"That will be about making sure that every single Victorian who uses these services gets the proper information and provide informed consent and be clear and understand the risks that they are taking," Mr Andrews said at the time.
"I think ultimately that may well save lives."
Shortly before her death, Ms Oliver - who aspired to become a journalist - wrote a moving account of her battle.
She wrote:
"I AM at peace. But if I could go back and talk to myself when I was 19 I would tell that girl not to use a solarium -- that melanoma is not a small cancer that you just have cut out and you will be fine.
I may pass in another week or it could be two. If I really fight it out, I may even have six weeks left. It's scary, because I feel myself getting more tired, and each time I feel sleepy it worries me that I might not wake up.
So far I have lived 25 years. If I am lucky I will reach 26 because my birthday is on Saturday. It is a short life, but I have lived it.
Subconsciously I did know that cancer was involved with solariums because I was aware of UV A and UV B rays.
But when I was 19, I saw a cheap offer of ``buy 10 sessions and get 20''.
The girl working at the tanning salon told me the fastest way to get a tan was to come in every second day and use speed cream.
My mum told me it was abnormal to get in a box and fry myself, but I told her it was cool and everyone was doing it.
After the 10th session I was starting to burn and it hurt, so I stopped. But I guess I stopped too late. It would be irresponsible of me to blame it just on solariums, because I grew up in St Kilda and went to the beach a lot.
But you can't tell me the Government doesn't realise the dangers of solariums.
Young girls need to go out and educate themselves about solariums before they make any decisions.
Obviously my decision has been made, and I think they should be banned. But now that you know my story and the resulting risks involved, hopefully you will realise it is not worth having a golden tan.
I am angry at myself mostly, but I can't believe how much the industry is booming.
A lot of friends tell me I still have a lot of life left in me, but I just live every day as though it is my last.
I was 22 when diagnosed. I had just finished a Bachelor of Media and Communication and a Master of Cinema at the University of Melbourne and started work as a sports journalist at SBS. I was on top of the world.
But I only got to work for three weeks and then I found out about my cancer.
I will never get to climb the so-called ladder, and even now I complain about not being able to run the rat race with everyone else.
I know I would be good at it -- I think I would be great at it.
I wanted to go to the top, but now feel I have so much potential that will be unused.
It was 2004 when they found a tumour under my left armpit, which they treated with immunotherapy.
In July 2005, it came back and this time they treated me with radiotherapy.
I was cancer-free for a year and seven months, and then in April I found a lump in my neck. I thought they could just cut it out, but it turns out there were seven tumours in my chest and one in my lung.
Now they have stopped counting how many there are.
I had all these ideas and in the end I was ready to accept that two years would be more than enough time left.
But I have accepted it, especially now that I am nearing the end and I am at peace.
When you are someone like me you realise that life is everything and you grab it with both hands and embrace it.
If there is something that you feel needs to be done, go and do it, and do it wholeheartedly because life is short.
People ask me how I can still be so happy with all this on my plate. But I have lived my life as a spark. I don't want to live a life where I am living until I am 100 and just flat boring.
I have always lived my life with compassion and passion. I have never been one to keep my silence about anything I have felt passionate about. ''
Melanoma is no joke. And I will keep championing this cause till the day I take my last breath."
Mystery surrounds Big Brother star Gordon's death Thursday Sep 13 16:00 AEST By Emma Chamberlain ninemsn exclusive
Original Big Brother contestant Gordon Sloan has died in Beijing after collapsing in mysterious circumstances 12 days ago.
Sloan, who starred in the first series of the reality show in 2001, died at 1pm (AEST) yesterday at a city hospital.
Sources told ninemsn drugs were suspected in the death and that Sloan might have taken an overdose or been deliberately drugged by another person.
Beijing police were investigating the circumstances surrounding the death, a spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said. Mr Sloan's parents, who had travelled to Beijing from their native New Zealand, could not be contacted this afternoon for comment on the drug claims.
Earlier today, they declined to comment on their son's death.
"They were not surprised that the press was interested because of Gordon's appearance on Big Brother," they said through a spokesperson.
"They said that at this stage they did not want to talk to the press and would be grateful if the press could respect their privacy at this time."
