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Washington (CNN) -- A senior State Department official said Monday that Russian authorities continue to approve U.S. adoptions despite some public sentiment there to call a complete halt. The senior State Department official said Russians understandably are upset that 18 Russian children have been killed by their adoptive parents since the early 1990s and 17 of those cases involved Americans The Russians presented the United States with a draft proposal of an agreement on Saturday, but the U.S. official said final agreement could be months away. One Russian proposal would have independent follow-ups with each adoptive family after the family...

Countries including France and Spain have streamlined the process in the hope of getting young people to safety as soon as possible. But Unicef and other welfare groups, led by British charities, have warned orphans risked being separated from their families and the well-meaning moves by Westerners could be considered "abuse".

Per Laura Ingraham Show

Catholic Charities of San Francisco plans to end a controversial two-year-long relationship with an adoption agency that specializes in placing children for adoption with homosexuals, the Catholic newsweekly Our Sunday Visitor reports. [[AdoptArt100308.jpg]]In 2006, Catholic Charities of San Francisco announced its partnership with Family Builders by Adoption, which calls itself “the gayest [adoption] agency in the country.” In the meantime, Family Builders by Adoption had just begun fulfilling a $1,755,000 contract with another “partner” -- the City and County of San Francisco. That contract required Family Builders to increase the number of children adopted by lesbians, homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender...

(AP) A proposal aimed at effectively banning gays and lesbians from becoming foster or adoptive parents was cleared Monday to appear on this fall's ballot in Arkansas. The measure would prohibit unmarried couples living together from fostering or adopting children, and Arkansas doesn't allow gays to marry or recognize gay marriages conducted elsewhere. Secretary of State Charlie Daniels certified the proposed initiated act for the Nov. 4 ballot after verifying that the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee had submitted 85,389 valid signatures of registered voters. Supporters needed to turn in at least 61,974 valid signatures. "Arkansas needs to affirm the...

One in every 20 children adopted from care goes to live with a gay couple, official figures revealed yesterday. The number of adoptions by same sex couples is rising by more than 50 per cent a year in many parts of the country, encouraged by social workers. In some towns where councils are most sympathetic to the gay rights cause, the likelihood of a child in care being adopted by a same sex couple is as high as one in five. The figures - obtained from local authorities under freedom of information rules - show that gay adoption has become...

BOISE, Idaho (Oct. 28) - A black cat won't cross your path this Halloween, not if a northern Idaho animal shelter can help it. Like many shelters around the country, the Kootenai Humane Society in Coeur d'Alene is prohibiting black cat adoptions from now to Nov. 2, fearing the animals could be mistreated in Halloween pranks - or worse, sacrificed in some satanic ritual. The shelter's executive director, Phil Morgan, said that while the risk may be remote, the policy will remain just in case. Janet, a black cat, will have to wait till after Nov. 2 to be adopted...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was challenged over the issue of abortion yesterday for the first time in her re-election race this year, as a possible Republican opponent tried to chip away at her image as a moderate who supports adoption. John Spencer, who leads the field of Republican candidates in endorsements and fund-raising, visited a pregnancy center in Brooklyn that promotes adoption and denounced new federal legislation that would regulate advertising for these centers. The centers often operate near and compete with abortion providers, sometimes by using graphic material to discourage abortion. "Hillary Rodham Clinton is telling voters that she...

COLUMBUS -- State Senator Robert Hagan says he has a better idea than barring gay couples from adopting children. The Democrat from Youngstown says he'd ban Republican adoptions. In a tongue-in-cheek memo to his colleagues, Hagan spoofs a bill from House conservatives that would keep gays from becoming adoptive or foster parents in Ohio. He counters that adopted children raised in Republican households have told him it's just plain boring most of the time. Hagan also writes that the kids are more at risk for developing, as he puts it, "an alarming lack of tolerance." An aide says there's no...

NO ORIGINAL TITLE These are some highlights from radio talk program 'Access Code' on radio station Echo of Moscow, regarding a recent spy scandal. Arkady Mamontov, a Russia version of Michael Moore (Mikhail Boloto?), recently made a documentary called 'Spies', which Echo of Moscow radio host Yuliya Latynina reviews and comments on, but first she mentions some of Mamontov's more notorious documentaties. I have a question that's even more global: why is this whole story, which should in theory be news, being given to us instead in the form of a movie? Or rather, in the form of a documentary,...

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday by four men who challenged Florida's ban on adoption by gay couples, avoiding another contentious fight over gay rights.

It's a problem the nation's adoption agencies haven't seen in 30 years: "We desperately need couples who want to adopt babies in the U.S.," says Sue Will, maternity-services coordinator at Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, one of the state's largest social-services agencies. The organization's plight reflects a remarkable shift in the adoption world. Some agencies say it is becoming considerably easier for some couples to adopt a healthy infant born in the U.S. While there still are challenges, the pool of healthy infants available for adoption appears to be experiencing an uptick in some parts of the country. The key:...

We at MassNews feel compelled at this time to tell about a Franciscan Brother on Cape Cod, Br. Alexis Brugnolo, who has sent messages around the Internet this month that Catholic Charities in Massachusetts is giving many children for adoption to homosexuals. Apparently, one-half of their children go to homosexuals. Br. Brugnolo writes: One is a young mother of Fall River, who approached catholic charities a few years ago, while Archbishop Sean O'Malley was Bishop of Fall River. She requested an application form for adoption; and was shocked to find that this form allowed two males or two females to...

Gay dads welcome new baby By Valarie Honeycutt Spears HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER The two Lexington gay men who made worldwide news by parenting quadruplets had a fifth child yesterday with the help of the same biological mother. The baby, named Brandon Lane Dysarz, was born shortly after 8 a.m. at Lexington's Central Baptist Hospital by a planned Caesarean section, according to Lexington hair stylist Thomas Dysarz, the baby's biological father. "He looks just like me," said Dysarz, who said the healthy boy weighed in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces. The birth, like the July 26, 2002, birth of the quadruplets,...

<p>The recent California Supreme Court decision to uphold "second-parent" adoptions has been hailed as a victory for homosexual couples, but some people see it as a step toward the further unraveling of the traditional family.</p> <p>"This case has been reported by the media as an affirmation of homosexual adoption, but it actually goes far beyond that," said Peter Sprigg, an analyst with the Family Research Council.</p>

Mon Nov 18, 7:18 PM ET A judge has ordered that three adopted children taken away from comic Paula Poundstone (news - web sites) 17 months ago be returned to her custody, but her lawyer said on November 18, 2002 that it may be weeks before that happens. The judge ruled that Poundstone, shown outside court July 3, 2001, had established an exemplary record during her probation for child endangerment and deserved to regain custody of her