France shootings: Police to search Saad al-Hilli home

The home of a British man shot dead in the French Alps along with his wife and two others is to be searched by police.

French prosecutor Eric Maillaud said British and French officers would enter the home of Iraq-born Saad al-Hilli, 50, in Claygate, Surrey.

Brother Zaid al-Hilli has denied a family dispute over money, which is one line of inquiry in the investigation.

Relatives of Mr al-Hilli's two young daughters, who survived Wednesday's attack, have arrived in France.

The girls, aged seven and four, are believed to be the only witnesses to the killings, carried out near the popular tourist destination of Lake Annecy, and are under police protection.

Three police officers from France are thought to have arrived in the UK already to investigate the shootings, and a fourth officer is due to arrive later.

The most senior of the four, Colonel Marc de Tarle, who heads the National Gendarmerie Criminal Affairs Bureau, was the first to arrive.

Mr Maillaud said French officers would interview Mr al-Hilli's brother in the UK as a "witness".

Franco-British inquiry

Surrey Police said they were helping French authorities to carry out a "complex" investigation.

"As part of this, the force is facilitating a visit by French investigators to conduct inquiries in the UK," a spokesman said.

The BBC understands the family home was originally owned by Saad al-Hilli's parents and later left to him by his mother in her will.

Police plan to search the house as part of efforts to gather background information about Mr al-Hilli.

Mr Maillaud said: "Up until now the police in Britain were guaranteeing the safety of the house but now it's a Franco-British inquiry that is starting and we can now enter the house of Mr al-Hilli."

Mr al-Hilli's wife, Iqbal, and a woman thought to be his 74-year-old mother-in-law, were killed during the attack.

The fourth victim, a cyclist whose body was found near the car after apparently stumbling across the attack, has been named as 45-year-old Sylvain Mollier.

Mr Maillaud said four-year-old daughter Zeena al-Hilli - who spent eight hours hiding in the car with the bodies before being found by officers - had identified her family and described the "fury" and "terror" of the attack to French police.

The child said she was between her mother and the older woman - who have not yet been officially named - and hid under her mother's skirt when the shooting started.

The older sister, Zainab, is in a medically-induced coma in Grenoble University Hospital after being shot once and suffering head injuries.

She was found by a British cyclist who discovered the murder scene and alerted the authorities.

Vehicle sightings

The BBC's Mark Lowen, in Annecy, said: "Prosecutors hope that if she recovers, she may provide the key to what happened here in this tranquil corner of France, and who is to blame."

Relatives of the girls arrived in France on Friday night, accompanied by a British social worker, and were due to meet Zeena later, Mr Maillaud said.

"I don't know when they will be able to see the little girl. We have to be sure it can be done without problems," he told AFP news agency.

During a press conference on Friday, the prosecutor confirmed that each of the victims had at least one bullet in the head, and about 25 shots were fired in total - more than originally thought.

This has led investigators to believe that more than one gun was used in the killings.

They are looking into reports of a green or dark-coloured four-wheel drive vehicle and a motorcycle, apparently seen by the cyclist who discovered the murder scene. But Mr Maillaud pointed out that such vehicles were common during the tourist season in a mountainous region.

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Sherry gets 'Woman of the Year' award; calls for unity in Pakistani community

NEWS: Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Sherry Rehman, on Friday made a stirring call for unity in the ranks of Pakistani community member here to help meet the challenges their homeland faces.

The top Pakistani diplomat made the call at a largely-attended dinner event organized by the Pakistan League of USA, a non-political body of professionals, at which she was honoured with the League's "Woman of the Year" award. Over 400 Pakistani-Americans from various walks of life attended the event marking the Independence Day and Eid-ul-fitre.

"I thank you ... I'm deeply honoured," Ambassador Rehman said, holding up the plaque as loud applause rang out in the banquet hall of a local hotel. A citation described Ambassador Rehman as a "great parliamentarian, writer and a diplomat". Ambassador Rehman, who has been in the forefront of the struggle for women's rights, dedicated her award to the women of Pakistan, especially her mother and Mohtarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.

Also honoured with the League's 2012 lifetime achievement award was Amir Khan, a British professional boxer of Pakistani origin who is a former two-time world champion and former unified WBA (Super) and IBF Light Welterweight champion. The ex-champion was given a standing ovation.

The league president, Zafar Iqbal Sipra, welcomed the ambassador and other guests, which included PML-N MNA Rana Tanveer, and briefed them on the aims and objects of the organization while Chairman Shahid Gondal stressed that it was non-political body.   The proceedings were conducted by Shafiq Siddiqui, general secretary of the league. Sipra and other speakers also praised the efficient services being provided to the community members by the Pakistani Consulate in New York under the leadership of Consul General Fakir Asif Hussain, who was also present at the dinner.

