Madeleine McCann

Every few years there comes along one of those stories that buries deep into people's hearts. They tend to involve young children and they tend to involve tragedy. And in the worst cases, even hard-bitten old hacks can't help but thinking and worrying about it.
We can only pray that this time there will be a happy ending and that Madeleine McCann will turn up safe and well in Portugal but every passing hour makes that seem more remote.
The British journalists who've flown out to Luz have had a rude awakening at the hands of Portugal's incomprehensible legal system, which clamps down on the release of information not from the moment a suspect is arrested or charged but from when the police inquiry is officially launched.
And we thought British police forces were mean with their information supply.! But one would certainly expect that if a little girl went missing in North Wales, Mr Brunstrom's press team would be bombarding us with any information that could lead to the child being found.
Madeleine's parents intervened to tell the world what their daughter was wearing when she vanished as the Portuguese police were not allowed to reveal this vital piece of information. Strange kind of legal system, that.