Kate and Gerry McCann were today formally cleared by the Portuguese authorities of involvement in their daughter Madeleine's disappearance.

Portugal's attorney general, Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, said there was insufficient evidence to continue the police case.

...

More than 14 months after Madeleine went missing, he said the McCanns, both 40, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were no longer formal suspects.

The third formal suspect in the case, Algarve property consultant Robert Murat, 34, also had his "arguido" status lifted.

The McCanns believe Madeleine was abducted and is still alive.

"Madeleine is a beautiful little person. She was a very happy and much loved little girl. We believe there is a very good chance that Madeleine is still alive," they say on their website.

"We believe there is a very good chance that Madeleine is still alive," they say on their website.

Indeed! "We hear she haz bin sin on an beacvh in th Seychelles n shit. We hav too go and luk on thiz beach for liek 2 weeks n shit."

Perhaps, as a step up from people having as many kids as they possibly can to claim all the benefits and get housing priority, we could now see a trend of families "losing" a spare child, so they can live off all the donations.

Sterling work from CUS on this thread.

It needed more dedication than that, but it was a good try.

Like this?

More children should be called Thor.

It's a terrible story. I actually hope she IS dead because the alternative could be far worse.

Cank.

I tried to make an ask duds word cloud but couldn't find the rss feed address url thingamjig.

Trolled by who, Didley?

I went to Wingham Wildlife Park on Saturday. It is a lovely place, and has a walk-in prarie dog enclosure, which is superawesome.

Anyway, there was a couple with their kid there - I say with their kid, they spent the whole time swigging from their cans of tennents while bawling her name in a lazy effort to find out where their little brat had run off to this time.

That name? Ebony. A little white girl, and they called her Ebony.

Ebony is quite a common name for young girls born with lovely black hair.

Is "Cank" as delightful a place as it sounds?

Seriously? Raven, I've heard of, but Ebony?

You learn something new every day.

Now we need a cover of "Ebony and Ivory".

Prometheus Dante Richards.

Ah, was that the fellow who's liver we ate with fava beans and a nice chianti?

EDIT : Didley? DIDLEY?

His other brother was Prometheus Dante Richards. Supposedly, allegedly, in the case of his brothers, anyway.

It's a terrible story. I actually hope she IS dead because the alternative could be far worse.

I can't imagine any donation drives they did were as successful as the McGanns.