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RELATIVES OF THE two girls who survived the shooting of a British family in the Alps arrived in France today as police prepared to search the victims’ home in Britain for clues to the unexplained murders.
“Members of the family arrived in France last night, a man and a woman, accompanied by a British social worker,” prosecutor Eric Maillaud told AFP.
He said he did not know which of the couple was directly related to the children and it was not clear when exactly they would be able to see the youngest of the survivors, four-year-old Zeena al-Hilli.
“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 said.
He said meetings would be “systematically” carried out in the presence of French investigators.
Zeena has been in the care of French authorities since the brutal attack on Wednesday, which saw Saad al-Hilli, a 50-year-old naturalised Briton born in Iraq, his wife Ikbal and his 74-year-old mother-in-law gunned down as they sat in their car in a forest car park in an Alpine tourist area.
Their seven-year-old daughter Zainab was left for dead and remains in a medically induced coma after being shot and badly beaten in the attack.
Zeena hid undetected for eight hours under her dead mother’s skirts and escaped physically unscathed.
A local man, 45-year-old Sylvain Mollier, was also killed after apparently stumbling on the shooting.
Maillaud said that French investigators who had travelled to Britain to probe the killing would question Hilli’s brother, who has already presented himself before British police to deny reports that he had a financial dispute with his brother.
“Obviously the brother will be questioned,” he said, adding that “all those who knew the victims will be questioned.”
Investigators have been unable to obtain much useful information from traumatised Zeena are hoping Zainab can provide some clues once she emerges from her coma.
Autopsies were concluded overnight Saturday, Maillaud said, but the results were not yet being released. Authorities were due to speak to journalists later Saturday.
British police forensics officers meanwhile prepared to enter the family’s home in Claygate in Surrey, a quiet commuter village some 15 miles (25 kilometres) southwest of London.
The operation, which a French police source said would take more than a day, was expected to be carried out jointly with French gendarmes who flew to London on yesterday.
The source told AFP the search would begin after a strategy session in which the French investigators would also be briefed by British counterparts on local procedures.
Meanwhile Italian and Swiss police were assisting the French as they hunt for the killer or killers behind the brutal murders.
“Italy is an hour and a half away, Switzerland an hour away. Investigators have asked for help of all neighbouring countries,” Maillaud said.
The family were killed in their British-registered BMW estate car in a forest car park near the village of Chevaline in the picturesque Haute-Savoie region around Lake Annecy.
Each had been shot multiple times, including at least once in the head. About 25 spent bullet casings were found near the vehicle and police have said they suspect more than one shooter may have been involved.
A former British Royal Air Force pilot who was the first to arrive on the murder scene as he was bicycling by reported seeing a green or other dark-coloured four-wheel drive vehicle speed away from the scene.
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We really should, as a nation, stop worrying about what Joan Burton thinks about everything.
You mean iPhone Joan.
‘iPhone Joan’ has a certain ring to it.
Even when she’s right?
I don’t think anyone really cares about what that witch thinks.
She’s on borrowed time atm
Never normally agree with Joanie but she has a point here. Putting pressure on women to delay having children is not empowered them at all. In fact it’s really having the opposite effect . Women are basically being pressured to choose their career over child bearing and family in their twenties and thirties. It’s much harder to have atrain a viable pregnancy from frozen eggs so there is no guarantee that you would be able to get pregnant later on if you wanted to. I imagine better child care and flexible working hours to slow women to return to the work force after giving birth would probably be more useful . Help in finding the balance most women want and need is better than putting pressure on woman to delay starting family for several years.
Something Joan herself could do too while she’s in Government – allow couples to decide how to split up their parental leave. Quite often now, the mother earns more than the father, so it could be very beneficial for the dad to be at home instead.
Allowing the mother to go back to work at the time of her choosing, while still having one parent at home with the child, means that it has minimal impact on her career and its progression (though in theory there should not be any impact to begin with), and it also means that the dad can have time to bond with his child.
