Man Arrested in Kidnapping, Sexual Assault of Girl, 7

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A 47-year-old man has been arrested in the kidnapping and sexually assault of a 7-year-old girl in St. Paul.

Police say the girl was with her father in St. Paul's Cathedral Hill neighborhood when she went out of his sight for a minute and disappeared.

The man took her to his room at a nearby Catholic Charities boarding house. Police found the man there with the girl two hours later, and there was evidence she'd been sexually assaulted.

On Monday, a 5-year-old girl was beaten while she was waiting for a school bus just two miles from Thursday's kidnapping. That girl was found naked from the waist down and police are investigating whether she was also sexually assaulted.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the two crimes are connected.