GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The U.S. government has told Guatemala it won't return a girl adopted in 2008 after allegedly being snatched from her Guatemalan mother, because the two countries had not signed the Hague Abduction Convention at the time of the kidnapping, a Guatemalan official said Monday.

Arrest warrant issued for unidentified woman, 28, who was 'on the run'

Twins adopted by an American woman, 28, were found abandoned on a freezing Russian street with a note saying she no longer wanted them.

By Kristem M. Hall

By Mark Gokavi

Miami County Children’s Services has opened a child abuse investigation into the Troy man accused of raping three boys in his custody. State officials also have questions about the process the man used to adopt children from Texas through a Dayton-based agency.

Kenneth H. Brandt, 39, is charged with raping three of his children and allowing two men to have sex with one of them.

Agencies studying charges against adoptive dad, 2 other men.

By Kelli Wynn, Lou Grieco and Mark Gokavi

TROY — A Troy man who adopted three children and was in the process of adopting a fourth, is accused of raping his three children and allowing other men to have sex with at least one of them.

Kenneth H. Brandt, 39, is charged with three counts of rape and one count of compelling prostitution. He is being held in Miami County Jail on $800,000 bond.

By Lou Grieco, Kelli Wynn and Mark Gokavi

TROY, Ohio —

Montgomery County’s Prosecutor’s Office has approved four counts of rape of a child under the age of 13-years-old, all felonies of the first degree against Patrick Reider of Dayton, said prosecuting attorney Mat Heck, Jr. in a press release on Wednesday.

Reider is accused of sexually assaulting a child in his East Sixth Street Dayton home that he meet online through Kenneth H. Brandt of Troy.

Father among 3 accused of raping adopted kids.

By Kelli Wynn and Nancy Bowman

TROY — The FBI will pursue federal sexual exploitation charges against three men who are accused of raping the adopted children of one of the men.

The FBI also said Wednesday that the adopted father, Kenneth H. Brandt, 39, of Troy was once president of the Foster Parent Association for Miami County.

By Erin Siegal

by Erin Siegal

The case of a Mexican organization which allegedly paid mothers to put their children up for adoption has highlighted the fine line between adoption and child trafficking, and suggests that the practice is widespread in the country.

By Brian Mosley

A judge will decide today whether to charge Torry Hansen with contempt of court for refusing to appear Monday for a deposition in a suit over her abandonment of a Russian boy she adopted.

Three weeks ago, Hansen was ordered by Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell to be deposed in the ongoing lawsuit filed against her by two adoption agencies for child support and breach of contract.

By Josh Kegley — jkegley@herald-leader.com

The Fayette County Coroner's Office has ruled the death of a 5-year-old Lexington boy who drank "a lethal amount" of vinegar a homicide, the coroner said.

Joseph Maoping Adams was pronounced dead Dec. 3 at University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital. The coroner ruled the death a homicide after autopsy results were returned last week. Joseph's cause of death was "ingestion of vinegar," according to a news release from the coroner's office.

By Brian Mosley

LYNCHBURG -- A former Shelbyville resident at the center of an international adoption controversy has been ordered to give a deposition in her upcoming child support case, while the trial date was moved to May.

Torry Hansen will finally answer questions about the case on Feb. 20, and then stand trial on May 17, Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell ordered on Wednesday.

In April 2010, Hansen sent her adopted Russian son back to Moscow alone on a plane with a note saying he had psychological problems and that she didn't want him anymore.

BY BROOKE ADAMS

The Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday that a Colorado father was improperly denied a say in his infant daughter’s adoption and sent the case back to a lower court for a rehearing.

In a split decision that establishes a new ground rule for future cases, the justices said Robert Manzanares’ consent to any adoption was necessary. The majority held Manzanares did not know and reasonably could not have known that a birth and adoption would take place in Utah, entitling him by law to more time to intervene in the proceedings.

MARIE O'HALLORAN

A CLAIM by the Minister for Children that there is no evidence that previous adoptions in Mexico by Irish couples are unsafe has been challenged in the Dáil.

Frances Fitzgerald referred to the controversy in Mexico where 11 Irish couples had been questioned following the discovery of an international child-smuggling ring, after the arrest of three local women accused of buying children from their mothers.

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

ZAPOPAN, Mexico — The Irish couples ensnared in an apparent illegal adoption ring in western Mexico thought they were involved in a legal process and are devastated by allegations organizers were trafficking in children, the families said Monday.

“All the families have valid declarations to adopt from Mexico as issued by the Adoption Authority of Ireland,” they said in a statement, which was read over the phone to The Associated Press by their lawyer in Mexico, Carlos Montoya.