Nearly 500 people have contacted police with information following a fresh television appeal into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Scotland Yard has said.

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann last night appealed to Irish people to help identify a man they say is of “vital importance” to their investigation.

Madeleine McCann’s parents are “greatly encouraged” by new information about the disappearance of their daughter, they said in a statement.

The father of Madeleine McCann urged the British government today to review her disappearance and said his “innocent, vulnerable” daughter had been “essentially given up on” by British authorities.

MADELEINE McCANN was probably abducted after walking out of her holiday apartment in search of her parents, an expert on her disappearance said yesterday.

ROBERT MURAT yesterday accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over an allegation that there were strong grounds for believing he was guilty of abducting Madeleine McCann.

THE friends known as the “Tapas Seven” who were on holiday with Kate and Gerry McCann when daughter Madeleine vanished have accepted £375,000 (€482,000) libel damages from Express Newspapers.

A friend of Kate and Gerry McCann who was with them the night their daughter Madeleine disappeared today launched a furious attack on the Portuguese police.

Kate McCann today denied criticising the owners of the holiday resort where her daughter Madeleine went missing.

Madeleine McCann asked her mother just hours before her disappearance: “Why didn’t you come when we were crying last night?”, it has emerged.

Kate and Gerry McCann want a specialist European policy centre to help find missing children like their daughter Madeleine, an MEP in the UK said today.

Kate and Gerry McCann accepted £550,000 (€698,000) libel damages today over allegations that they were responsible for the death of their daughter Madeleine.

KATE and Gerry McCann expect the Portuguese police files on the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine, to remain secret for another three months, the couple’s spokesman said yesterday.

Kate and Gerry McCann today sent an anguished public message to their daughter Madeleine telling her: “Our only Christmas wish is for you to be back with us again.”

Madeleine McCann’s parents will today anxiously await the opinion of experts analysing a striking photograph of a girl taken by a holiday maker in Morocco.

The McCann family today publicly denied sending private detectives into Portuguese territory to investigate Madeleine’s disappearance – amid claims they could be prosecuted for doing so.

Detectives in Malta are today following up a clutch of fresh reports of possible sightings of Madeleine McCann on the island.

DOZENS of balloons were released into Irish skies yesterday as cities across the globe marked the 50th day since the disappearance of four-year-old Madeleine McCann.

Football fans will again be enlisted in the search for Madeleine McCann today, when a film of the missing girl is played at the FA Cup Final.

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are interviewing a man as they searched a villa 160 yards from where she was snatched.