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Rice says only an idiot would trust North Korea Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:18pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview released on Friday only an "idiot" would trust North Korea, which is why the United States is insisting on a way to check its nuclear claims. A 2005 multilateral deal under which Pyongyang would abandon its nuclear programs has become snagged on Pyongyang's refusal to spell out a protocol on how to verify its disclosures about its nuclear programs. The sticking point appears to be North Korea's reluctance to allow inspectors to take...

The Portugese priest who gave solace to the McCann family after the ‘disappearance’ of their daughter Madeleine has stripped his church of all traces of the girl, with friends saying the experience has left him “ruined”. The Express reports seven months after the tragedy, Fr Jose Manuel Pacheco ordered the removal of scores of green and yellow ribbons which were put up as a symbol of hope in the days after Madeleine vanished. Posters and photographs of Madeleine which plastered the village of Praia da Luz have also been removed. Friends of Fr Pacheco – who came under police scrutiny...

......The existence of this so-called "magic circle" of the Portuguese establishment, allegedly involved in an international paedophile ring using boys and girls from Casa Pia, was last week likened to an earthquake waiting to shake Portugal to its foundations. New allegations about the scale of the network will be put before the country's highest court within the next few weeks. Amid rumours of links to other paedophile gangs across Europe and the U.S., international experts on child sex crimes and murders are expected to be in court when the case re-opens, four years after a group of victims broke a...

Puffing on a cigarette and knocking back beers, the man leading the world's biggest missing child inquiry enjoys yet another long, boozy lunch. Portuguese police chief Goncalo Amaral worked as little as four-and-a--half hours a day this week - despite a mountain of uninvestigated sightings of Madeleine McCann on his desk. The Sunday Mirror has discovered that 252 possible tip-offs about the four-year-old have been reported to Amaral, any one of which might just lead to her being traced. But the vast majority have not even been checked. Amaral, in charge of a squad of 30 detectives, has convinced himself...

A blonde girl photographed in Morocco is not missing Madeleine McCann, according to journalists who met her. British and Spanish reporters claim to have traced the girl, pictured being carried on a Moroccan woman's back. London newspaper the Evening Standard says the girl is a five-year-old from the village of Zinat. The McCanns' spokesman said the news, if true, was disappointing. Madeleine disappeared on 3 May from a holiday apartment in Portugal. Easily traced Experts were said to be examining the image, taken three weeks ago by a Spanish tourist, in the hope that the girl was the missing four-year-old...

NOW A 'PHOTO' OF MADELEINE IN MOROCCO A PHOTO has emerged that could prove Madeleine McCann is alive and being held in Morocco. Interpol is investigating the picture of a very frightened blonde girl being carried by a gang of Moroccans. It was taken from a car window by a Spanish couple in Zinzat, in the north of the African country on August 31. The group was walking along a road in the direction of Tangiers and the blonde head of the little girl can be seen behind a woman's shoulder. Another previously unreported sighting in Morocco came to light...

MADELEINE: 'BODY THROWN INTO THE SEA'Police fear that the body of Madeleine McCann will never be found and only a confession by her parents can convict them of killing her. The startling revelations came as officers told of their worries that her body was dumped far out to sea in a bag weighted down with stones. Detectives are convinced she is dead and believe her remains are now gone for ever, a vital piece of missing evidence which seriously weakens their case against Kate and Gerry McCann. For the first time, police chiefs in Portugal are admitting that the allegedly...

She moved England and the world with a four-month massive media campaign to retrieve her missing daughter. Today, Kate McCann, the mother of Madeleine McCann, who was 3 when she disappeared, was formally declared a suspect by the Portuguese police and given the status of "arguido."

VIANA DO CASTELO, Portugal — The mother of a British girl who disappeared four months ago in southern Portugal is to be named a formal suspect in the case Friday, a family spokesman said, a shocking twist to a case that has gripped much of Europe. Kate McCann was questioned for almost 11 hours on Thursday, and is due back at a police station in Portimao, a town in Portugal's Algarve region, later Friday morning, family spokesman David Hughes told The Associated Press.

Madeleine 'died in her bedroom' TANYA THOMPSON SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (tthompson@scotsman.com) * Portugese detectives now claim Madeleine McCann was not kidnapped * Specks of her blood on wall suggest she died in apartment * Friends of McCanns in UK placed under police surveillance

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI, meeting the parents of a 4-year-old British girl apparently kidnapped while the family was on vacation in Portugal, blessed a photograph of the little girl and offered his prayers. Kate and Gerry McCann, the Catholic parents of Madeleine, who has been missing since May 3, met the pope at the end of his weekly general audience May 30 in St. Peter's Square. When they handed him the photograph, the pope caressed it. "His thoughts and touch and words were more tender than we could have imagined," Gerry McCann told reporters afterward. "Today, meeting...

Some of England's wealthiest celebs are shelling out a fortune to help fund the search for a 4-year-old British girl who has gone missing in Portugal. This gives new meaning to the term "giving back." Harry Potter authoress J.K. Rowling, Virgin titan Sir Richard Branson and "Idol" judge Simon Cowell have all ponied up to help find Madeleine McCann, who has been missing since May 2. According to the News of the World, Rowling donated in excess of $495,000, while Branson and Cowell chipped in $198,000 and $99,000, respectively. Rowling's fortune has been estimated at $1 billion, Branson's at a...

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan.. 17, 2007 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the situation in Iraq. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (L) shakes hands with North Korea's Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun during their bilateral meeting in Bangkok in this July 28, 2000 file photo. North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun has died, the North's official media reported on January 3, 2007. Paek, 77, who had served as foreign minister since September 1989, had been ill. REUTERS/Jason Reed

MIDI - SONG SUNG BLUE Taepodong wasn't quite succeeding...Taepodong, Viagra it's needing Madeleine had done her best to help them advance While her perverted boss just passed his time by dropping down his pants...dropping down his pants Taepodong prematurely falling...Taepodong had Kim Jong-il balling Twice they tried to fake us out when they had fired off two Scuds Then as the whole world was watching what next they'd do...they fired off a dud (short musical interlude) Madeleine had done her best by helping them to advance While her pervert lowlife boss had passed his time by dropping down his...

High-ranking members of Bill Clinton's national security team have joined together to defeat Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon's House re-election bid this November - in what looks like retaliation for Weldon's efforts in exposing the Clinton administration's Able Danger scandal. In June 2005, Weldon went public with news that Clinton administration lawyers prevented the Defense Intelligence Agency's Able Danger group from blowing the whistle on two al-Qaida terrorists who would later pilot the planes that destroyed the World Trade Center. Though the media downplayed Weldon's bombshell, a number of high ranking Clinton officials apparently haven't forgotten - and they're pouring money...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Madeleine was the tiniest baby ever to survive, she weighed in at only 9 ounces when she was born, she was not even ten inches long. Now she is a 14 year old (nearly 15) achiever. After a couple of small eye problems and a bit of asthma she has developed well. Madeleine is 4ft 6 ins tall. This is slightly under the normal height for a girl of her age. According to her doctors she is physically and mentally normal. You can read about this in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Jonathan Muraskas, who delivered her, said...

In the structure of a classical play, a problem is presented in Act 1. Complications arise in Act 2, and all is resolved in Act 3. In Iraq this spring, while much of Europe was still enmeshed in Act 2, George W. Bush plunged directly into Act 3, without acknowledging the complications or fully considering the consequences of his actions. The result was the most heated year in trans-Atlantic relations since the Suez crisis of 1956. The Iraq war ignited tinder already piled high by clashes over trade, arms control, the Middle East, global warming and the International Criminal Court....