Chinese police have arrested 45 people after a three-month investigation into the kidnapping of 25 children in southwest China's Guizhou Province.
  
The gang, led by Hu Qijia, Tong Laifen, Wu Hualin and Li Peifang, had been kidnapping children from their homes, highways and downtown areas in Guiyang, the provincial capital, and Anshun City since last March and were busiest from July to October last year, said a spokesman for the provincial bureau of public security.
  
Most of the children were sold to areas in north China's Hebei Province and central China's Henan Province.

All the kidnapped children have been returned to their families, said the spokesman.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2004)