Fellow Big Brother contestant Peter Timms said he was shocked to learn Sloan "had died like that". Timms last saw Sloan at a bar in Sydney three months ago and said "he was as loud and obnoxious as he always was". "Which was one good thing about Gordon — you always knew where you stood with him." "He stood up for what he believed in, whether it was right or wrong." DFAT confirmed a New Zealand-born Australian citizen from Victoria died in Beijing yesterday. The consulate in Beijing is providing support for the family. Mr Sloan's brother and sister had also travelled to Beijing to be with him.
Known as "Flash Gordon" and "Donkey Boy" during his time in the Big Brother house, Mr Sloan was evicted after 35 days.
Ben Williams went on to win the 2001 season best remembered for contestant Sara-Marie Fedele’s "bum dance".
One year after his appearance on Big Brother, Mr Sloan gave up his job as an architect in Sydney to join a "human shield" protest in Baghdad.
The group planned to make camp at predicted US bombing targets such as water treatment plants in support of the Iraqi people.
Reflecting on his time in the house, Sloan told a Big Brother fan site he did not consider himself famous.
"Fame is a word given to people who've overachieved through natural talent and hard work, and gained the respect and admiration of firstly their peer group, then the world," he said.
"We are not famous or talented. We are popular by exposure so TV networks can sell furniture and breakfast radio gets its sound bites!"
The death of Clare Oliver was tragic. I watched the 60 Minutes report on her and cried when she cried. So heart wrenching. I have always known that tanning salons, tanning beds, and Solariums were no different than frying yourself in the normal sun. I have since learned that the UV exposure is 5 times worse under those conditions than in the normal sunshine!! It doesn't take a genius to realise that anything that gives you enough exposure in 10 minutes to give you a tan is dangerous! It's not rocket science. I can remember debating this with young women years ago. They emphatically disagreed it could be dangerous. I have not been exposed to the sun for 10 years plus except to hang the washing out or walk to the shops. My skin is milky white and unwrinkled. Give me someone with Cate Blanchett's skin to Pamela Anderson's! I am sorry Clare Oliver found out about the apparent dangers of solarium use the hard way.
Madeleine may have died from sleeping pills: report
British girl Madeleine McCann may have died from an overdose of sleeping pills, newspaper reports say.
French newspaper France Soir said scientific analysis of the bodily fluids found in the boot of the car hired by parents Kate and Gerry McCann proved "the little girl had ingested medicines, without doubt sleeping pills, in large quantities".
A report outlining how the four-year-old met her death was already with Portuguese prosecutors, said France Soir, in a report picked up by several British newspapers.
British forensic experts have expressed doubts about the claim, saying the fluid is only a partial match to Madeleine's DNA and the sample is not strong enough to determine the presence of drugs.
The report supports theories published in Portugal that Kate McCann was involved in Madeleine's death while on holiday in Portugal, and that her husband helped her dispose of their daughter's body.
The couple's supporters have dismissed the theories as "rumour-mongering", fuelled by sources in the floundering police investigation, London's Daily Mail newspaper said.
Madeleine went missing from the family's holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3.
Other unconfirmed reports say Portuguese police want to reinterview both Mrs McCann and some of the friends on holiday with the couple when Madeleine went missing.
Both parents have been named formal suspects in their daughter's disappearance.
Portuguese newspapers have suggested Mrs McCann could face charges of homicide by negligence and concealing Madeleine's corpse.
I have not been exposed to the sun for 10 years plus except to hang the washing out or walk to the shops. My skin is milky white and unwrinkled. Give me someone with Cate Blanchett's skin to Pamela Anderson's!
What never? What if you go out somewhere? That isn't fair my skin is white even when I do go in the sun!! freckles ftw? i think not :S
I too have freckles Dara. I don't go in the sun like to the beach or sitting exposed to sunlight, ever. I did when I was younger and still a teenager and through early adult hood. I consider myself very fortunate because so many people my age and older have suffered skin cancers in one form or another. One of my brothers in law is a builder and he has sun cancers burnt and cut off regularly and the same with another brother in law who was a farmer until about 50 years of age odd. My 2nd ex husband plays golf and is a green keeper on a golf course and he too has regular burn offs and little nicks where skin cancer has been. So often men feel they are too tough to wear sun protection and many people are still of the belief that Plus 30 sun screen doesn't let you get a tan. Wrong!
