Homepage duplicate content, and http 302 redirection

The Localiser module works excellently for me. However I have two questions regarding the language switching block:

1) Say I have two language versions up and running, English and French. My homepage is in English and is available at www.example.com. The French translation of the homepage is at www.example.com/fr.

If I am on www.example.com/fr, the language switching block shows the link below to return to the English homepage:

http://www.example.com/switchuilocale/en?destination=en

Clicking the link, the destination url it takes me to is www.example.com/en and not to www.example.com, resulting in duplicate content issues.

Is there a way to force the homepage redirection (just for the primary language English) to return me to the site root without the language code appended?

2) When clicking a language switching link such as http://www.example.com/switchuilocale/en?destination=en, it redirects using a http 302 redirect.

Is it possible to use a http 301 redirect?

Thanks in advance.