Madonna's adoption challenged

Newsday

The Human Rights Consultative Committee in Malawi tells People magazine it hopes to delay Madonna's adoption of a 13-month-old baby boy.

Justin Dzonzi, HRCC's chairman, says the group wants to make sure Malawi's laws "are not bent" for the 48-year-old singer. "The laws of Malawi are clear that if one wants to adopt a child, one has to stay with the child for at least 18 months for assessment," he said.

Today the group will apply to Malawi's High Court to be included as an "interested party," and then get a stay of the temporary order Justice Andrew Nyirenda granted Thursday allowing Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie to take the baby. The couple could not take the boy when they left Malawi Friday because his passport was still being processed.

Hearing of the challenge, the boy's biological father, Yohane Banda, 31, said, "I have no problem [with the adoption], so what is their concern? Are they jealous or what? What I want is good life, a good education for my child," he told People.

The boy's mother died a week after he was born, and Banda gave him to the orphanage because he was unable to care for him.