Paternity dispute erupts in Madonna adoption case

AS MALAWI'S highest court prepares to decide on Madonna's bid to adopt a second child from the country, a dispute has erupted over whether a man trying to stop the proceedings is the three-year-old girl's father.

The Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal was to consider the case today. Its decision may not be announced for several days and Madonna was not expected at the closed-door hearing in Blantyre, the commercial capital.

A lower court ruled last month that Madonna could not adopt Chifundo "Mercy" James because the pop star did not meet requirements that prospective parents be screened for at least some time in Malawi.

The rules were bent when Madonna adopted a son, David, from Malawi last year.

On Sunday 24-year-old James Kambewa said he was Chifundo's father and has sought help from the Malawi Law Society to stop the adoption of the girl, who has been in an orphanage since shortly after birth.

Kambewa, a security guard, acknowledged he has never seen the child he is now claiming, but said he was making efforts to claim custody.

"I may be poor but I think I have what it takes to raise a daughter," he said. "I will fight the adoption."

The brother of the girl's mother, who died shortly after giving birth, said the family does not know Kambewa.

"How can he claim he is the father when he hasn't been around all this time?" said Peter Baneti, who had agreed to the adoption on behalf of the family. "We believe he is just an opportunist."

Madonna spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg said in a weekend email message that she does not know if Kambewa is the father.

"All I know is that Mercy has been in an orphanage since the day she was born," Rosenberg said.

Kambewa, in an interview to be aired today on CBS' The Early Show, said he has only seen the girl "in newspapers and TV – not face to face."

But he told CBS the girl "is a Malawian – so (I) need her to grow as a Malawian as well with our culture."

On the show Kambewa wore a necklace bearing the girl's name.

Madonna found the girl at Kondanani Children's Village in the southern town of Bvumbwe, just south of Blantyre, when she first visited Malawi in 2006, the same year she found David at Home of Hope Orphanage in the central border district of Mchinji.

According to court documents, the girl's mother was just 14 when she gave birth, and died a few weeks later. Baneti said with no-one to breast-feed the baby, the family decided to place her in an orphanage.

The singer's Malawian lawyer, Alan Chinula, said he was "hopeful" the appeal would succeed. He argues the lower court judge was relying on outdated law. Chinula represented Madonna when she adopted David.

Madonna has founded a charity, Raising Malawi, that helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's more than one million orphans, half of whom have lost parents to Aids.

Ms Harman was the latest in a line of Labour big-hitters to take to the airwaves in a bid to shore up the premier.

Mr Brown has been damaged by a bruising spell which saw him suffer his first Commons defeat since becoming Prime Minister in an emotive vote on Gurkha rights, and a double climbdown on reform of MPs' expenses.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw and Health Secretary Alan Johnson rallied to his support, insisting that he was the right man to lead the party through testing times.

However Mr Johnson – touted by some rebels as a replacement for Mr Brown – was careful not to rule himself out as a possible leader at some future time, saying: "I'm not saying there's no circumstances."

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told GMTV this morning that there would "absolutely not" be a leadership challenge, and Mr Brown would take the party in to the next general election.

"Gordon Brown is a serious politician for serious times. At the moment, things have got so frenzied, every dot and comma in articles that people write or things that people say is examined.

"Frankly, I think we should put the magnifying glass away. This is a time for looking to the future.

"In the end, the next election is going to be about the choice that people face, what kind of country we are going to be."