Three held over Sahil Saeed ransom demand

Spanish police have arrested two Pakistani men and a Romanian woman in connection with a ransom demanded for kidnapped British boy Sahil Saeed. Sahil, five, from Oldham, was taken from his grandmother's home in Pakistan on 3 March, then freed 13 days later. The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Madrid said officers in Tarragona, Catalonia, had confirmed the arrests, but said the investigation was still open. He was taken when robbers broke into the house while he and his father Raja Saeed were on holiday visiting relatives in Jhelum, in the Punjab region. Mr Saeed returned to the UK last week against the wishes of Pakistan's police.

Family members were said to have been beaten by the intruders during a six-hour ordeal, which ended with the robbers looting the house and fleeing with the boy. The gang had apparently demanded a £100,000 ransom for Sahil's return, but his family had said there was "no way" they could afford any such payment. Kidnapping has become truly an international enterprise, and the tactics used by one group that seem to work or innovative are used by others soon after.