China chain boy free at last

They were the images from China that pulled at heartstrings around the world — a tiny toddler chained at the ankle because his fearful father could not afford childcare.

Now there will be no more chains for two year-old Lao Lu, after the owner of a Beijing childcare centre saw the family's plight and offered them three years of free childcare. Last week, father Chen Chuanliu, 42, told how he locked his son up to protect him while he worked after his four-year-old daughter was stolen last month. The boy's mother is mentally disabled.