I admire adventurers, like Sir Edmund Hilary and of more recent times, Steve Fossett. For two weeks now, Steve Fossett has been missing after taking a small plane on an uncharted flight to check out some salt pans for a land speed record attempt. Since then there has been no word from Steve. In the mean time with such an intense search going on over one dozen plane wrecks have been found from the past few decades that disappeared on uncharted flights. Hopes are fading for Steve Fossett being found alive. I for one am very sad that Steve Fossett has gone missing and as hope fades of his survival, I am saddened by the possibility of his death.
This from Wikipedia:
James Stephen Fossett (born April 22, 1944) is an American aviator, sailor and adventurer known for his appetite for setting world records. Fossett, who made his fortune in the financial services industry, is best known for his five world record nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo airplane pilot. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club, Fossett has set 116 records in five different sports, 60 of which still stand.[1] Fossett was reported missing on September 3, 2007 after the plane he was flying over the Nevada desert failed to return.[2] The Civil Air Patrol and others are searching for him but he has not been located.
Sarah-Jane Collins and Dan Oakes September 18, 2007 - 8:27AM
Police in New Zealand have failed to find the mother of a little girl found abandoned at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station and now hold fears for her safety.
Qian Xun Xue, 3, was found wandering alone at the station on Saturday after she was filmed in the company of a man police believe is her father, Nai Zin Xue, a publisher and reported martial arts expert.
Mr Xue boarded a flight to Los Angeles at Tullamarine on Saturday, hours after he was filmed holding Qian's hand at Southern Cross.
Police say Mr Xue and his daughter, dubbed "Pumpkin" after a label on the clothes she was found in, had flown to Melbourne from Auckland, where they lived with Qian's mother, two days before Qian was abandoned.
But a search of three addresses in Auckland failed to find the mother, Annie Xue, and head of Auckland CIB Detective Inspector Dave Pearson told the New Zealand Herald today: "There are concerns we haven't heard from her at all."
"You can jump to all sorts of conclusions but there are concerns we haven't heard from her, so yes, the inquiry is being ramped up considerably," he said.
Auckland police have established a taskforce to find Mrs Xue.
Mr Xue, an apparently unhappy magazine publisher, is thought to be in his 50s and is also known by his English name, Michael.
Annie, in her late 20s, is reportedly Mr Xue's second wife and the three lived in house in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill.
A friend of Mr Xue's said Mrs and Mrs Xue had recently separated but reconciled last month.
Qian Xun, who did not speak for tow days after she was found at Southern Cross, is in the care of a foster family in Melbourne. Department of Human Services spokeswoman Christina Asquini said she was coping well. "She's predominantly asking for her mother," Ms Asquini said.
Father 'not a happy man'
A friend of Mr Xue, publisher of New Zealand's Chinese Times magazine, said he had been struggling recently. "I heard he is not quite a happy man at this stage. He feels a loss of interest in business and family, very depressed. It could be that he feels no hope, that the family is not very happy."
"I think he solved the problem so his wife came back. He went to Wellington to pick up his wife and child and go back to Auckland," the friend said.
"Quite a few of us went to a meeting there for people from the same home town. At that time only he was there, but after a few days he got his wife and child back."
The friend said he last saw Mr Xue in Auckland on Thursday, the day he flew to Australia with his daughter. They stayed in a central Melbourne hotel for two nights.
Mr Xue bought a return ticket to Los Angeles on Friday at a travel agency, and flew out of Melbourne at 10.45am on Saturday, almost three hours after he abandoned his daughter.
"We heard nothing. We tried to find him. The problem is the office needs him to come back," the friend said.
He said he had tried and failed to contact Mr Xue, who came to New Zealand Z 10 years ago from Liao Ning province in China. He is believed to have been a celebrated practitioner of a form of kung fu.
Qian Xun — whom authorities nicknamed Pumpkin after the Pumpkin Patch brand of clothing she was wearing when she was found — is in the care of a foster family in Melbourne. Department of Human Services spokeswoman Christina Asquini said Qian Xun was coping well. "She's predominantly asking for her mother," Ms Asquini said.
