BB FANS

Angelina: It's so upsetting

Angelina Jolie has reportedly revealed she has been deeply moved by the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The Oscar-winning actress - who has four children with Brad Pitt and is due to give birth to twins - empathises with the McCann family as a parent herself.

Hulldailymail

McCanns ‘worn out’ by question of leaving Madeleine alone

The parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann, who vanished from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz last May then aged three, are said to be ‘worn out’ by questions relating to the fact they left their infant daughter alone in the family’s holiday apartment with her younger twin siblings while they dined at a nearby restaurant. Instead, they insist the “real issue” that needs to be looked into is the kidnapping of their daughter.

Participating in an EU parliamentary press conference to promote a petition launched two months ago in Brussels, campaigning for an EU-wide missing child alert system, Kate and Gerry McCann said they were “tired” of being asked about why they left their daughter alone and that “people should focus on the crime committed”.

“We didn’t abandon nor did we neglect Madeleine. Someone came into the apartment and took a child. That is the question. Keeping going over the same issue is really very annoying”, Gerry McCann declared.

His wife, Kate, also said “the real question is that a child was kidnapped and there is a criminal on the loose”.

“We must concentrate on the real matter. It does not help to keep bringing up the same old subject. Nothing has changed over the past 14 months and I don’t understand why we have to keep talking about it”, she said.

Meanwhile, the McCanns have said they are “confident” of gaining the support they need for an EU-wide alert system for abducted children to be created.

The couple have been lobbying MEPs to enlist a necessary 393 of them to back the plan by July 24th for it to be published.

But they are still 167 short, and say some are “surprisingly” unaware of their proposal.

“Whilst we remain confident... we have also learnt that we still have much to do to increase awareness”, said Kate.

Kate and Gerry McCann believe that a European version of the US Amber Alert system would have helped the search for their daughter in the crucial hours after her disappearance.

Meanwhile, Portuguese authorities have said the family will soon be allowed access to the police files in the case.

Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro, Portugal’s Attorney-General, told a Portuguese newspaper the period of official secrecy in the case would end next month, though due to judicial holidays, this deadline could be prolonged until late August, when the McCanns will discover the case Portuguese police have against them.

Portugal News-on-Line

‘Pictures of Maddy’ trap child-porn man

A MAN told police he had found pictures of Madeleine McCann while surfing the internet.
But when they checked out the laptop Bruce Robert Smith brought into the station they found not missing Maddy, but child porn pictures and videos.

ThisisGuernsey

Madeleine McCann family death threats

MADELEINE McCann’s parents have installed panic alarms at their home after receiving threats.

Liverpool-born Kate and husband Gerry are understood to have received offensive and menacing letters and emails, including two that threatened to kill them.

LiverpoolEcho

Charity worker in Maddie sick joke row

A charity boss from West Kilbride has been suspended over a sick joke about Madeleine McCann.

Senior manager Lynn McBain was suspended earlier this month after referring in a staff newsletter to the 4-year-old girl who went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal over a year ago.

Some readers were left shocked after she joked that “McCann oven chips” had disappeared from her oven after she left them there for 20 minutes.

The 10-page booklet for Enable Scotland - who campaign for a better life for children and adults with learning disabilities - also allegedly insulted the family of a woman with learning difficulties, who is a client of the charity.

Largs & Millport News

Madeleine McCann: A Solicitor Writes To The Express

LITTLE news in the Express of the paper’s once ubiquitous missing cover girl Madeleine McCann.

One reason could be that Express Newspapers have received a solicitor’s letter from the so-called Tapas 7 threatening to sue the paper in relation to “a number of articles”.

All ‘Our Maddie’ related content has been purged from the newspapers’ websites.

Can we expect another generous donation to the McCann fighting fund soon, and Madeleine to reappear on the papers’ front pages, albeit for one day only?


Anorak

Maddie link put Welsh's new book on hold

TRAINSPOTTING author Irvine Welsh has revealed that he stopped writing his new book 'Crime' after Madeleine McCann went missing because of similarities between the case and the plotline of his story.

Herald.ie

Portugal denies Madeleine McCann probe dropped

Portugal's attorney general denied Tuesday that authorities in the country are about to drop the Madeleine McCann case.

Three Portuguese newspapers had reported the 14-month investigation into the little girl's disappearance would not continue because police had reached a dead end. The papers cited unidentified police sources.

But Attorney General Fernando Pinto Monteiro later released a statement saying prosecutors will now examine a police report on the status of the investigation. He said authorities will then decide their next step.

Officials will "determine whether further inquiries are needed or whether the conditions are in place for the investigation to be closed," a statement emailed to The Associated Press said.

Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, while her British family was on vacation in Portugal's Praia da Luz. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, said she vanished from the family's rented villa after they left her and her two younger siblings alone as they went to dinner nearby.

Clarence Mitchell, the parents' spokesman, said the McCanns would like police to give them their notes if they're not going to continue the investigation. Mitchell said the McCanns could then pass the information on to their private investigators.

"The information in their files surely cannot sit on the shelf gathering dust. Kate and Gerry will never give up searching for their daughter," Mitchell said.

Since Madeleine's disappearance, the McCanns -- both doctors -- have run an international campaign to find their daughter, including pleas from celebrities such as soccer star David Beckham and author J.K. Rowling.

In September, Portuguese police named the parents formal suspects in the case. Mitchell said if the investigation does end, the McCanns should be cleared as suspects.

With files from The Associated Press

Maddie parents to keep search alive

LONDON: The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann will "never give up searching" for her despite reports that Portuguese police are ending their investigation.Kate and Gerry McCann, who are official suspects in the case, are awaiting confirmation of reports in the Portuguese media that detectives are to close the case due to lack of evidence.

Gulf-Daily-News