ROTHLEY, England — A British couple named as suspects in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter returned home on Sunday, and the mother told a newspaper that Portuguese police pressured her to confess that she had killed the girl accidentally and hid the body.
Gerry and Kate McCann were formally named suspects in their daughter Madeleine’s May 3 disappearance on Friday when police said they found traces of blood in the couple’s car in southern Portugal, where they had been on vacation.
After being interrogated separately for hours Saturday, the McCanns flew back to England with their 2-year-old twins.
Kate McCann said Portuguese police had pushed her to confess that she had killed Madeleine accidentally, then hid her body and pretended the girl had been abducted in a massive cover-up.
Mexico: Trucks go deep into U.S.
Two Mexican tractor-trailers have delivered cargo in New York and South Carolina, becoming the first trucks to operate deep in the United States under a long-delayed, NAFTA-mandated program criticized on both sides of the border. Since 1982, Mexican trucks have been allowed to operate in the United States only within a 25-mile zone along the border.
Israel: Alleged neo-Nazis held
Police said Sunday they have broken up a cell of eight young, Israeli neo-Nazis accused of a string of brutal racist and anti-Semitic attacks, videos of which were played on television to a stunned national audience.
Ancient Jew escape tunnel found
Under threat from Romans ransacking Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, many of the city’s Jewish residents crowded into an underground drainage channel to hide and later flee the chaos through Jerusalem’s southern end unnoticed. The ancient tunnel was recently discovered buried beneath rubble, dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem. Archeologists think the tunnel leads to the Kidron River.
Pakistan: Ex-ruler coming back
Police manned roadblocks and rounded up supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who left London on Sunday after seven years in exile to return to Pakistan and lead a campaign to topple the country’s U.S.-allied military ruler. The government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has hinted it may arrest or deport Sharif when he arrives today.
D.C.: Bin Laden called ‘impotent’
President Bush’s domestic security adviser on Sunday dismissed al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden as “virtually impotent,” days after a new videotape of the terrorist leader appeared. Bin Laden spoke of the Iraq war and praised the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers. “Let’s remember almost six years now since September the 11th, we have not seen much of bin Laden,” Frances Townsend said on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is about the best he can do. This is a man on the run, from a cave, who is virtually impotent other than these tapes.”
Pennsylvania: Internet bride dead
A Harrisburg man was being held on a parole violation while police in Peru investigate the death of his Internet bride, whose body was found in a suitcase fished out of the ocean. Peruvian police consider William Trickett Smith Jr., 26, a suspect in the death and are seeking to bring him to Peru, according to Peru’s national police. Smith met Peruvian Jana Gomez Menendez de Smith, 21, over the Internet last year and married her in March.
Utah: Missing student is dead
The body of a Brigham Young University student missing for more than a week was found in a canyon Sunday, authorities said, and investigators were trying to determine how she fell to her death. The body of Camille Cleverley, 22, was found at the base of a 200-foot cliff east of Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. Provo police Capt. Cliff Argyle said the woman’s body had injuries consistent with a fall, but it was too early to rule out foul play.
Missouri: Bones likely children’s
Police looking for two children missing since 2004 found a shallow grave in the woods of Sugar Creek on Sunday containing human bones, and the children’s mother, Tina Porter said she had been told they were likely the remains of her son and daughter. Sam and Lindsey Porter were 7 and 8 years old when their father, Dan Porter, picked them up from his estranged wife on June 5, 2004, for a weekend visit. The children haven’t been seen since. Dan Porter, 44, was convicted in February 2006 of parental kidnapping with the intent to terrorize his ex-wife and sentenced to 38 years in prison.
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