In her keynote speech, Ambassador Rehman called on the community members to sink their differences and work unitedly to promote the interest of their homeland in the United States and in forging good relations between people of America and Pakistan.

She also urged them to take an active part in the American politics in this election season and "multiply your power and influence" here, and become game-changers. "You have to overcome your differences .. and you have to have a dream," the Pakistani envoy added.

In this context, Ambassador Rehman encouraged the community to be proactive and engage widely with American public officials, including members of Congress, Senators and local politicians in order to clear misperceptions that exist about Pakistan in the minds of Americans.

As a front-line state fighting terrorism and extremism, 43,000 Pakistanis had lost their lives and the country suffered over $78 billion in lost opportunities and infrastructure damages.

About the situation in Pakistan, she said a great transformation was taking place as the country was marking the first-ever peaceful democratic transition.

"It is the first time that a civilian elected government had completed its term," she said, adding that the country's media was playing a dynamic role.

She also said that the current Parliament had passed more laws to protect and promote women's rights that any legislature in the past. The Ambassador also elaborated on the outreach programme of the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington aimed at keeping the community informed of developments in Pakistan and Pakistan-US relations and invited suggestions from the community on how to improve services.

Among the other award winner at the event was Masood Haider of Dawn. Earlier, the Pakistan ambassador met another group of Pakistani community members at the Long Island residence of Shafqat Tanweer, President of Pakistan People's Party, who hosted a lunch for her.

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Anglican church to appoint a 'presidential' figure

NEWS: The Anglican church is planning to hand over some of the global duties of the Archbishop of Canterbury to a "presidential" figure, it has been reported.

Dr Rowan Williams, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, said plans are being drawn up for a role to oversee the day-to-day running of the Anglican communion and its 77 million members, leaving the archbishop free to concentrate on leading the Church of England.

The tenure of the archbishop, who steps down after 10 years in December, has been marked by a war between liberals and traditionalists in the Church of England and the wider Anglican communion over the issue of homosexuality, including the ordination of gay bishops. There has also been a row over female clergy.

Admitting he may not have got it right, he said the top job might better be done by two people. "I don't think I've got it right over the last 10 years, it might have helped a lot if I'd gone sooner to the United States when things began to get difficult about the ordination of gay bishops, and engaged more directly. I know that I've, at various points, disappointed both conservatives and liberals. Most of them are quite willing to say so, quite loudly."

Of the new role, he said: "It would be a very different communion, because the history is just bound up with that place, that office [archbishop]. So there may be more of a sense of a primacy of honour, and less a sense that the archbishop is expected to sort everything."

The role would be for a "presidential figure who can travel more readily".

The 62-year-old, who is to become master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, said the church had treated homosexuals badly. But he reiterated his opposition to gay marriage, saying its legalisation could create a "tangle" between the church and the government.

The paper reported that he also voiced concern that there are not enough Christians in politics and that the relationship between the church and the monarch may change when the "more quizzical" Charles succeeds the current Queen.

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Obama commemorates anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks

President Barack Obama is asking Americans to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by remembering how far the nation has come since terrorists struck 11 years ago.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama asks Americans to remember those who lost their lives as well as the loved ones they left behind — and honor the first-responders who risked their lives to help.

Obama says America has come back stronger and al-Qaida is on the path to defeat.

The president also notes that the 9/11 anniversary is being commemorated Tuesday by public service activities in communities around the country.

In the Republican address, Sen. John Barrasso (buh-RAS'-oh) of Wyoming criticizes Obama's presidency and asserts the nation isn't better off than it was four years ago under President Bush.

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Hearsay bothers last juror to find Peterson guilty

The final juror to agree to convict Drew Peterson of murder in the death of his ex-wife says he "barely slept" one night during the proceedings because the same nagging questions kept popping into his head.

Even after joining fellow members of the panel by casting the last vote for guilty, Ron Supalo remains troubled by the prosecution's reliance on hearsay, statements not based on a witness' direct knowledge.

Peterson, the former suburban Chicago police officer, faces a maximum 60-year prison term after his first-degree murder conviction in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. It was the first case in Illinois history to permit the use of hearsay evidence, based on a 2008 state law specifically tailored to Peterson's case.

"I needed time to think it through," Supalo, a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, said in a telephone interview Friday evening.

Supalo said he believes the hearsay law might be unconstitutional, but he eventually realized his duty as a juror was only to assess the evidence, not the laws.

"We (the jurors) weren't the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "Right or wrong, this was the hearsay law, and we had to use it in this case."

