Treatment begins for troubled Britney

Medical staff were today trying to reverse the spiralling problems that led to Britney Spears being committed to a hospital psychiatric ward while police defended the huge escort they provided to take her there.

The pop singer, accompanied by more than a dozen police officers and two heicopters, was taken to a Los Angeles medical centre before dawn yesterday in what one officer would only say was an effort to "get help" for the troubled pop star.