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Al Fayed requests new angle for probePARIS: Mohamed Al Fayed today met with the french judge investigating the car crash that killed Princes...

Al Fayed requests new angle for probe

PARIS: Mohamed Al Fayed today met with the french judge investigating the car crash that killed Princess Diana and his son Dodi, and judicial officials said he had requested new lines of investigation.

A smiling Al Fayed emerged after two hours of talks with judge Herve Stephan and described the meeting as 8220;great8221;. Earlier, he had shaken hands with curious onlookers mingling with journalists on arrival at the Palais De Justice in central Paris. Judicial sources, who requested anonymity, said Al Fayed had requested 8220;additional investigations8221;. He specifically wanted to know more about the theory that the couple8217;s car collided with another vehicle 8212; possibly a white Fiat 8212; before slamming into the 13th pillar of the Pont de L8217;Alma tunnel along the Seine. So far, judge Stephan and police investigators have focused on the drunken state of driver Henri Paul, who also died in the August 31 crash. They have also cited the high speed at which Paul was driving theMercedes, and the mysterious Fiat Uno.

Lesbian marriage

NEBRASKA: A methodist minister who could be fired for performing a lesbian unity ceremony testified before a church jury yesterday that he was simply serving the couple8217;s spiritual needs. The Rev Jimmy Creech, 53, pleaded innocent to charges that he held an unsanctioned liturgy and disobeyed united methodist church rules by conducting the ceremony. The trial is the first challenge of the church8217;s policy on homosexual ceremonies, methodist officials said. They said the trial8217;s outcome could shape how the church interprets its stance on homosexuals. Father Creech, who was senior pastor at first united methodist church in Omaha before being suspended November 10, testified that he takes the church8217;s liturgy seriously but his main calling is to serve his local church and its members. 8220;I was responding to them as a pastor, to give them pastoral care,8221; Father Creech said, referring to the two unnamed women.