PORTUGAL:Portuguese police yesterday reinterviewed two people in the case of the missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann as her parents travelled to the country's holiest shrine, at Fatima, to pray for her safe return.
Chief Insp Olegario Sousa said the interviews were routine and that the two people - believed to be German woman Michaela Walczuch and her estranged Portuguese husband, Luis Antonio - were considered potential witnesses rather than formal suspects. A Portuguese television channel later reported that Ms Walczuch and Mr Antonio had been released without charge, although there was no official confirmation of their identities.
Ms Walczuch is a business partner of British expatriate Robert Murat (33), the only person to have been named formally as a suspect in the case. Mr Murat, who lives near the Ocean Club complex, has consistently protested his innocence.
The interviews came amid reports that forensic science evidence gathered by the police had failed to turn up anything of use, with much of it too contaminated to be worth analysis.
"This is not like CSI," the head of the National Legal Medicine Institute, Duarto Nuno Vieira, told the Correio da Manha newspaper, referring to the American television series.
DNA tests on evidence gathered at the apartment in the Ocean Club holiday complex in Praia da Luz where Madeleine went missing almost three weeks ago and from nearby houses searched since then have still not been completed and sent to investigators, the newspaper said.
Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine's parents, drove 385kms (240 miles) north to Fatima yesterday to pray at the spot where three Portuguese shepherd children claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary 90 years ago.
They were welcomed by Portuguese worshippers and showered with kisses and hugs from pilgrims and fellow members of the congregation. Holding presents, flowers and a rosary, Gerry and Kate McCann prayed alongside more than 1,000 people at one of the holy site's shrines.
Babies and small children were held up to be kissed by the couple, whose constant exposure on Portuguese TV has made them instantly recognisable to many people.