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Ad campaign for missing girl is set dateline

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 16, 2007

The family of a 4-year-old British girl missing in Portugal said Saturday it was planning a $160,000 advertising campaign urging people to keep looking for the child, whose parents have been named as suspects in the disappearance.

The newspaper, television and billboard campaign will be focused on Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe and will be paid for using donations from a $2-million fund set up to help find Madeleine McCann, her uncle, John McCann, said in a statement.

Celebrities including children's author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham made public appeals in May that helped the family raise money for their fund.

Saturday's announcement followed the family's decision not to spend the proceeds from the fund on legal costs for Madeline's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann.

The parents were taking stock and preparing their legal case after a week of intense media speculation about their possible role in their daughter's disappearance in May.

LONDON

World Rally champion feared dead in crash

A helicopter crashed in Scotland on Saturday and a former World Rally champion was believed to be among four people killed, police said.

Colin McRae, Britain's best-known rally driver, was believed to be aboard the helicopter, which he owned, as it crashed in a wooded area near his home in Lanark, police said.

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan

Thousands march for U.N. membership

More than 100,000 Taiwanese rallied Saturday to demand the United Nations accept the island as a member, the most important step yet in the government-orchestrated campaign to emphasize its separation from mainland China.

The demonstration in the southern port city of Kaohsiung gave ballast to President Chen Shui-bian's pro-independence policies, and defied threats from China.

The rally was called to back a planned referendum on membership in the world body under the name Taiwan, rather than the official title of the Republic of China.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

President is assured of getting new term

Pakistan's ruling party assured President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday that he would be elected to a new five-year term in October before exiled opposition leader Benazir Bhutto returns to the country.

Bhutto, the former prime minister who plans to come home from eight years in exile on Oct. 18, had urged the presidential vote be delayed until after parliamentary elections that must be held by mid January.

AFGHANISTAN

Weapons for Taliban seized, officials say

An Iranian arms shipment destined for the Taliban was intercepted Sept. 6 by the international force in Afghanistan in what appears to be an escalating flow of weaponry between the two former enemies, according to officials from countries in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Times wires

[Last modified September 15, 2007, 23:49:08]