Sydney teen tired, sore after chilling ordeal

Parents thankful after Aussie bomb hoaxMadeleine Pulver, 18, is OK after the 10-hour ordeal"She is a little ... sore from holding this damned device in place for 10 hours," father saysAn extensive forensic examination is under way at the homePolice are also looking for the person behind the act -- and a motive

(CNN) -- For 10 long hours, the teen sat still as a bomb squad gingerly worked to remove a suspicious device strapped around her neck.

It was Wednesday afternoon in the affluent Australian suburb of Mosman when a masked man entered the home of 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver. He forcibly fit a strange object around her neck and fled.

Attached to it -- a note with "serious" demands, officials said without elaborating.

Bomb squads, negotiators and detectives rushed to the leafy suburb on Sydney Harbor, where sports stars and celebrities live.

Homes were evacuated; streets closed.

From a distance, Pulver's distraught parents -- well-respected and well-connected members of Sydney high society -- watched while four officers sat with her, keeping her calm.

But when the ordeal ended early Thursday, police discovered that the contraption they thought was a bomb contained no explosives. It was a hoax -- "a very, very elaborate hoax," said Luke Moore, the Australian police superintendent.

"We are treating this as an attempted extortion, a very serious attempted extortion," Moore said.

Now, police are looking for the person behind the act.

"We are unsure how the person we are looking for, the offender, gained entry to the premises, but certainly he managed to take Madeleine by surprise," police said.

Extensive "forensic examinations" are under way at the home, Moore said at a news conference Thursday.

"We have some initial lines of inquiry that we're following up and we will continue to do so."

Officers contacted explosives experts in Europe and the United Kingdom during the operation, said Mark Murdoch, the New South Wales police assistant commissioner.

"I'm not aware of anything like this happening in the country before, and I think that is what's made it so unusual," Murdoch told ABC Australia.

"Certainly the family is at a loss to explain this. But you wouldn't expect someone would go to this much trouble if there wasn't a motive behind it."

Pulver, who was taken to a hospital for assessment, was later released to her parents.

"I think she is waking up this morning in pretty good spirits," said her father, William Pulver.

"She is a little tired, a little sore from holding this damned device in place for about 10 hours," he said. "But she is now, as we are, eager to get on with her life."

Then, fighting back tears, he pleaded with the media for privacy.

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Report: China relaxes birth restrictions after mudslide

A search and rescue crew working in the aftermath of the landslide in Zhouqu on August 12, 2010.Restrictions are eased so families that lost children can have more, Xinhua saysWomen are offered free operations to reverse birth-control procedures A mudslide last year in Zhouqu county left more than 1,700 people dead or missingChina enforces strict family planning controls to limit its population growth

(CNN) -- China has relaxed its strict birth-control restrictions for families that lost children in a mudslide that killed hundreds in the northwest last year, state media reported Friday.

Women in the Zhouqu area who underwent procedures to prevent further pregnancies such as having their fallopian tubes tied can now have a free reverse operation, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

Liang Jianjun, head of Zhouqu's family planning bureau, said women from 27 families have had such operations.

"Some of these women are pregnant now," he is quoted as saying by Xinhua.

China enforces a strict family-planning policy that limits most families in urban areas to only one child, although those in the countryside and certain ethnic areas are allowed more.

In Zhouqu, rural families can have two children, while those in five Tibetan-dominated towns and villages can have three, Xinhua reported.

The easing of government restrictions means families who lost children in the mudslide can now have more to fill the "quotas," a government official told the news service.

The mudslide in August last year left more than 1,700 people dead or missing in Zhouqu County, in northwestern Gansu province, Xinhua said.

Thousands of homes collapsed or were damaged in the disaster, which followed weeks of heavy rains and flooding.

China's three-decade-old population control policy is controversial.

Some critics have urged Beijing to relax it, saying it has skewed China's population and that better-off families have been able to bribe officials into allowing them more children.

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