Other jurors acknowledged that comments Stacy Peterson, Peterson's fourth wife, made before her 2007 disappearance played the decisive role in convincing them to convict her husband of killing his ex-wife.

The prosecution's strategy grew largely from a lack of physical evidence collected in the case after investigators initially deemed Savio's 2004 death an accident. Prosecutors claimed the hearsay would allow Savio and Stacy Peterson — who is presumed dead — "to speak from their graves" through family and friends.

It worked.

Jury foreman Eduardo Saldana, 22, said the women's comments were "extremely critical" in deliberations and in his decision to convict Peterson. He said he was one of four jurors who initially had reservations given a lack of physical evidence tying the former police officer to Savio's death. But Saldana said the more he thought about hearsay testimony from Stacy Peterson's pastor, the more compelling he found it.

But Supalo said he had some doubts about the credibility of Stacy Peterson's statements to the Rev. Neil Schori.

During the trial, Schori testified that Stacy Peterson told him weeks before she went missing that her husband got up from bed and left the house about the time of Savio's death and then returned to stuff women's clothing in their washing machine. Peterson also coached his wife for hours on how to lie to police, Schori told jurors.

"When it was the 11 for guilty and just me holding out, I told them, 'You all believe Schori's testimony is gospel because he is a man of God,'" Supalo said. "They said, 'It is.' And I said, 'No, it's not!'"

Supalo also said he had difficulty coming to terms with convicting someone based on what others claimed someone else said.

"I'm uncomfortable with the Illinois law that allowed hearsay," Supalo, who briefly studied law. "They made the law just for Drew Peterson — applied it to him retroactively. If there was no hearsay in his case — Drew Peterson goes free."

Defense lawyers have said the presentation of hearsay undercut Peterson's constitutional rights because he couldn't directly confront his accusers — namely, his third and fourth wives.

They tried to discredit Stacy Peterson by having attorney Harry Smith testify that she asked him if she could squeeze more money out of Peterson in a divorce if she threatened to tell police he killed Savio. But Saldana and other jurors said Smith only ended up stressing that Stacy Peterson knew her husband had, in fact, murdered his ex-wife.

As he realized Smith was starting to hurt Peterson's case, the defense attorney questioning him, Joel Brodsky, began shouting at Smith, accusing him of lying.

Juror Teresa Mathews, 49, said Friday that Smith had nothing to gain by making up testimony.

"We believed he was a credible witness," she said.

Although thoughts about the evidence cost Supalo some sleep, by Thursday afternoon, just before the verdict was read in court to gasps and tears, he'd resolved several issues in his mind. Among them was accepting Schori's and Smith's testimony as credible, he said.

"It was the totality of the evidence that convinced me," he said.

Peterson is to be sentenced Nov. 26.

Neighbors found the 40-year-old's body in the bathtub of her suburban Chicago home — a gash on the back of her head. Investigators initially thought she drowned after slipping in the tub, but reopened the case after Stacy Peterson disappeared.

Peterson also is a suspect in that case, and Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow said Thursday that charges could be forthcoming.

Peterson's personality had seemed to loom large over the trial, at least to outsiders.

Before his 2009 arrest, the glib, cocky Peterson seemed to taunt authorities, joking on talk shows and even suggesting a "Win a Date With Drew" contest. His behavior inspired a TV movie starring Rob Lowe.

But jurors said Friday that Peterson's crude and unsavory reputation didn't factor into their deliberations.

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Lewis Hamilton's future dominates F1 chatter at Italian Grand Prix

The cars screamed around the old woodland setting of the Monza circuit, through the Curva Parabolica and the Variante Ascari, in a noisily theatrical attempt to distract attention from the only topic of conversation; they failed

Should he go or should he stay, to amend the old hit from the Clash, was the only show in town here as Lewis Hamilton's possible switch from McLaren to Mercedes was discussed throughout the paddock with a ferocity that strangely lent the move a greater credence.

When the story emerged on Wednesday evening – or when an old possibility was given fresh impetus through the voice of Eddie Jordan – it was quickly dismissed as a bargaining gimmick by Hamilton's agents, XIX Entertainment, in order to get a better offer from his current employers. By Friday, though, it had become more plausible, through a combination of Hamilton's moody demeanour and the sheer ubiquity of the debate.

But why would Hamilton and his advisors countenance such a move, from an habitually successful team that are second in the constructors' championship to a struggling outfit of underachievers who are fifth?

There are a number of reasons. XIX Entertainment may not know much about Formula One but they do understand contracts and there is the chance that they will be able to wring more money from the German team.

