Free Republic

LONDON — The U.K. release of Ben Affleck's directorial feature debut "Gone Baby Gone" has been shelved due to its close similarities with the ongoing case of missing British girl Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from her Portuguese holiday apartment in early May. Buena Vista International U.K. was due to release the Boston-set thriller, which is based on Dennis Lehane's book about a 4-year-old who goes missing, on Dec. 28 but has suspended the release indefinitely. "Miramax Films and BVI U.K. are sensitive to the depth of feeling surrounding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann," said a statement. "We have been closely...

Alleged confessions appear to form the crux of the government's case against seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged with murder, kidnapping and other crimes in an Iraqi man's slaying last April. Defense attorneys challenge the validity of the statements and say without them the government's case is baseless. Details about the prosecution's case emerged Wednesday during preliminary hearings for two of eight men accused in the shooting death of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the village of Hamdania. At Marine Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda's hearing, prosecutors submitted a thick packet of evidence and pointed to three documents they say...

Lawyers for some of the seven Marines and a Navy medic charged with murdering an Iraqi man are questioning the credibility of their Iraqi accusers, suggesting they may have been motivated by money or sympathy for the insurgents. The defense attorneys said they will also try to get the troops' incriminating statements thrown out. The lawyers are starting to put together their strategy now that they have been given copies of the Pentagon's investigation into the April 26 killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania. Authorities say Awad was kidnapped from his home and shot during a search for insurgents....

SPRINGFIELD - A Springfield man is being held on $10,000 cash bail after starting a courtroom melee during a murder case hearing on Monday, according to court records. Vandrell Johnson, 24, of 29 Rush St., pleaded innocent in Springfield District Court yesterday before Judge William J. Boyle on charges of assault and battery and disrupting court proceedings. He is being held at the Hampden County Correctional Facility in Ludlow. At a motion hearing of a murder case at about 12:45 p.m. on Monday, Johnson, a spectator, charged after the two of the case's defendants, Aaron Lester and Derrick Washington, as...