"It's not to be unexpected that she would be distressed and when she has been distressed, the carers have comforted her. She's been watching children's DVDs over the weekend and was giggling and laughing."
The Xues' weatherboard house in the working-class Auckland suburb of Mount Roskill was empty last night. A pair of pink gumboots stood outside the door and letters spilled from the mailbox.
A neighbour, Charlie Rata, said a young Asian woman had arrived at the house last Friday night with an airline ticket.
"She kept saying, 'I've got airline tickets for them'. I just said, 'I can't help you'," Mr Rata said.
"She said, 'Do you know where they might be?' but we hadn't seen them for a few days. She almost didn't want to leave, but there was nobody there."
Mr Rata said the Xues were good neighbours who kept to themselves, but that he had never seen a little girl at the address. "He was a bit of an odd one. He used to walk around during the day in his underwear with a singlet on," Mr Rata said.
"But they were good neighbours because they didn't make a lot of noise and they never complained about anything."
Another neighbour, Marie Lu, said she last saw Mr Xue at a Chinese community function two weekends ago, where he was "happy and chatty".
She said she never saw Mr Xue's wife, but had seen a little girl at the address several weeks ago when she went to ask Mr Xue about placing some advertisements in the Chinese Times, which he ran from the house until recently.
Mr Xue was feeding the girl. "I said, 'Is that your daughter?' and he said, 'Yes'," Mrs Lu said.
The owner of an ethnic media advertising company came to the house last night looking for the owners of the Chinese Times, saying they owed him money. He did not know who the owner of the newspaper was.
He had knocked on the door on Friday too but there was no response.
When 'Pumpkin' was abandoned at the railway station people were outraged, but thankfully she is safe. Why would her father bring her to Australia from New Zealand to drop her off at a railway station and then he himself fly to the USA? Did he think Qian would be better off in Australia, do they have relatives here OR was he trying to throw authorities off the scent of NZ by leaving Qian here. His young second wife has disappeared and can't be located in NZ. Did he do away with her? Is she still alive? I hope they catch Qian's father and bring him back to Australia and New Zealand to face justice. I truly hope his wife is still alive so she and Qian can be reunited.
An international murder hunt is under way after the body of a woman, believed to be the mother of a toddler abandoned in Melbourne, was found in a car outside her house in New Zealand. Police in Auckland said the body of an Asian woman was found today in the boot of the car belonging to Nai Xin Xue, whose wife Anan Liu has not been seen since September 11. The woman's identity has not been confirmed but a post-mortem examination tomorrow is expected to reveal how she died. Mr Xue flew to the United States after abandoning his three-year-old daughter Qian Xun Xue at Melbourne's Southern Cross railway station on Saturday. New Zealand police say they are working with Interpol to find the publisher and martial arts expert, who has a conviction for domestic violence.
Australia targets workshy surfers By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney
The government says coastal areas have pockets of unemployment Welfare recipients living in some beach areas will be the target of a new crackdown by the Australian government.
Ministers say that some coastal towns have "stubbornly" high unemployment where people refuse to work and choose instead to surf and relax on the beach.
The Australian economy has enjoyed 15 years of strong growth, and unemployment is at a 30-year low.
But ministers are concerned that jobless rates in some seaside towns are way above the national average.
Full employment
Australia's conservative government has made full employment a key objective ahead of a general election later this year.
There is a high correlation between high unemployment and coastal areas
One option would be to force people to work for their welfare benefits a lot sooner than they have to at the moment.
Further Education Minister Andrew Robb says changes are needed.
"We've got too many jobs chasing too few people, yet there are still pockets of potential labour around the country," he says.
"We've got areas where there aren't any jobs, and we've got other areas where they're desperate for workers.
"There is a high correlation between high unemployment and coastal areas. We need to put some pressure in some of those areas."
Australia's official unemployment rate is just over 4%.
A chronic skills shortage has left some industries awash with jobs.
The government is recruiting thousands more skilled workers from overseas to plug gaps in the labour market.
Without this army of foreign accountants, health professionals and hairdressers, there are fears that Australia's booming economy could begin to stumble after years of strong growth.
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