Dont care what JoanThe Butcher Bruton makes of anything, she is a waste of space in my opinion
Thought the Labour party were pro abortion … Baby’s do not concern them … When one their TDs spoke about the welfare of ms Y recently she never mentioned the baby … Nutters
I don’t understand why people are getting so pissed off over this. It’s just an additional perk that they provide to their employees, if a woman wishes to use this service, they can. Apple/Facebook aren’t actively encouraging their female employees to use this, I imagine it’s a much more common practice to do in places like Silicon Valley compared to here.
It’s the idea that employees may feel pressured to focus on work rather than family.
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/apple-facebook-pay-female-employees-freeze-eggs/
“But the thing to remember is that companies like Apple and Facebook are simply opening up egg freezing as a possibility. While we wait for the incremental changes to happen that makes it easier for women to make choices in the world freely, it provides more choice. It’s not for everyone. But it’s for some.”
““There’s been an explosion,” in the number of women freezing their eggs for potential insemination later, says Dr Alan Copperman, director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at Mount Sinai hospital. The number of women opting for egg-freezing has risen fourfold in the last four years, he says. ”
http://time.com/3509930/company-paid-egg-freezing-will-be-the-great-equalizer/
“a 37-year-old marketing executive who worked at both Facebook and Google tells me. “I’m looking to control my career and choices around motherhood on my terms, and a company that would allow me to do so — and provide financial support for those choices — is one I’d willingly return to.””
By offering this service, it is implied that the company would prefer you wait as long as possible-late 30′s on before having children. It’s not a perk, it’s a threat.
First you would have to go through lots of meds and invasive procedures. Then an op to retrieve eggs to be frozen. Later on (when company says it’s ok?) you go for IVF. More meds and an op to implant embryo if you even get that far.
Freezing eggs is most common among women about to undergo intensive cancer treatment that might leave them unable to produce eggs in the future. Not because their boss thought it was a grand idea.
Having IVF is not fun and no guarantee you would even have a child at a later stage.
This is such a backward step for women in the workplace.
I completely agree Carly. IVF is no walk in the park…a very physically invasive procedure that, personally, we had to use as a last resort to have a child. What is rarely mentioned when talking about IVF is that the increased oestrogen injected into a woman’s body can fast forward breast cancer, if a woman is predisposed to the condition. IVF is an amazing medical development but not something to be taken lightly. Facebook etc should be looking at developing facilities & supports to working mothers, rather than ‘encouraging’/ pressuring to delay child rearing.
I can’t imagine it’s for all female employees either. I imagine most would be coporate full time staff with sufficient benefits and not just based on all female employees getting this treatment free.
Are they allowed smartphones?
I agree with Joan on something…I feel so dirty.
Hard boiled..
Yes Tim, or maybe even scrambled like her brain !!!
I hope to God they don’t freeze her eggs… They’d be manky at this stage anyway!!!
The Ultimate Postman, whatever you think of this woman or any woman that is a truly disgusting remark. Can you not express your views without indulging in overt misogynism or comments which criticise woman without reference to looks or fertility?
Sexism and ageism in one post. Wow.
Ahh dry your eyes!!!
Here’s a compromise. Could we get Apple or Facebook to freeze Joan Burton???
It’s really none of her business what I keep in my fridge.
Anyone got a Joanie phone ?
Maybe Joan could dream up a new tax for this. A frozen egg tax.
I don’t care what Joan thinks, I don’t care what anyone else thinks. Isn’t it supposed to be ‘my body, my choice’? #prochoice #noneofyourdamnbusiness
Her and her party are big fans of abortion and see where that got them in the elections
Every time Joan Burton opens her mouth the rest of us get a little stupider. Is there anyone that ISN’T sick of the woman at this point?
Why does everyone have to jump in with responses based on a very binary interpretation of that is on offer.
Nobody is saying “women must” do this if they work for these companies, nobody is saying it removes choice, it is a form of bullying etc.
Some women may decide they want to postpone having children and focus on establishing their career and for theses women this is something they may want to consider – it is a huge cost burden removed.
have your say