Then there is the potential for Hamilton, working with a more global name, to further develop himself as a brand – something that has held an increasing fascination for him in recent years.

Remember, people laughed at the notion of David Beckham leaving Real Madrid for LA Galaxy, and Hamilton and Beckham share the same agent. There would be the chance for Hamilton to choose his own sponsors, and avoid the heavy workload that McLaren imposes on its drivers in this area.

There will also be an upheaval with the regulations in F1 in 2014, and some suspect that Mercedes will be well placed to exploit these.

The attraction of driving for the team was captured by his possible future team-mate Nico Rosberg when he said: "My perspective is that Mercedes and Ferrari are on one level in terms of the history in F1 and the standing. It's very, very special to drive for the Silver Arrow, and especially to win with a Silver Arrow." Rosberg and Hamilton know each other well, dating back to their karting days together at Mercedes.

Then – and this is slightly more complex – we come to the little matter of love. Rightly or wrongly, the brilliantly gifted but insecure Hamilton feels less than full appreciated in some corners of the Woking-based team. When he was asked, here, whether he felt valued by McLaren, he said, distractedly: "I don't know." He has certainly upset some members of the team by his bizarre and unpredictable behaviour.

If McLaren and Hamilton is a stale relationship, a fresh affair with Mercedes carries exciting possibilities and all the blandishments his considerable ego may require.

These, then, are the reasons why the febrile chatter going on here ahead of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix is a little more substantial than a silly season story. Hamilton's whole mood suggests a man less than happy with his lot, however wonderful that lot is. "He looks so unhappy at McLaren – I think he will go," a rival team principal said.

But why? Because even when all the reasons given above are taken into account, and added up, they don't amount to a convincing whole. Because he is surely less likely to win more titles at Mercedes than if he remains at McLaren. And titles will bring him all the stardust he craves.

Meanwhile, his team-mate, Jenson Button, is convinced Hamilton should stay. He said: "Moving to another team wouldn't hurt me as much as I think it would hurt him. The most important thing for us in Formula One is to win races. That is what we love. When you cross the finish line first, that is what makes you smile and what gets you emotional after a race.

"Knowing that you are the best in the world on that day, that is what you love. That is one of the main reasons why I moved to McLaren. We might not win the championship every year but every year you have the chance of winning grands prix – they give you that opportunity with the car."

But will Hamilton give himself the opportunity to extend a relationship that has lasted for more than half of his 27 years? If he does stay at McLaren, he will have to be totally committed, their team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, warned. "Ultimately a driver has to drive where he is happy to drive, so the team and I don't want anyone who is not 100% committed to it," he said. "You can't work like that. I've made that clear from the outset."

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Mercedes eyes 'contingencies' amid Hamilton rumours

Norbert Haug has admitted Mercedes is eyeing possible "contingencies", in the event Michael Schumacher does not race the German team's 2013 car. "Of course we have to plan for all contingencies," said Mercedes' competition vice-president, amid raging speculation Lewis Hamilton might sensationally switch from McLaren to drive in Schumacher's place next year.

Haug is quoted by SID news agency as revealing the team is conducting "open and faithful" talks with Schumacher.

And when asked about Hamilton, he added: "Lewis grew up with us (Mercedes) and with McLaren. We worked together even when he was 12 years old.

"But it is not possible to conclude from this that the current rumours have any basis."

An outright denial sounds different. Indeed, Haug acknowledged the speculation.

"As long as seats are available, you have to deal with it. We do not spread the rumours, but we have to live with them," he said.

The latest rumours were fanned by former team owner and now British television pundit Eddie Jordan, but McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh questioned their credibility.

"I think that any article that includes a sentence that begins 'Eddie Jordan understands ...' is automatically questionable," he told the BBC.

But Jordan's television colleague David Coulthard, a former long-time McLaren driver, said the Irishman has earned more credibility than that.

"EJ has a reputation for being a bit outspoken but he has brokered more driver deals than almost anyone in the sport, has contacts all over the place and is friendly with Lewis's manager, Simon Fuller," he wrote in the Telegraph.

"I cannot recall him being wrong when he has stuck his neck out like this. He was right about Michael Schumacher coming back to the sport three years ago, for instance," Coulthard noted.

So for now, the Hamilton saga is the talk of the Monza paddock.

"He looks so unhappy at McLaren -- I think he will go," an unnamed team principal told the Guardian.

Jenson Button, Hamilton's teammate at McLaren, thinks the 2008 world champion would be mad to move.

"It wouldn't hurt me as much as I think it would hurt him," he said.

But as Coulthard surmised, no one at present really knows if Hamilton is staying or going. And "I'm not sure that he does either," said the Scot.

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