There's no Mercy for Madonna as court blocks adoption


Madonna's ambition to adopt a second African orphan has been blocked by a court in Malawi. The decision suggests that the impoverished African state has heeded warnings that another high-profile adoption could encourage child-traffickers to scour the country's orphanages looking for children they could sell to Westerners.

The American superstar had offered a permanent home for a three-year-old girl, Chifundo James (her first name translates as Mercy), who has lost both parents. The child is from the orphanage that previously cared for David Banda, the boy Madonna adopted in 2006. Her application was rejected yesterday by a judge, Esmie Chondo, at a private hearing in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe.

The judge is understood to have ruled that Madonna does not fulfill a requirement that prospective adopters should have lived in Malawi for 18 to 24 months, a rule that was waived when she made her previous application in front of a different judge three years ago.

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